Pacific Northwest fishing and conservation groups have filed suit against the EPA for not doing more to protect wild sockeye salmon from rising water temperatures due in large part to climate change. The lawsuit is considered to be the first against President Trump’s EPA.
“The groups’ legal bid on behalf of salmon runs in the Columbia and Snake rivers hinges on the EPA’s authority under the Clean Water Act to regulate excessive temperatures in those rivers as pollutants,” says Reuters. “The lawsuit seeks to compel the EPA to thus require dam operators in the Columbia and Snake watersheds of Washington state, Oregon and Idaho to control river flows in such a way as to keep water temperatures cool enough for the salmon to survive.”
Two-hundred and fifty thousand salmon died during spawning season in 2015 because the dams exacerbated rising water temperatures, say the plaintiffs, including Idaho Rivers United and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. The plaintiffs pointed out that the new EPA chief Scott Pruitt has publicly doubted the reality of climate change. So far, EPA has made no comment about the suit.