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Trump Topples $1 Billion Columbia River Settlement Deal by Jennifer Yachnin Greenwire, June 12, 2025

The agreement signed by the Biden administration halted a long-running lawsuit
over hydropower dams and declining salmon and steelhead populations

President Donald Trump declared Thursday that the federal government must pull out of a settlement agreement that had halted the long-running legal battle over 14 dams in the Pacific Northwest, reopening a fight over the future of fish populations in the Columbia River Basin.

The White House said Trump signed a memorandum withdrawing from a $1 billion agreement that included the Nez Perce, Yakama, Warm Springs and Umatilla tribal nations, as well as the states of Oregon and Washington.

The Biden administration signed off on the agreement in late 2023 following two years of negotiations and triggering the first of two five-year delays in the lawsuit.

The announcement is expected to throw the clash over hydropower and water flows in the Columbia River Basin -- and the future of salmon and steelhead trout populations in the region -- back into court.

Tribes and conservation groups in the Pacific Northwest have pushed for the removal of four dams on the Snake River, saying those structures have contributed to the decline of native fish.

As part of the settlement, the Biden administration signed off on studies of taking down the dams -- an idea that congressional Republicans have denounced. But White House officials under former President Joe Biden emphasized that only Congress could authorize dam removals.

Related Pages:
Interior Casts Critical Eye on Columbia River Dams by Jennifer Yachnin, Greenwire, 6/20/24
NOAA: Breaching Snake River Dams 'Essential' to Save Salmon by Jennifer Yachnin, Greenwire, 7/12/22
Washington Punts on Fate of Lower Snake River Dams by Jeremy P. Jacobs, Greenwire, 12/23/19