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Snake River Dams by Stan Kuik Tri-City Herald, August 11, 2021

Recently (Rep.) Dan Newhouse in his weekly emails to constituents regaled us with how the Snake River spring Chinook runs have increased two years in a row, which indicates that our river management is working for salmon restoration. The Tri-City Herald parroted this in an editorial. Mathematically, you cannot infer a trend from three consecutive data points, especially when the data is highly variable, like salmon runs.

Consider that the 2021 spring run was only 56% of the 10-year average, and the fourth lowest in 10 years. This celebration is premature. In another recent email, Newhouse said that the lower Snake River dams provide access to clean water, irrigation, flood control and produce 3000 MW of electricity. These dams do not provide access to clean water (it was already there) are not designed for flood control and only average about 1,000 MW of electricity production. They have a 3,000-MW capacity but rarely produce at that level.