Brown

Opinion by Judge NOONAN.

Salmon and waterpower, the two great natural resources of the Columbia River Basin, have been in tension with each other for over half a century as they have been put to use by human hands and mouths. In our case the principal consumers of the power attempt to align themselves on the side of the salmon — an irrelevant paradox, a fatal contradiction or a new beginning with possibilities for ill or good?

The Aluminum Company of America and other companies purchasing power from the Bonneville Power Administration (the Direct Service Industries), the Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative, and the Public Power Council (collectively the plaintiffs) brought actions against Ronald H. Brown, Secretary of Commerce, and a variety of other federal defendants including the Bonneville Power Administration (the defendants). The actions challenged the defendants’ response to the listing of three salmon populations on the Snake River as endangered or threatened. The cases were consolidated for decision by *1445 the district court, 822 F.Supp. 1479 (D.Or.1993), and we have consolidated them for decision on the appeals by the plaintiffs from the judgment of the district…