Opinion ID: 365744
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Juvenile Smelt

Text: The Administrator found: 12 Although there is some doubt whether most juvenile smelt possess the requisite swimming speed to avoid the intake, the plant's effects on them will not, in any event, be significant because Most smelt will not be found as far out as the intake structure or in water as deep as its opening. Although in its most recent sampling, Public Service Company's consultant found some smelt in water at least as far out as, and, perhaps, as deep as the intake structure and its opening, this does not alter the conclusion based upon almost 100 years of experience that smelt is In general an inshore fish found a mile or so offshore inhabiting the upper 3 fathoms of the water column. This was clearly the view of well qualified experts who considered both this general experience and the more recent sampling. The conclusion of these experts is consistent with the general experience of professional fishermen in the area. (Footnote omitted.) (Emphasis added.) 13 Petitioners challenge this conclusion as unsupported. Their theory is that the Administrator relied on a 1953 book which set the outer boundary of smelt populations at about one mile; whereas the same authors ten years later said that smelt ranged as far as six miles out to sea. Petitioners also point to the PSCO sampling referred to by the Administrator as proof that smelts were fairly numerous at an area near the proposed intake. The fact is that the Administrator was fully aware that some smelt could be found at the intake location and that juvenile smelt could be entrapped and killed. These facts do not undermine his finding that most smelt will not come near the intake and, thus, will not be endangered. 14 The record certainly supports the Administrator's finding. The experts who testified at the remand hearing did not base their testimony that smelt are generally inshore fish solely on any one document or one study. They testified from their own expertise and from assembled reports of others' experience stretching back over a century. As they testified, a particular sampling that found a number of smelt in a particular location does not necessarily disprove the collected theories about smelt. The sampling did not address two critical questions the relative number of smelt in the intake vicinity compared to elsewhere and the location of the smelt in the water column. Without having some idea of the number of smelt closer to shore, the absolute number found near the intake is not very meaningful. It does not help one determine whether the intake will affect the ability of the smelt to propagate and survive. In short, we cannot say that the Administrator was wrong, considering the entire record, to rely on the expert testimony.