Groups Block Endangered Species Waiver Critics Say Exempting Flood Measures Would Undermine Protection Of Salmon

Religious leaders joined Northwest Democrats, conservationists and fishing groups Wednesday to block a proposal exempting flood control measures from the Endangered Species Act.

Critics of the waiver, which stalled in the House on Wednesday night but still is pending in the Senate, said it could be abused to undermine protection of threatened and endangered salmon in the Pacific Northwest.

“Every dam, levy, fish bypass and diversion gate would be included,” said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations in Eugene, Ore.

“Such a categorical exemption grants a license to kill the nation’s valuable aquatic resources,” he said.

Spain said he lost his home to a flood in Northern California in 1982.

“I’m very sympathetic to flood victims, but what they require is relief, not politics,” he said. “It is disingenuous of Republicans to use the suffering of flood victims to score political points. To use them as a political pawn after all the suffering they went through is disgusting.”

House Democrats and moderate Republicans joined Wednesday night to turn back a version of the waiver offered by California Republican Reps. Richard Pombo and Wally Herger. After lawmakers agreed by a 227-196 vote to make the legislation less sweeping, sponsors of the bill pulled it from the House floor.

Similar language remains in a supplemental spending bill pending in the Senate, which includes billions of dollars of flood relief.

Several Democrats from flood-ravaged states are trying to decide whether to oppose the overall package if it includes the waiver and other amendments they don’t like. A final vote could come this week.

Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., have accused Republicans of playing politics with the disaster bill, tagging on controversial amendments that otherwise wouldn’t pass as free-standing bills, including a provision the Senate endorsed 51-49 Wednesday making it easier to build roads through federal parks and wilderness areas.

Republicans lashed out at Murray this week when she voted against the relief package in the Appropriations Committee based on her concerns about the Endangered Species Act language and other provisions.

“Senator Murray doesn’t care that innocent families were victimized by this tremendous catastrophe,” said Dale Foreman, chairman of the Washington State GOP. “Senator Murray is either against aid to flood victims or isn’t willing to vote against her party.”

Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., a backer of the waiver, said he hopes it is the first step toward reforming the act permanently to bring “more balance and consideration for people’s lives and communities.

“Essential flood control work should not be delayed, discouraged or prevented because of burdensome or costly regulations caused by the ESA,” Gorton said.

Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, said the act currently allows necessary repair work of levees only after there has been a devastating flood.

“It is yet another example of the inflexible nature of the ESA,” she said.

Henson Moore, president of the American Forest & Paper Association, said, “This is another example, with tragic consequences, of the unintended impact of the ESA.”