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How Will Dam Removal Solve Pre-Existing Problems? by Gene Spangrude Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, November 7, 2021

"Listen to diverse viewpoints with open minds to recover salmon
and potentially breach the four Lower Snake River dams"
-- Sen. Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee

A new process to look at lower Snake River dams appears to be ramping up in late 2021, with Sen. Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee saying they will "listen to diverse viewpoints with open minds to recover salmon and potentially breach the four Lower Snake River dams," according to Northwest News Network's Courtney Flatt.

Hopefully this new process will include an open-minded consideration of federal reports dating from the 1870's about declining salmon numbers and also 1950s water temperature data collected on the lower Snake River.

One document I recommend looking at is "Salmon and Steelhead Abundance in the Columbia River in the Nineteenth Century" by D. Chapman published in Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.

In addition, annual reports published by the United States Geological Survey containing lower Snake River daily water temperatures from the 1950s are available as well.

One question I think deserves an open-minded discussion: How will the removal of the four lower Snake River dams solve problems which were clearly documented to exist prior to their construction?

The specific problems of interest are declining salmon numbers and water temperatures exceeding 68 degrees F.

Related Sites:
EPA Columbia and Lower Snake River Temperature TMDL John Palmer, Envrionmental Protection Agency, October 5, 2021

(bluefish notes: Temperature standards are currently met at Lower Granite dam by releasing cold water at the depths of Dworshak dam. This may have its own set of unintended consequences, that Murray and Inslee should also be considering. However, this cooling of the uppermost Lower Snake Reservoir does not pass further downstream because it does not mix as it would with a free flowing river.)