NEWS/FEATURES
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A13
Oregon looks upstream to the lower Snake River
By JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITER
Last week Oregon Gov.
Kate Brown temporarily
shifted the political debate
from cap and trade during
the legislative session to the
waters of the Columbia Riv-
er’s largest tributary — the
Snake River — and the four
lower dams on the Eastern
Washington portion of it.
Brown on Feb. 11 wrote
a letter to Washington
Gov. Jay Inslee expressing
her support to remove the
earthen portions from the
four concrete lower Snake
River dams.
She stated the science was
clear — removal is the most
probable answer to salmon
and steelhead population
recovery in the Columbia
River Basin, which could
aid orcas in their forage for
fatty spring Chinook salmon
off the mouth of the Colum-
bia in late winter each year.
However, she added,
“much must be done before
this is accomplished in
order to help minimize and
mitigate for potential harm
to other vital sectors.”
The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers in the mid-1970s
built the Lower Gran-
ite Dam, the Little Goose
Dam, the Lower Monu-
mental Dam and the Ice
Harbor Dam east of Pasco
where water discharges
into the Columbia. The
dams supply water to irri-
gate farmland, hydropower
and transportation routes.
The Nez Perce, Yakama,
Umatilla, Warm Springs,
and Shoshone Bannock
tribes all relied on fi sh-
ing from the river, which
was once a main contribu-
tor and contained millions
of salmon each year, well
before the construction of
the dams.
Tribal salmon now are
harvested per treaty rights
at less than 1% of the lev-
els they were before tribes
made contact with white
settlers, according to a
report issued by the Colum-
bia River Inter-Tribal Fish
Commission in 2014.
“Our diet still con-
sists highly on salmon.
It’s important we’re able
to consume those foods,”
said Chuck Sams, com-
munications director for
the Confederated Tribes of
the Umatilla Indian Reser-
vation. “We agree with a
number of science reviews
that there are issues around
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
A grain pile and grain elevators operated by United Grain Corp. are seen on Friday afternoon.
United Grain Corp. relies heavily on the river system for transport of grain to market.
dams that could be resolved
through fi sh passage and
eventual dam removal.”
Sams said the Confed-
erated Umatilla Tribes will
release a policy statement
in coming weeks as the
fi shing commission works
to put its own new analysis
of the lower Snake River
together.
Electric cooperatives,
such as Umatilla Electric
Cooperative in Hermiston,
purchase the majority of
their power from the Bon-
neville Power Adminis-
tration, the federal hydro-
power agency. Ted Case,
director of Oregon Rural
Electric Cooperative Asso-
ciation, said the 1,000 aver-
age annual megawatts the
lower Snake River dams
produce can power a city
the size of Seattle. He was
shocked to hear Brown’s
recent position in the lower
Snake conversation.
‘We’ve had no consul-
tation, there was no discus-
sion about us,” he said. “It’s
confounding.”
He and representatives
from other electric coopera-
tives are worried about what
dam removal would bring
for rural Oregonians.
“We’ll be short of
power,” he said. “There’s
a lot of concern as to how
we’ll reach capacity. You
could have blackouts in
rural Oregon and electrical
grid crashes.”
A study in 2018 by
Energy Strategies LLC for
the Seattle-based North-
west Energy Coalition begs
to differ.
CRYPTOQUIP
The analysis quantifi ed
the power from the lower
Snake River dams and
assessed the fi xed and vari-
able costs of implementing
renewable
replacements,
such as wind and solar, and
what that would do to mar-
ket prices.
The lower dams provide
nearly 4% of the Pacifi c
Northwest’s
electricity,
according to the report, and
at less than a 1% increase
in emissions, a new energy
portfolio relying on renew-
ables and increased ener-
gy-effi ciency would add a
bit more than $1 a month to
customer costs.
But Energy GPS LLC
refuted that last month in a
study for Northwest River-
Partners. It stated the lower
Snake River dams generate
up to 5.5% of the region’s
electricity and replacing that
power would cost $860 mil-
lion a year.
“The essence of it is this
— the capabilities of these
dams cannot be easily or
inexpensively
replaced.
This would hurt those in
Eastern Oregon who can
least afford it,” Case stated
in an email to the Hermiston
Herald.
Case also said he doesn’t
think the federal approval
needed to remove the dams
would come anytime soon.
“These dams would have
to be removed by congres-
sional action. It would cost
billions of dollars,” he said.
“We’re going to do every-
thing we can to prevent that,
but I see no broad support
for such action.”
For the Governor’s
Offi ce, the letter to Inslee is
simply an initiation of dis-
cussion about the long-term
future.
In an email to the Herm-
iston Herald, Kate Kon-
dayen, press secretary for
Brown, said the letter does
not call for tearing the dams
out, “as has been character-
ized in initial coverage.”
“Instead, Oregon is
asserting that we see value
in analyzing a future without
the dams in the long term,
but focusing any defi ni-
tive next steps on working
together to identify a viable
path forward to that future
with interim steps such as
fl exible spill agreements,”
she stated.
Brown’s letter raised
eyebrows
for
farmers
and ports about what dam
removal would mean for the
transportation industry. The
Pacifi c Northwest Water-
ways Association asserts
the Columbia Snake River
System is the nation’s larg-
est wheat export gateway,
transporting more than half
of all U.S. wheat to overseas
markets.
“Compromising, jeopar-
dizing, eliminating any pro-
ponent of the system jeop-
ardizes the region on many
levels,” said Port of Uma-
tilla General Manager Kim
Puzey. “The timing is not
great.”
Brown’s letter comes a
few weeks before a draft
of the Columbia River Sys-
tems Operations Environ-
mental Impact Statement is
anticipated to be released in
SUPER CROSSWORD: MULTIPLE LISTING
conjunction with the Corps,
the Bureau of Reclamation
and Bonneville Power in
response to a federal ruling
calling for a major overhaul
of Columbia Snake River
dam operations in 2016.
The Port of Umatilla has
invested more than $100,000
in litigation regarding dam
removal, and is home to one
of Oregon’s largest wheat
terminals along the Colum-
bia Snake River System.
United Grain Corp oper-
ates the terminal and traf-
fics hundreds of millions
of bushels of wheat along
the Snake River every
year, including yields from
Umatilla and Morrow
counties.
“As a grain company we
depend on the river system
heavily,” said Pacifi c North-
west United Grain manager
Jason Middleton.“Farmers
enjoy a low basis number.
(Removal) would have an
immense impact.”
Puzey and Middleton
question the fuel effi ciency
of relying more heavily on
trains and trucks without the
barge locks provided by the
dams.
“People who are con-
cerned with a carbon foot-
print and the airshed as it
relates to transportation
can’t possibly make a via-
ble argument that the dams
be removed,” Puzey said.
According to the Water-
ways Association, trans-
portation via barge is the
most fuel effi cient. A sin-
gle barge on a river can
carry as much cargo as 134
trucks can.
“Removal would put
many more trucks on the
freeways and the highways.
Infrastructure costs would
go through the roof,” Mid-
dleton said.
But David Moryc, a
senior director for Amer-
ican Rivers, said contin-
ued discussion could lead
to cost-effective solutions,
possibly through the for-
mation of a shortline rail-
road cooperative along the
Snake River.
“It’s really important we
think strategically about
infrastructure upgrades,”
Moryc said. “How do we
replace and improve the
benefi ts that farmers want
to see from their transpor-
tation systems?”
He asked how the bil-
lions of dollars being
poured into salmon res-
toration along the river
could be reinvested were
dam removal to boost pop-
ulations back to historical
levels.
“You’re talking about
really high valued habitat
where currently the salmon
and steel stocks are hav-
ing trouble because they
have to pass through eight
dams,” he said.
American Rivers has
helped negotiate river res-
toration projects and pri-
vate dam removals around
the Pacifi c Northwest.
“You’ve got a number
of examples of signifi cant
dam removal projects in
history. We’re seeing pos-
itive responses for salmon
returns,” he said.
Moryc said some util-
ity entities have decided
salmon restoration efforts
and maintenance costs
outweigh the price-tag
from
options
outside
hydropower.
He doesn’t know how
long it could take for dam
removal to come to a head
at a federal level, and added
the environmental impact
statement coming later this
month likely won’t advo-
cate for dam removal. Still,
Moryc said he sees a spark
in Brown’s recent letter.
“My hope is that there
are some seeds here,” he
said, “some kernels of hope
in the dialogue.”
SUDOKU
DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK
EASTERN
OREGON
EVENTS
The place
to fi nd
everything
happening
in Eastern
Oregon.
Post your events.
It’s fast and easy!
e-Edition
For Hermiston Herald information
541-567-6457 • info@hermistonherald.com
333 E. Main St. • HermistonHerald.com
Exact digital
replica of this
print edition
is available
online, every
Wednesday by
5:30 a.m.
Check out
Hermiston
Herald.com
for more
information.