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What's Endangered, the Snake River or the Truth? by Gene Spangrude Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, April 21, 2021

The national interest in the Lower Snake River continues in 2021, with this river being recently identified as the "most endangered river in the United States" by the organization American Rivers.

One of the "contributing issues" is apparently elevated water temperatures, which is commonly attributed to the presence of the Lower Snake River dams.

But an "inconvenient truth" is that the Snake River's waters can be "naturally hot" far upstream of these four dams, as was illustrated in 2015, a recently experienced "hot water year."

Temperature data collected at the U.S. Geological Survey, or USGS, Weiser and Nyssa Gaging Stations easily illustrated this fact, as did data collected at the USGS Clearwater River Orofino Station.

Unfortunately water temperature data collection at the USGS Weiser and Nyssa locations was terminated late in 2015 due to "loss of funding," and the the 2015 Data at the USGS Orofino location is no longer available for viewing on the USGS website.

It appears that when the "real river data" contradicts the agenda at hand, the proper thing to do is quit collecting the offending data and also make the offending historical data previously collected unavailable to the general public.

Related Pages:
Public Statement on Historical Snake River Data Would Be Interesting by Gene Spangrude, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, 11/11/19
Fish Declines Preceded Dams by Gene Spangrude, Lewiston Tribune, 12/3/18
Truth About River Water
Temperature is Inconvenient by Gene Spangrude, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, 10/28/18
Yes, Let's Look at 'Facts' on Dams by Gene Spangrude, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, 8/13/17