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Federal Agencies Revisit Columbia and Snake River Dams' Impact on Steelhead and Salmon by Staff KLEW, December 19, 2024

"It is time for the consequences of those effects to be
revealed and to truly guide agency decision-making."
-- Nez Perce Tribe

Federal agencies are revisiting their original environmental analysis of the Columbia and Snake River Dams. The US Army Corp of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation are preparing a supplemental environmental impact statement.

The goal is to revise a 2020 study on the dams' effects on steelhead and salmon populations. The study considered over a dozen federal dams. It concluded that breaching four lower Snake River dams would improve population health but would damage energy production.

The study suggested helping endangered fish in other ways. The Nez Perce Tribe, the State of Oregon and conservation groups challenged the study in court. Later studies in 2022 and 2024 concluded the fish could not be saved without breaching the dams.

The Nez Perce Tribe released a statement saying:

"Extinction of salmon populations is happening now. The Tribe is reassured to see strong support in the Northwest for ensuring that no salmon extinction occurs on our watch. That should be a fundamental feeling for all people in the Northwest."

"The reality is the federal agencies have never truly made visible the devastating effects the federal dams on the lower Snake and mainstem Columbia River have had - and continue to have every day - on US Treaty obligations to Columbia Basin tribes. It is time for the consequences of those effects to be revealed and to truly guide agency decision-making."