I’ve stopped writing much about the Snake River dams as there are so many other good sources of information regarding them. Of course, science and the courts have been clear for decades that the dams will cause anadromous fish in the Snake River Basin to be extirpated and no longer provide any real economic benefit. Politicians, agencies like the Bureau of Reclamation, the uniformed, and those who profit from the dams simply ignore the truth. Today, the Bulletin ran a good column on the topic from local resident and aquatic ecologist Dr. Jerry Freilich. Last Friday the Association of NW Steelheaders sent out their February Newsletter with a great article on the topic that addresses the half truths and lies being said by so many. I’ve reproduced that article below, it’s worth a quick read.

Steelheaders’ Oldest Campaign is in Transition

Long before just about any of us had joined the Steelheaders (back in 1970) Steelheaders sued the US government, attempting to prevent the Lower Granite dam on the Snake River.  Even back then the science was clear that the Snake River dams would put steelhead and salmon on the path to extinction. We have been a leader in the Save Our wild Salmon coalition since it started.

Coalition partners have supported the decades old Columbia BiOp Litigation that forced Bonneville Power Administration to spill and other action in support of fish survival.  But the court could not force BPA to remove the dams.  That requires congressional action and funding.

Thanks to a litigation “stay” agreement by the sovereign (Oregon & Washington state governments and tribe’s vs the Federal Government) the effort is changing from supporting the litigation to asking our federal legislators to support funding to help replace dam services and dam breaching.  That’s where all of us come in and why we all need to know the facts about the Snake River Dams – particularly with all the false statements made by dam proponents.

“We will suffer power shortages without these dams.” False – These dams are run of the river, producing most of their power in the spring when the Northwest has its lowest power demand.

“These dams provide flood control.” False – “Run of the river” means they were designed without holding capacity.  They are incapable of being used to control flooding.

“Power would need to be replaced with coal or petroleum powered generators.” False – The study done by Washington State proves the power can be replaced with renewable generation.

“Family Farms would lose irrigation water.” False – Almost all the irrigation from the river goes to 9 corporate farms pumping up to 300 feet from the reservoir.  They will just need to draw from another 100 ft using much of the existing facilities.

“Barging is needed for wheat farms to be competitive.” False – Barging of grain has declined continuously being replaced by rail.  Rail is actually much cheaper than barging if you remove the tax payer subsidy of over $40K per barge through the Lower Granite Dam.  That’s not a typo.  You are subsidizing each barge with over $40,000 of your tax money!

Coalition partner, Idaho Wildlife Federation put together a great presentation of the facts showing why all of us should support breaching the lower Snake River dams to save our salmon and steelhead.  We thank their Executive Director, Brian Brooks for providing this. See it at Free the Snake.