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Snake River Dam Supporters Cry Foul as Feds Plan Update to Study that Rejected Breaching by Annette Cary Tri-City Herald, December 20, 2024

A 2022 federal report that said breaching Snake River dams was the only hope
to recover Snake River salmon and steelhead to healthy, harvestable levels.

Kennewick, WA -- Federal agencies will take a new look at the findings of a four-year, $55 million federal study completed in 2020 that rejected calls to tear down the four lower Snake River dams.

A coalition of Northwest power, navigation and agricultural users responded to the federal announcement this week, calling the proposed "redo" of the environmental study "premature and unlawful."

"The proposed environmental review could lead to breaching federal hydropower facilities that serve as the largest source of affordable, reliable, clean energy for millions of people in the region, while also providing world-class, clean river transportation for the region's and nation's economies," said the coalition in a statement.

However, a coalition of environmental and other groups that want the Snake River dams in Eastern Washington removed, applauded the planned update to the study as "a step forward to ensure solutions that honor commitments to restore the Columbia River Basin's iconic salmon runs."

More Snake River studies

On Wednesday, a notice of the federal government's intent to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement for the Columbia River Systems Operations was posted in the Federal Register.

Two federal agencies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation, are planning to evaluate updated and changed circumstances that they think should be considered in the environmental study and the decision not to breach the Snake River hydroelectric dams in Washington.

The agencies will consider changes to dams in the Columbia River System; species, such as the wolverine, that have been newly listed or proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act; and new reports, studies and information published since the original study was released in 2020.

They also will consider anticipated changes to river flows related to the modernization of the Columbia River Treaty.

Other studies that could be considered to revise the environmental impact statement include a 2022 federal report that said breaching Snake River dams was the only hope to recover Snake River salmon and steelhead to healthy, harvestable levels.

The update also could include studies being done now as part of the Resilient Columbia Agreement to determine how to replace benefits that would be lost if the Eastern Washington Snake River dams are breached.

Dams and salmon

The Federal Register notice says there is a need to evaluate the study's selected alternative to leave the Snake River dams intact in light of "potentially substantial new circumstances and information."

The original study considered not only benefits and risks to juvenile and adult endangered and threatened fish by 14 federal dams in the Columbia River systems, but also the social and economic effects of changes to the system, including taking out the four lower Snake River dams.

Impacts to flood risk management, water for irrigation, shipping of agriculture products and other goods, hydropower generation and recreation were weighed.

After the original, 5,000-page study was released, the Biden administration signed a memorandum of understanding, now called the Resilient Columbia Agreement, hashed out behind closed doors with the states of Oregon and Washington and four Northwest tribes.

It called for a temporarily halt to a long-running lawsuit over the Columbia River hydrosystem, and particularly the lower Snake River dams, for up to a decade.

The Biden administration pledged to spend $1 billion over the decade to restore native fish and their habitats and to conduct studies on how the services now provided by the dams could be replaced, including the barging of farm products and other goods, irrigation, recreation and electricity production.

The 14 dams across the Columbia Basin provide some energy and transportation benefits, but come at enormous costs to salmon and steelhead populations, said the Columbia/Snake River Campaign, composed of environmental groups and others advocating for removal of the four dams from Ice Harbor near Pasco to Lower Granite near Lewiston, Idaho.

"The time to act is now," said Kayeloni Scott, executive director of the Columbia Snake River Campaign. "With this supplemental review process, the federal agencies are taking a much-needed step to analyze solutions that prioritize both salmon recovery and the livelihoods of farmers, rural communities and other stakeholders."

Dams and electricity

But the coalition opposed to breaching the Snake River dams say the supplemental review would be based on unfinished reviews and unscientific policy document.

The 2020 study concluded that federal hydropower dams and locks are essential to maintaining affordable electric rates, reliable energy service to homes and businesses, and lower carbon emissions, the coalition said.

"Hydropower is the largest source of affordable, renewable, dispatchable generation in the Pacific Northwest," and demand for electricity is project to increase more than 30% in the Pacific Northwest over the next decade, it said.

The coalition also cited a peer-reviewed study commissioned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2021 that said survival of salmon in Columbia and Snake rivers was threatened not by the dams but by ocean conditions.

Virtual public meetings on the scope of the update to the 2020 environmental impact statement will be held the week of Feb. 10, according to the notice.