A2
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 2022
A GLIMPSE
INTO THE
PAST
IN BRIEF
Johnson offi cially qualifi es
for ballot in governor’s race
Former state Sen. Betsy Johnson has qualifi ed for the
November election as an unaffi liated candidate for governor.
“Damn straight,” she said in a statement. “This is a
momentous day for Oregon.”
Ben Morris, a spokesman for Oregon Secretary of
State Shemia Fagan, confi rmed that Johnson would be on
the ballot alongside Democrat Tina Kotek and Republican
Christine Drazan.
Johnson, the former Democrat from Columbia County,
submitted more than the 23,744 valid signatures required
to qualify.
— Oregon Capital Bureau
Water main problem closes roads
An emergency water main problem has closed roads in
downtown Astoria, the city said in a statement.
Repair work has shut down Duane Street between 10th
and 11th streets, as well as 10th Street between Duane and
Exchange streets, the city said.
It is unclear when the roads will reopen, the city said
Friday morning.
People will have to reach buildings such as City Hall,
the Astoria Library, the Merwyn Apartments and U.S.
Bank by foot, the city said.
North Coast spot open
on state salmon committee
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking
an applicant to represent the North Coast on the Salmon
and Trout Enhancement Advisory Program Committee.
The deadline to apply is Sept. 16.
The department prefers candidates with experience
working with volunteers, community service, or natural
resource and angling education.
The volunteer position is a four-year term. Candidates
must be able to attend two to three meetings a year, either
virtually or in person.
For more information, visit the department’s website.
— The Astorian
Oregon triples bag limit
for invasive green crabs
SALEM — New state regulations allow recreational
crabbers to catch triple the number of invasive green crabs
from Oregon’s bays and inlets.
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission increased
the bag limit of European green crab from 10 to 35 per
day. It’s part of a concerted eff ort to eradicate these inva-
sive crustaceans, which are known to compete with native
crabs for food.
Green crabs themselves are fi ne to eat and some reci-
pes even call for them. They are smaller than Dungeness
or even the red rock crab, making them harder to clean.
Mitch Vance, a shellfi sh project leader with the marine
resources program at the Department of Fish and Wildlife,
wants people to know for certain it is a European green
crab they are harvesting.
“Key characteristics that really help in the identifi ca-
tion — fi ve spines on each side of the crab and between
the eyes there are three rounded bumps,” he told KLCC.
“It also has a very fan-shaped shell.”
— KLCC
Portland adopts limits
on fossil fuel terminals
The Portland City Council voted on Wednesday to
limit the expansion of fossil fuel terminals in the city.
Mayor Ted Wheeler said the move will bolster Port-
land’s eff orts to combat climate change and help safe-
guard the city in the event of a Cascadia Subduction Zone
earthquake.
Dan Serres, the conservation director at Columbia Riv-
erkeeper, called it “an important fi rst step to protect the
health, safety, and climate of Portland’s residents.”
The zoning code change prohibits the construction of
new fossil fuel terminals and prevents any of Portland’s
existing 11 terminals from expanding.
— Oregon Public Broadcasting
DEATHS
Aug. 24, 2022
Deaths
FORSYTHE, Zachary
Patrick, 36, of Seaside,
died in Seaside. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
Aug. 21, 2022
NELSON, Kimbirlli
“KC,” 30, of Warren-
ton, died in Portland.
Hughes-Ransom Mor-
tuary is in charge of the
arrangements.
ON THE RECORD
Theft
On
the
Record
• Nicole
Raelyn
Horsley, 27, of Astoria, was
arrested on Thursday at Fred Meyer in Warrenton for
second-degree theft.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
Gearhart City Council, 6:30 p.m., work session, (electronic
meeting).
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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The Seaside Museum & Historical Society is off ering black and white or color canvas photos of the Prom as part of an annual
raffl e fundraiser.
Report says benefi ts of dams
must be replaced before breaching
Finding was issued
by Inslee, Murray
By NICHOLAS K.
GERANIOS
Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. —
The benefi ts provided by
four giant hydroelectric
dams on the Snake River
must be replaced before
the dams can be breached
to save endangered salmon
runs, according to a fi nal
report issued Thursday by
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee
and Washington U.S. Sen.
Patty Murray.
That is especially true
regarding the reliable and
carbon-free electricity the
dams generate, the report
concluded.
If the four Snake River
dams were ultimately
removed, it would be larg-
est such project in U.S. his-
tory. In 2012, the Elwha
Dam on Washington state’s
Olympic Peninsula was
removed to restore habitat.
At the time, the National
Park Service said the elim-
ination of the Elwha Dam
was the largest such project
in U.S. history.
Congress
will
ulti-
mately decide if the feder-
ally-owned dams will be
removed, and would have
to appropriate money for
the work.
The issue is not a matter
of electricity versus salmon,
Thursday’s report said.
“We believe that is
an oversimplifi ed binary
choice, and it is one that we
do not accept or see as inev-
itable,” Inslee and Murray
wrote.
But, “the science is clear
that — specifi c to the lower
Snake River — breach of
the dams would provide
the greatest benefi t to the
salmon,” the report said.
Breaching the dams
would
signifi cantly
improve the ability of
salmon and steelhead to
swim from their inland
spawning grounds to the
Pacifi c Ocean, where they
spend most of their lives,
and then back to their orig-
inal spawning grounds to
procreate and die, the report
said.
Major benefi ts of the
dams besides electric-
ity include making the
Snake River navigable up
to Lewiston, Idaho, allow-
ing barges to carry wheat
and other crops to ocean
ports. Eliminating the dams
would require truck and
rail transportation improve-
ments to move crops, the
report said. The dams also
provide irrigation water
for farmers and recreation
opportunities for people.
A draft report released
in June concluded the ben-
efi ts provided by the dams
would cost between $10.3
billion and $27.2 billion to
replace.
The dams have many
supporters, including two
Ted S. Warren/AP Photo
The Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River is seen from the air near Colfax in Washington state.
MAJOR BENEFITS OF THE DAMS
BESIDES ELECTRICITY INCLUDE
MAKING THE SNAKE RIVER
NAVIGABLE UP TO LEWISTON,
IDAHO, ALLOWING BARGES TO
CARRY WHEAT AND OTHER CROPS
TO OCEAN PORTS.
GOP members of Congress
representing eastern Wash-
ington state, where the
dams are located. The dams
are also supported by barge
companies, farmers and
other business interests.
U.S. Rep. Dan New-
house and U.S. Rep. Cathy
McMorris Rodgers recently
introduced a bill to protect
the dams.
But the chairman of the
Yakama Nation has said the
dams must be breached.
“Our people are salmon
people,” tribal council
chairman Delano Saluskin
said earlier this year.
“When the salmon thrive,
we thrive; but when they
suff er, our people suff er
too.”
Exploring the Columbia
River basin in 1805, Lewis
and Clark wrote of water-
ways so full with salmon
that you could all but walk
across on their backs.
In the late 1800s, up
to 16 million salmon and
steelhead returned to the
Columbia River basin
every year to spawn. Over
the next century and a half,
overfi shing whittled that
number down. By the early
1950s, just under 130,000
Chinook were returning to
the Snake River.
Construction of the fi rst
dam on the lower river,
Ice Harbor, began in 1955.
Lower Monumental fol-
lowed in 1969, Little Goose
in 1970 and Lower Granite
in 1975. The dams stretch
from Pasco, Washington, to
near Pullman, Washington,
and stand between migrat-
ing salmon and 5,500 miles
spawning habitat in central
Idaho.
The dams have fi sh lad-
ders, but too many of the
salmon die as they swim
through the dams and
across slackwater reser-
voirs on their migrations.
In 1991, Snake River
salmon and steelhead were
listed as endangered spe-
cies, requiring produc-
tion of a federal recovery
plan. Over the next three
decades,
environmental
organizations sued the fed-
eral government six times,
arguing that the recovery
plan was inadequate.
The most recent law-
suit, in 2016, resulted in a
four-year study of the envi-
ronmental impact of the
dams. Although it found
that breaching the dams
would be the most eff ective
salmon recovery action,
federal agencies ultimately
decided against it.
The U.S. government
has spent more than $17
billion trying to recover
Snake
River
salmon,
through improvements to
fi sh ladders and other mea-
sures, with little to show for
it. In 2017, the number of
Chinook salmon returning
to the Snake River dropped
below 10,000.
Dam supporters blame
declining salmon runs
on other factors, such as
changing ocean conditions.
Inslee and Murray said
there are “clear areas of
common agreement.”
“People of every per-
spective share a desire to
see progress on the under-
lying issues and relief from
the uncertainty created by
litigation,” the report said.
Inslee and Murray said
it is clear that, with ade-
quate money, it is possible
to replace most of the ser-
vices and benefi ts provided
by the dams and to mitigate
the loss of others.
Government must move
forward to provide replace-
ments for the benefi ts of the
dams “so that breaching of
the lower Snake River dams
is a pathway that can be
credibly considered by pol-
icymakers in the future,”
the report said.
Going forward, Inslee
and Murray — both Demo-
crats — committed to:
• Substantially expand
salmon habitat and passage
throughout the Columbia
River basin and the Puget
Sound.
• Improve the siting pro-
cess necessary to build the
clean energy resources
needed.
• Leverage the invest-
ments made in the Biden
administration’s
Infra-
structure Investment and
Jobs Act and the Infl ation
Reduction Act to support
energy replacement, infra-
structure enhancement and
salmon recovery and habi-
tat restoration.