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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM
Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
GUEST COLUMN
Orcas, fishermen are both endangered species
the Bonneville Power Administration often
has to pay California and other states to take
it! In short, as power producers, the four lower
Snake River dams are now economically
obsolete.
The dams’ agriculture transportation func-
tions are also replaceable. U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers data show barge shipping on the
lower Snake has been in steady decline since
at least 2000, so much so that, under Corps’
criteria, the lower Snake would today be clas-
sified as a “low use” waterway.
Today, the only thing shipped by barge on
the lower Snake waterway is grain, chiefly
wheat. But increasingly, wheat is being trans-
ported by rail. In fact, because of increased rail
efficiency, more wheat is going to market by
train every year. It is only massive subsidies
that keep barge shipments economically viable
at all.
Removing the lower Snake River dams
would require some reinvestment in rail capac-
ity, but doing so would improve efficiency
even more. It could even cut greenhouse gas
emissions by reducing the distance grain has
to be moved by truck, which is both costly
and highly polluting. And grain could still be
moved by barge on the Columbia from the Tri-
Cities to Portland, an economic opportunity
for the Tri-Cities, an area that was a booming
grain shipment port before the Snake River
dams were built in the 1960s — and could be
again.
Those opposing restoring the lower Snake
River often cite irrigation and flood control in
defending the dams. But irrigation from the
lower Snake only serves 13 farms, all around
Ice Harbor dam, irrigation that could be easily
maintained by modifying the current system
to include stronger pumps and longer pipes, a
simple plumbing problem. And, because the
lower Snake River dams have no water storage
capacity, they play no significant role in flood
control.
So where does this leave us? As a region,
do we continue failed policies that push the
orcas, and salmon fishermen and their com-
munities, further toward extinction? Or do we
want to do something to save them both?
The message couldn’t be clearer: it is past
time for bold action to bring back the Chinook
salmon that sustain mother orcas and their
pods as well as salmon-dependent human
communities. And the biggest champions
should be salmon fishermen, sport and com-
mercial alike, who depend on bringing back
the same Chinook the orcas so desperately
need.
Many fishermen are already at the forefront
of salmon restoration efforts, through orga-
nizations like Salmon for All and the Pacific
Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.
But we’re at a tipping point. If we don’t take
steps like removing the lower Snake River
dams soon, we risk losing our orcas as well as
our own salmon heritage and the lives, com-
munities, cultures and jobs salmon support.
It’s time we all raised our voices to insist
that we can restore the Snake River, find ways
to meet the legitimate needs of those who also
depend on it, whether for power or irrigation,
and bring back our salmon. Please be part of
that effort.
Glen Spain is the northwest regional direc-
tor of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fish-
ermen’s Associations, a trade association for
commercial fishing families on the West Coast.
about why Brown chose secrecy, but the fact
remains: Secrecy and good government do
not go hand in hand.
Oregon went through a serious round of
prison reform in 2013. Lawmakers reduced
the sentences for some property crimes, let
some low-risk offenders leave prison early
and put money into community corrections
programs that would deal with some offenders
at the county level.
Statewide discussion of the cost of the
prison system and ways to contain its growth
began at least two years before the 2013
Legislature acted.
There were newspaper stories about
the money required to keep up with prison
population growth and how many more
prisons would be needed as a result. Others
centered on whether the state’s incarceration
policies, heavy on keeping offenders out of
jail, worked.
We’ve had almost none of that in 2018,
or in 2017. Nor do we know exactly what’s
being proposed, or why. We do know some
things.
Oregon and its counties spend a higher
percentage of revenues on corrections than
most states, and that’s, in part, because we
lock up more juvenile offenders than most
states do.
It may be that Oregon’s corrections system
is, again, ripe for reform. If so, Oregonians
need to know what’s wrong and why what is
being considered will improve the situation.
More importantly, we need to be part of any
discussion about proposed changes and that
discussion needs to begin now, not after the
Legislature convenes.
Four low-value
Snake River dams
should be removed
rcas and commercial salmon fishermen
share a common crisis — both need
more adult Chinook salmon to return
to the Columbia River; orcas to avoid starva-
tion, fishermen to sustain their livelihoods and
families.
Northwest orcas are starving and their pop-
ulation is declining — only 74 remain, in large
part because their primary
prey, Chinook salmon, have
been pushed by dams, dewa-
tering and habitat destruction
to near extinction almost
everywhere.
Salmon fishermen know
GLEN
this because for years, they
SPAIN
too have seen reduced
catches, reduced fishing
seasons and spreading closures. Salmon fish-
ermen too are now effectively an endangered
species, and for the same reasons as orcas
— their Chinook salmon prey are rapidly
disappearing.
So, when six of the world’s leading orca
scientists banded together recently and wrote
to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s Southern
Resident Killer Whale Recovery Task Force
to share their conclusion that restoring Snake
River spring Chinook is critical to preventing
orca extinction, salmon fishermen from
Astoria, Ilwaco and other coastal communities
took note. These scientists are talking about
their futures as well.
Since the mid-1990s, salmon scientists
have said the single biggest step we can take to
restore healthy salmon runs in the Snake River
is to remove four low-value, high-cost dams
on the lower river above its confluence with
the Columbia. This step has been vigorously
opposed by those who benefit from status quo
dam operations.
But just as our understanding of the con-
nection between orcas and Chinook salmon
from the Columbia has evolved, so too has our
understanding of the role these four dams play
in damaging our regional salmon economy.
We now know the region could bypass these
four obsolete dams and still thrive.
A recent analysis by Energy Strategies,
a Utah-based consulting firm that primarily
O
AP Photo/Nicholas K. Geranios
Water moves through a spillway of the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River near
Almota, Wash.
‘It’s time we all raised our voices to insist that
we can restore the Snake River, find ways to
meet the legitimate needs of those who also depend
on it, whether for power or irrigation, and bring
back our salmon. Please be part of that effort.’
works for utilities, concluded that the power
these four dams combined produce could read-
ily be replaced with clean energy and conser-
vation, with little or no increase in greenhouse
gas emissions, and at a low cost to consumers
— about $1.25 per month on the average bill.
The economic costs of these lower Snake
River dams, in terms of thousands of lost
salmon-based jobs (in Astoria and elsewhere),
costs the region staggeringly more.
Once, the hydropower produced by the four
lower Snake River dams was useful and valu-
able. But over the past 17 years, the average
annual 943 megawatts these dams produced
was actually “surplus power,” amounting to
less than 4 percent of the total power generated
from the Federal Power System, which today
generates a 17 percent energy surplus. The
Northwest is so awash with surplus power
that it can often be sold only at a net loss. In
other words, instead of making money on it,
OTHER VIEWS
Excerpts from Oregon
newspaper editorials
Mail Tribune, on the
need for firefighting
helicopters in wildfire
season
ith firefighting resources spread
thin around the West in a big fire
year, luck and timing can make all
the difference. If high-capacity helicopters
happen to be here and available when a major
lightning storm hammers Southern Oregon,
that’s good. If those helicopters already have
been committed to big fires burning else-
where, that’s not so good.
So it only makes sense that local officials
should explore ways to procure our own ded-
icated aircraft, so they’re ready and waiting to
be called on to attack fires before they have a
chance to grow into conflagrations.
Jackson County commissioners are consid-
ering spending $2 million to station two Type
1 helicopters here during fire season. Type 1
helicopters are capable of hauling and drop-
ping up to 3,000 gallons of water or retardant
at a time. By comparison, Type 2 choppers
carry hundreds of gallons.
As luck and timing would have it, two
Type 1 helicopters were standing by at the
Ashland airport July 15 after working the
Klamathon fire earlier in the month. So when
a lightning storm ignited 145 new fires, those
aircraft were able to attack many of them right
away.
Dave Larson, southwest district forester
for the Oregon Department of Forestry, says
there is no doubt that the presence of those
aircraft meant fewer of those fires became big
fires, but he wants a detailed study of the past
15 fire seasons before local officials lobby for
state funding. It’s possible that one Type 1
helicopter and three Type 2 choppers might be
a more effective mix for initial attack.
That’s a prudent step, but not if it means
a delay in seeking funding. The 2019
Legislature convenes Jan. 22, and lawmakers
will be adopting the next two-year state
budget.
As a practical matter, $2 million is not a
great deal of money, considering ODF spent
$60 million fighting fires in this region this
year. And it’s a bargain if dedicated aircraft
reduce overall firefighting costs by keeping
fires small.
W
Bend Bulletin, on not
keeping reforms secret
F
ortunately for Oregonians, it can be
difficult to keep secrets in Salem. Thus,
news that state lawmakers might be
asked to reduce prison sentences next year
was leaked to The Oregonian, despite Gov.
Kate Brown’s attempts to keep the matter
secret.
In fact, Brown asked state agencies to
keep their proposals for the 2019 session
of the Legislature secret until after the
election.
Usually, legislative concepts, as they’re
called, are made public by the end of
October.
You may draw your own conclusions