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Salmon and Steelhead Extinction by Harvey Morrison Spokesman-Review, April 24, 2022

These dams are obsolete relics of the cold war and 20th-century pork-barrel politics.

Seventy years ago, Washington’s two senators convinced a reluctant Congress and presidential opposition to fund the construction of the four lower Snake River dams. Their justification was not only to bring the prosperity of a seaport in Lewiston, but, more urgently, the cold war need for hydropower to fuel Hanford and the aluminum industry.

Today, those justifications have proven to be empty and regrettable promises. Conditions have changed:

• Renewable power and conservation are replacing hydropower.

• Hanford is a mothballed, toxic mess.

• The NW aluminum industry is gone.

• Lewiston is less prosperous than it was in the 1960s.

• Climate change is impacting every aspect of our lives.

• Treaty obligations are in jeopardy of being violated.

• Snake River salmon and steelhead are near extinction.

We need our current Senators Murray and Cantwell to provide leadership and correct these mistakes on the Snake. It may not be easy, but there are viable options to replace whatever marginal benefits the dams may provide.

On April 26, Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited, will be speaking at Gonzaga University on the urgency to prevent the extinction of the salmon and the alternatives for the marginal power, transportation and irrigation that the dams provide. Register for the event at: spokanefallstu.org/snake.

For the salmon and steelhead there are no alternatives. The fish need a living, flowing river.