Oregon Public Broadcasting

The judge supervising the court battle over hydroelectric dams and threatened salmon in the Columbia and Snake Rivers has given federal officials some advice, about how they can craft a more acceptable plan. Rob Manning reports.

Judge James Redden's letter to federal attorneys praises a supplemental plan the feds created last year. 

It offered more monitoring and contingency actions, to help threatened fish. But Redden says the supplement was created outside the usual procedures under the Endangered Species Act and for that reason, has legal flaws that environmental groups could challenge.

The judge has suggested the federal government basically pull back that supplement, and go through the proper hoops to add it to the overall plan.

Environmental groups are applauding Redden's letter, because it advises the feds to follow the "best available science" for the supplement - not just the research that supports the approach the feds want to follow.

Redden gave the feds two choices: remove the supplement, and he'll rule on the plan as it stood before; or, subject the supplement to the best science, and he'll rule on that, once it's added.

The judge has given the feds until next Thursday to decide.