PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The owners of a fish farm in Washington state have asked a judge to order the federal government to reduce the volume of water coursing from the Grand Coulee Dam and killing fish on the Columbia River.
The operators of Pacific Aquaculture said in a federal court filing Friday that a staggering number of fish are dying. The fish farm is downriver of the dam.
Large releases from the dam churn the river, dissolving gases in the water that harm fish.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it has drawn down the dam’s reservoir in anticipation of runoff from an unusually heavy snowpack that’s still in the Rocky Mountains upriver.
A hearing is scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday in Portland.
