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'Fish Worship' Promotes Illogical Dislike for Dams by Dennis Rohn Seattle Post-Intelligencer - June 5, 2005

Your May 29 commentary on the continued existence of dams was disappointing. You said the "romance" with the continued existence of the dams was in need of ending. The only "romance" involved with dams is the irrational love and worship of fish. There are things that could be done to increase fish numbers that do not involve dams.

If they want to enhance the proliferation of fish, they should be focusing on stopping the ever-increasing commercial and recreational harvest of wild fish for several years to ensure the fish can increase in numbers. Hydroelectric production is the cleanest renewable source of electricity. The facilities are already in place, producing as they have for many years.

Many people do not eat fish. Migrating fish end up dying en route to their spawning grounds and thoroughly pollute otherwise clean waters for months as dead fish carcasses rot away and putrefy the water while washing downstream. There are negatives to consider in worshiping fish, primary of which is the extreme of doing without electricity. Controlled fish farming involves a more efficient way of fish propagation and marketing that seem to be very able to reliably supply the market for fish consumption by humans.

Hydroelectric dams have been in existence for many years; they produced the power we used to develop this nation and most of the civilized world. They continue to operate efficiently and economically. Hydroelectric dams also produce some collateral benefits to human beings such as flood control in seasonally destructive, dangerous rivers and create lake formations for human recreation, irrigation sources and subterranean rehydration of water strata.

Dam removal would be a huge mistake. Stop the fish "worshiping" and get practical.

Related Pages:
Fish Haven't Been Fighting Structures for 60 Years by Gordon Macdougall, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 6/9/5