Four environmental and angler groups sued the Bonneville Power Administration yesterday for unlawfully harming migrating salmon by increasing power production and reducing water flow at Columbia River dams this spring and summer. The BPA, the largest energy provider in the Northwest, is required by a federal salmon recovery plan to spill billions of gallons of water over dams (instead of feeding the water through its electricity-generating turbines) to enable fish to make it to the ocean. But this year, faced with a near-record drought, the BPA dramatically reduced the amount of water it spilled, increasing the death rate for salmon and steelhead.
