INDIANS now want to be partners in the Dams they have DAMNED?!?

Fisheries Newswire:

PACIFICORP, YAKAMA NATION WILL APPLY FOR PRIEST RAPIDS LICENSE

PacifiCorp and the Yakama Indian Nation have signed a preliminary
agreement to file a joint competing license application with FERC for the
Priest Rapids hydro project, now operated by Grant County PUD.
Representatives of the utility and the tribe indicate their goal is to
more broadly share the benefits of the two-dam, 1900-MW project with the
region. Grant County PUD, which holds the existing license, now uses about
37 percent of the output; the rest is under contract to 12 public and
private utilities, with the region's four IOUs receiving the most. The
current license expires in 2005; PacifiCorp and the Yakamas must file
their competing application by 2003.
http://www.newsdata.com/enernet/fish...hltr129.html#4
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Hmmmmmmmm! I find this very interesting in light of historical Tribal damnation of Columbia R. watershed dams. The Yakima Tribe is one of the more powerful among the Columbia Tribal Commission, which have been documented as using the non-Indian built dams as their trump card in negotiations to get unfair and illegally higher fish allocations than Treaties and Federals Courts have mandated. Now the Yaks have "signed" a hypocritical agreement! This proves money is much more important than native fish runs to them - which has already been demonstratred via other actions. - RT

[Krome Brite]

Maybe they'll destroy the dam once they have the license. [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[THE REEL HEY_YALL]

KB, we are building a snowman down here in hell.

[Hoosier Daddy]

The Warm Springs Tribe has had a generator running in a dam on the Deschutes for years, and I believe now they are even part owners of the whole project of 3 dams. Power generation, recreation, the whole bit.

[dampainter]

I work at one of the dams and I can tell you that these people do not have any say in the operations or other stake in any dam. I doubt that this will EVER happen ...... [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[Cowlitzfisherman]

Interesting thought! This one should be answered by the lawyers out there. If the tribes where to take the license over for any dam, they (the tribe) would then be responsible for paying for projects fish mitigation requirements, what ever that might be. Mitigation is used to offset a projects impact to area that the projects effects. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

So wouldn't the tribe that's holding a license for a hydroelectric project be in conflict with the Bolt decision? How can you be responsible for mitigating project damages and at the same time reek back half of the mitigation benefits back to yourself? Wouldn't you be getting into a "monopoly" of some type? You sell a public resource (water) and you pay for project mitigation with the funds that are generated from that resource, and then you get half of the benefits back to yourself. I think the tribe might be biting off more then they can chew on this one [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

Lets here from the legal minded folks on this issue.

Cowlitzfisherman,

Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook????
[img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[Vinny]

I dunno . . . I think I'd be afraid of getting sued by myself ??? [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]