URL: https://www.indianz.com/News/archives/001227.asp

Wednesday, September 3, 2003

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by a coalition of tribes and environmentalists against the Bonneville Power Agency.

The Umatilla, Nez Perce, Warm Springs and Shoshone-Bannock tribes accused BPA of favoring power over fish. They cited a long history of agency actions they said violated BPA's duty to treat power and wildlife equally.

But the 9th Circuit, in a unanimous decision, dismissed the challenges as untimely. Most of the actions the tribes complained about happened too long ago, the court said. The one challenge that was timely did not violate federal law, the court determined.

The tribes have treaty and fishing rights on waters where BPA manages dams. The tribes want BPA to remove four on the Snake River.

Get the Story:
Court rejects lawsuit claiming Bonneville mismanaged fish (AP 9/2)

Get the Decision:
Confederated Tribes v. Bonneville Power (September 2, 2003)

Relevant Links:
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission - http://www.critfc.org
Bonneville Power Administration - http://www.bpa.gov

All stories in the Indianz.Com Archive are available for publishing under a Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)