06/08/05 The hearing, now judge listens and talks

US District Court Judge James Redden will hear arguments Friday on a plan to increase protection for a dozen stocks of endangered salmon and steelhead. A proposed drawdown of reservoir water to aid salmon migration to the ocean could halt barge traffic out of Lewiston. Redden also put the dam breaching issue back on the table when he ruled last month that the Bush Administration's plans to operate the Northwest dams failed to live up to Environmental Protection Agency rules. Congressman Butch Otter, who was at this week's congressional hearing on the future of the Snake River, says Congress won't stand for a Redden ruling that will effectively shut down the port of Lewiston. OTTER "We passed a bill, passed with good intentions, but once put in the hands of unreasonable forces it can no longer be thought to be a reasonable and a responsible act. And so we're going it limiting those outside the congressional process to change the Endangered Species Act." Breaching the four lower Snake Dams will take away shipping options for Lewiston and the Washington ports of Clarkston and Whitman. One study says 16 hundred area jobs would be lost along with 36 million dollars in earnings. 40 million bushels of grain shipped annually downriver to Portland would have to go by truck or train. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott