Klamath Tribes chairman Allen Foreman is shown March 8, 2004, standing along the Williamson River near Chiloquin, where tribal members once gathered to harvest salmon. Klamath Tribes and others now want PacificCorp to restore salmon passage as a condition of renewing its license to operate the dams. AP Photo

GRANTS PASS - Hoping to earn up to $45 million more in electricity sales, the Bonneville Power Administration proposed reducing the amount of water it spills over Columbia Basin hydroelectric dams to help young threatened salmon migrate to the ocean.

Speaking at a telephone press conference from Portland, BPA Administrator Steve Wright said Tuesday that the agency was counting on other measures to offset the losses of an estimated three to 22 threatened adult Snake River fall Chinook and thousands of other Columbia Basin salmon while allowing BPA to earn enough money to reduce an expected rate increase.

"The goal here is mission accomplished at the least possible cost," Wright said.

Robert Lohn, northwest administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service, which must approve the proposal, said the agency was willing to consider steps to reduce BPA's costs if they cause no net harm to threatened Snake River fall chinook.

The idea of spilling more water over dams to keep young salmon out of hydroelectric turbines dates back a decade and is incorporated in the 2000 biological opinion by NMFS on operating Columbia Basin dams without undue harm to salmon protected by the Endangered Species Act. The turbines kill about 10 percent of the fish that go through them.

The proposal was strongly criticized by Indian tribes holding treaty rights to harvest Columbia Basin salmon and salmon conservation groups.

If the proposal is approved by the service, it would land on the desk of U.S. District Judge James Redden, who has declared the 2000 biological opinion for operating Columbia Basin dams illegal, the groups contend.

Northwest governors issued a statement saying they would support ways to boost power production to help the region's economy as long as they don't harm salmon.

The proposal calls for eliminating spills over Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake River and John Day, The Dalles and Bonneville dams on the Columbia during the month of August and at Ice Harbor in the last half of July.

Wright said that would produce an estimated 1,500 megawatts of power and generate about $50 million in sales of power to markets generally outside the Northwest.

Wright said two leading alternatives could make up for about half the losses from reducing spill. One is reducing the numbers of northern pike minnows, a leading predator of young salmon. That might include increasing the $3 bounty paid to sport fishermen, Wright said. The other is controlling dam releases into the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River in Washington to reduce the numbers of young salmon stranded by rapidly falling water levels.

The proposal would likely result in the loss of 545 Snake River fall Chinook smolts, a threatened species, which represents three to 22 returning adults, said Brig. Gen. William T. Grisoli, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Northwestern Division.

Another 226,000 salmon smolts from the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River, representing 1,300 to 10,000 returning adults, and 224,000 salmon smolts not protected by the Endangered Species Act, representing 1,200 to 9,800 adult fish, could also be lost, Grisoli said.