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Joining the Wrong Side by Marty Trillhaase, Editorial Post Register, October 18, 2006

Take your pick: Who won Thursday's gubernatorial debate between Republican Butch Otter and Democrat Jerry Brady? It's clear who lost -- Idaho's salmon, eastern Idaho irrigators, electric ratepayers and taxpayers.

Speaking in Lewiston, both candidates ruled out breaching four dams on the Lower Snake River in eastern Washington state.

That's not new for Otter. But Brady, as publisher of this newspaper, presided over an editorial policy supporting dam breaching as a way to restore imperiled salmon runs.

Thursday, Brady was firm: "I'm not going to take out dams."

Is this a flip-flop on Brady's part? Otter says it is. Brady says a newspaper editor can be provocative. A governor must be practical.

You decide.

But what's disappointing is how Brady has now joined Otter on the wrong side. Here are the realities:

• Fish numbers are down from 40,000 spring and summer Chinook five years ago to 10,000 today.
• Eastern Idaho irrigators now provide about 427,000 acre-feet of water to help flush young salmon to the sea. Dworshak Reservoir provides another 1.5 million acre-feet. But some think it isn't enough.
• Bonneville Power Administration ratepayers and taxpayers have wasted $8 billion in fish recovery during the last 25 years. Another $6 billion will be spent in the next decade.
• The Snake River is a desert river, which limits how much hydro power is produced by its dams. By one estimate, the four dams together produce about one-sixth the power generated by Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River during the winter.

Politically, it's dicey for any candidate to tell Lewiston voters he'd consider breaching the dams and shutting down their seaport. The last guy to do it was Democratic gubernatorial candidate Robert Huntley in 1998 -- and he got trounced by Republican Dirk Kempthorne. What you look for is flexibility. For instance, Democratic congressional challenger Jim Hansen is willing to keep options on the table. A spokesman for Rep. Mike Simpson says he hasn't ruled anything out.

So why not ask:

• What are the costs and benefits of maintaining these dams?
• Are the fish worth breaching the dams?
• Are the dams worth losing the fish?
• How much would it cost to replace the power generated by those dams?
• How badly would the loss of its seaport injure Lewiston's economy?
• And is that regional interest worth demanding economic and environmental sacrifices from the rest of us?

Otherwise, Idaho and the region remain adrift. And if someone like Brady won't lead, that's where we'll remain.