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Snake River Dam Resolution Called Unfair Environmental News Network - July 26, 1999

A resolution passed July 21 by the House Resources Committee encourages the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to end consideration of dam removal on the Snake River as a way to save endangered salmon. Organizations that endorse removing the four lower Snake River dams to save salmon say the resolution is unfair.

House members who oppose removing the dams prepared the resolution.

"If you don't look at all the options you're totally biasing the process. Why is anyone afraid of this option?" said Scott Bell, program coordinator of conservation and public policy for the American Canoe Association. "I don't even know of a dam study where they don't consider it as an option."

The resolution is non-binding, meaning the Army Corp of Engineers is not required to end consideration of dam removal. Federal and independent studies have shown that removing four dams on the lower Snake River in Washington state is the best option for saving Snake River salmon. The dams are Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite.

"Dams are obviously an obstruction to free flowing water. You have to pick up your boat and carry it around the dam. There are people who would like to take multi-day trips down the Snake to the ocean and they're prohibited from doing that," said Bell. "Rivers tend to be better off when they are allowed to operate naturally than in man-made form."

"We should let the people of the Northwest decide the fate of Snake River salmon," said Scott Faber, a spokesman for American Rivers. "This resolution is designed to take dam removal off the table before the public has a chance to weigh in. The Corps of Engineers is just about to release its five-year, $20 million study, but this resolution is trying to prejudge what should be a public decision."

A draft of the environmental impact study by the Corp is due out in October.

"We have a study under way called the Lower Snake River Study. It is looking at three options. One is essentially to do nothing, the second is to significantly improve the dams to make them more fish friendly and the third is breaching the dams," said Paul Johnston, chief of public affairs for the Corp's northwest division. "These three options are still very much on the table."

Because of federal dams operating on the Snake River, every species of salmon has been listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

"If breaching were recommended at the end (of the public comment process associated with the Lower Snake River EIS), there would still have to be money appropriated to do it and it's a long process. You just don't go down there on a Sunday afternoon and knock these dams down," said Johnston.

The resolution was offered by Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash.; and supported by Reps. George R. Nethercutt Jr., R-Wash.; Greg Walden, R.-Ore.; Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho; Michael K Simpson, R-Idaho, Don Young, R-Alaska; James V. Hansen, R-Utah; Richard W. Pombo, R-Calif.; George Radanovich, R-Calif.; Joe Skeen, R-N.M.; and John T. Doolittle, R-Calif.

They point out in the resolution that:

• About 75 percent of the Pacific Northwest's electricity used to create and maintain jobs is provided by Columbia and Snake River system dams. This energy they say is renewable and does not create air or water pollution;
• The Corps of Engineers estimates that the flood control provided by the dams on the Columbia and Snake River system prevented $4.6 billion in damages from potential floods in 1996 and 1997;
• The Columbia and Snake River system, located in the Oregon, Washington and Idaho, is an essential transportation link for United States exports of all types of products, including transporting 43 percent of all United States wheat exports in 1997;
• Replacing the power currently generated by the dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers would result in significant increases in costs to consumers and could cause significant harm to the economy of the Pacific Northwest;
• Water collected in the Columbia and Snake River system irrigates half the productive farmland in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, despite the fact that only a net 7 percent of the total flows in that system are diverted for all human uses;
• Producers who ship their products on the Columbia and Snake River system save approximately $38 million a year over land based transportation, a savings which keeps United States exports competitive on world markets;
• The Columbia and Snake River system allows large volumes of freight to be moved with negligible impact on air quality, and replacing this transportation capacity would require use of 120,000 rail cars or 700,000 trucks.

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