Editorial: Just do it

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is clearly dragging its feet over salmon opinion

It would be tempting to say "there they go again" in response to an environmental group's lawsuit over stream flows for coho salmon. But in this case, Oregon Wild has been the very model of patience.

At issue is the survival and hopefully the recovery of wild coho salmon in the upper Rogue River Basin. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation manages water releases from Hyatt, Howard Prairie and Emigrant lakes into Emigrant and Bear creeks and manages flows in Little Butte Creek for the benefit of three Jackson County irrigation districts.

Coho salmon on the Southern Oregon and Northern California coasts were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1997. Under the Endangered Species Act, the bureau is supposed to consult with NOAA-Fisheries to create and adopt a "biological opinion" laying out how the bureau will maintain water levels to protect wild coho.

The agency still has not complied with that requirement.

Oregon Wild relied on assurances from bureau officials in 2004 that they were making progress on the biological opinion, and did not file a lawsuit until 2009. A settlement agreement in that suit specified that the bureau would produce a final, binding biological opinion by March of 2010. A year later, the agencies involved promised to complete the opinion by October 2011. They missed that deadline too.

Irrigators in the Rogue Valley are understandably concerned that their water supplies might be limited by steps the federal agencies take to protect salmon. But further delay will only put off the inevitable.

Oregon Wild claims there has been enough water in Emigrant Lake to provide adequate flows for salmon at crucial spawning times and still store enough to meet irrigation needs.

A Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman, expressing disappointment with the lawsuit, told the Mail Tribune, "We share the same goal of finding a sustainable Rogue River Project operation that works for fish, farms and communities."

The agency has had 15 years to produce a key document in that process. It's time to stop talking about shared goals and start working to reach them.