Second Opinions

[Editor’s note: A group of protesters floated the Snake River earlier this month, urging the removal of the four lower Snake River dams to help fish recovery. They succeeded in one thing: putting the dam removal issue back in the news spotlight. Below are excerpts from a news story and recent opinion columns on each side of the issue.]

The issue of breaching four giant dams on the Snake River to help endangered salmon runs has percolated in the Northwest for decades, but the idea has gained new momentum.

After renewed political pressure to remove the dams, people who oppose the structures gathered Oct. 3 on the Snake River in up to 200 boats. They unfurled a giant banner that said, “Free The Snake.”

“The groundswell that is occurring right now to remove the four dams is like nothing I’ve seen since 1998,” said Sam Mace, director of an anti-dam group called Save Our Wild Salmon.

The dams create reservoirs that make it possible for Lewiston, Idaho, 450 miles from the Pacific Ocean, to operate as the farthest inland seaport on the West Coast. Farmers, shipping companies and other dam supporters defend them as key players in the region’s economy.

Critics say the dams kill vast numbers of salmon and steelhead.

~Excerpt of Associated Press news report in the Seattle Times

Idaho’s wild salmon and steelhead are in trouble. Scientists say that at least 2 percent of the young fish migrating to the sea (smolts) must survive and return as adults for Idaho’s salmon and steelhead stocks to sustain themselves. That has happened only twice in the last 17 years. To actually rebuild the populations, scientists say that 4-6 percent must return. In other words, the status quo ensures decline for these fish that define Idaho and the Northwest.

Eight massive dams in the Columbia and Snake rivers that stand between Idaho’s spawning grounds and the Pacific are the biggest factors in the decline of Snake River salmon and steelhead. The slow-moving reservoirs behind the dams are thermal traps that kill fish. In the hot, dry summer of 2015, salmon died when they encountered lethally warm water in the reservoirs behind the four lower Snake River dams. Unlike a free-flowing river where water temperatures cool down at night, reservoirs trap heat and stay hot…

…Overwhelming scientific evidence supports removal of the four lower Snake River dams as the best way to recover Snake River salmon and steelhead. If there are other actions that can fix the deadly lower Snake River migration corridor, we are all ears. Finding a solution to the continued decline of Idaho’s salmon and steelhead will require looking at the needs of fish and local communities, together.

~ Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited, in a guest opinion column published in the Idaho Statesman, October 9

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates the four lower Snake River dams, and the best available science and economic analyses clearly show the Snake River dams provide outstanding value to the Nation...

Reliable, Renewable, Flexible, Affordable Power

The energy produced by the lower Snake River Dams is … relatively inexpensive. The public spends about $62 million per year to operate these dams. For the past six years the annual return on this investment was over $200 million of clean electricity. These dams provide enough energy to power 676,000 homes a year while avoiding the 7,317 kilotons of carbon dioxide emissions a coal plant would produce.

Environmentally Responsible Transportation

About 3.5 million tons of cargo valued at $1.5 billion passes through Snake River navigation locks each year. Marine transportation is the most efficient means to move bulk cargo, reducing cost and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions.

Recreation

The lakes created by these dams provide thousands of acres of water and lakeside recreation for 2.8 million visitors each year.

Environmental Sustainability

The lower Snake River dams are equipped with the most advanced fish passage systems in the world. Last year brought some of the highest Fall Chinook, Coho and Sockeye salmon returns to the Lower Snake River since Snake River dam construction began in 1962. On the lower Snake River, Corps scientists and engineers team with our many partners to prove dams and fish can co-exist.

~Lt. Col. Timothy Vail, Commander of the Walla Walla District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in a guest opinion column in the Tri-City Herald