Does the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have the authority to prescribe fish passage?
Section 18 of the Federal Power Act provides the U. S. Department of the Interior and U. S. Department of Commerce authority to require fishways in new licenses where it can be demonstrated that fish populations would benefit from the provision of fish passage. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is one of the bureaus of the U. S. Department of the Interior. The fishway prescriptions for the Klamath Hydroelectric Project were coordinated with the Department of Commerce and other Department of the Interior bureaus: the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the National Park Service, the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The Department of the Interior uses its Section 18 authority to prescribe fishways cautiously and judiciously. The Department carefully evaluates the benefits of fishways to fish habitat and to commercial, recreational, and Tribal fisheries prior to issuance of any prescription.
