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Lapwai, Idaho - The Nez Perce Tribe filed a petition on Monday
in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals asking the court to step in
on behalf of salmon and overturn the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's
(FERC) approval of the proposed Bradwood Landing Liquefied Natural
Gas (LNG) terminal and pipeline. The massive project within the Columbia
River estuary, if allowed to proceed, would give the proponent a license
to site, construct, and operate the terminal and pipeline, which would
entail, among other actions, dredging of the Columbia River to make
room for LNG tankers. The dredging, combined with the presence of
the tankers in the estuary, will kill fish and destroy key estuary
habitat that is used as a nursery for migrating juvenile salmon from
all over the Columbia River Basin. The Tribe's brief asks
the Court to overturn FERC's decision issuing a license for the
Bradwood Landing Project until FERC complies with federal law that
requires the agency to perform a thorough environmental analysis
of the project's effects on aquatic species, including salmon.
Monday's filings are part of a multi-year battle over a large-scale
LNG development that has pitted FERC against tribes, the states
of Oregon and Washington, and environmental groups because of its
decision approving NorthemStar's massive LNG proposal.
The Bradwood LNG project raises many significant concerns but CRITFC
and the Nez Perce Tribe are primarily concerned with the impacts
to fish and fish habitat. Bradwood, where the project would be located,
sits at the mouth of Clifton Channel on the Columbia River. Clifton
Channel is a shallow-water estuarine rearing habitat for salmon.
This type of habitat is currently the focus of restoration by federal,
state and tribal entities.
"Although the Nez Perce Tribe supports clean energy such as
natural gas, the Nez Perce Tribe opposes the Bradwood Landing proposal
because it will destroy important juvenile salmon habitat and kill
salmon that would otherwise migrate to our usual and accustomed
fishing areas in the Columbia River Basin," stated Samuel Penney,
Chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee. "The
Tribe believes that FERC did not perform an adequate environmental
analysis under federal law, and the agency would likely have arrived
at a different result and not concluded that the project is in the
public interest. The costs and impacts on aquatic species, especially
salmon, are just too great," concluded Penney.
"CRITFC fully supports the Nez Perce in opposing the Bradwood
LNG project," said Paul Lumley, executive director for the
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. "The tribe is
asking the Ninth Circuit to reject a project that will have devastating
and long-term effects on essential salmon habitat. This project
is neither in the tribes' best interest nor the public's. FERC should
never have approved it."
The States of Oregon and Washington and the environmental group
Columbia Riverkeeper are also challenging FERC in the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals. FERC has until March 29, 2010 to respond.
For more information, please contact the Nez Perce Tribe at (208)
843-7355.
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