4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2016
Dam plan: Dams provide about 5 percent of region’s electricity
Continued from Page 1A
His order triggered 15 pub-
lic meetings in Washington,
Idaho, Montana and Oregon,
where the dam removal issue
has percolated for two decades.
The first meeting was held
last month, and the final one
is scheduled for Dec. 8. After
that, a plan to save the salmon
must be created.
Four dams
The Snake River, at just
over 1,000 miles, is the 13th
longest in the United States,
flowing from the western bor-
der of Wyoming to its conflu-
ence with the mighty Columbia
River in Washington. For much
of its history, the river and its
tributaries produced salmon
runs in the millions that sus-
tained Native American tribes
who lived near its banks. The
best salmon spawning grounds
were in Idaho, and were ham-
pered by the construction of the
four dams.
Environmental groups say
restoring the salmon runs is
impossible with the four dams
in place.
The dams provide about 5
percent of the region’s elec-
tricity, roughly enough power
for a city the size of Seattle.
A recent report by the federal
Bonneville Power Adminis-
tration said if the Snake River
dams are removed, a new natu-
ral gas plant would be required
to replace the lost electricity.
Thirteen runs
Thirteen runs of Columbia
and Snake river salmon and
steelhead remain endangered
or threatened despite billions
of dollars spent over decades to
save them.
Sam Mace, a spokeswoman
for Save Our Wild Salmon,
said the dams’ benefits are not
worth the loss of the iconic fish.
“There is more than one
way to get wheat to market,”
Mace said. “But salmon only
have one way to travel, and
that’s in the river.”
Salmon supporters say
restored salmon runs will help
the economy.
“Healthy salmon popu-
lations could support tens of
thousands of jobs and billions
of dollars annually in the rec-
reation and tourism economy,”
said Liz Hamilton of the North-
west Sportfishing Industry
Association.
Idaho’s Nez Perce Tribe
also has called for removing
the dams and restoring the fish
to harvestable levels.
“The four dams on the lower
Snake River have had a devas-
tating impact on salmon,” said
McCoy Oatman, the tribe’s
vice chairman.
Opposition
Opponents of breaching
the dams say they provide irri-
gation, hydropower and ship-
ping benefits, and allow grain
barges to operate all the way
to Lewiston, Idaho, more than
400 miles from the mouth of
the Columbia River.
Wheat from as far as North
Dakota is shipped downriver
by barge for export to Asia.
The Snake River also is used
to transport about 60 percent of
Washington’s wheat and barley
crop to Portland. A tug pushing
a barge can haul a ton of wheat
Geoff Crimmins/The Moscow-Pullman Daily News
Debby Stallcop watches for sockeye salmon while counting fish coming through the fish ladder at Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River in Wash-
ington state. There is a renewed push to remove the Lower Granite and three other dams on the Snake River to save wild salmon runs.
576 miles on a single gallon of
fuel.
Northwest River Partners,
which represents a coalition
of businesses and river users,
called the dams an important
part of the regional economy.
“I think both salmon and
the dams are co-existing,” said
Terry Flores, director of the
Portland-based group. “Why
would you take out dams that
are providing clean energy and
billions of dollars’ worth of
commerce?”
However, critics note the
river’s barge traffic has expe-
rienced a 20-year decline
because of competition from
trucks and trains.
The four dams were built in
the 1960s and 1970s, roughly
between Pullman and the
Tri-Cities.
Breaching them isn’t some-
thing that could be ordered by
a court. Since the dams are
federal projects, removing
them would require action by
Congress.
According to the Army
Corps of Engineers, more than
90 percent of the river’s young
fish survive passage through
each dam’s fish ladders. But
the total effect from dams and
slackwater reservoirs adds up
to mortality rates of 50 percent
or more for Idaho-spawned fish
as they migrate to the ocean.
The fish then have to sur-
vive several years in the ocean
before running the gauntlet of
dams again when they return to
the Northwest to spawn.
Removing the dams would
provide migrating salmon with
easier access to thousands of
miles of pristine rivers and
streams that even with climate
change remain cold enough to
support salmon and steelhead
spawning, environmentalists
say.
W A NTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Photos by Dean Hare/The Moscow-Pullman Daily News
ABOVE: Water flows through a fish ladder at Lower Gran-
ite Dam on the Snake River in Washington state. RIGHT:
Matt Corsi, right, and Brian Knoth, left, both fisheries biol-
ogists with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, ex-
amine a steelhead lifted from the data recording tank at
the Lower Granite Dam fish facility on the Snake River in
Washington state.
Time and
money.
We give
you both.
N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A
Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500
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