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City Council Joins Drive to Get Dams Breached for Snake River Salmon by Associated Press Seattle Post-Intelligencer - August 24, 2000

The Seattle City Council is putting in its two cents worth in favor of breaching Snake River dams.

The council members passed a resolution Monday calling for the river's four lower dams to be partially removed to help restore the river's salmon population. They urged the government to speed up development of renewable energy sources to replace any lost power.

"Independent and credible scientific studies have produced persuasive evidence that partial removal of the four lower Snake River dams is essential to restoration of Snake River salmon," the resolution says.

The council has no direct say over whether the dams are taken down. However, the resolution notes that Seattle is one of the Bonneville Power Administration's largest customers and thus a key stakeholder in the operation of the Columbia-Snake river power system.

Higher energy prices would likely result from breaching the dams, but residents are willing to pay those prices, the resolution says.

"Paying our fair share of these costs is appropriate and necessary to fulfill our legal and moral obligations for salmon restoration," it says.