Consider: in spite of the many obstacles in their path—from natural hazards like sea lions to man-made barriers like dams—salmon still spawn in the fresh waters of Idaho in the vast tributary system of the Snake River. the snake river dams are vital to are farmers well being and supple electricity to the tri-citys. So the question is what are people willing to pay to increase the odds of recovery of endangered salmon even if they don’t eat or fish for them? When Congress revamped the management of the Columbia River hydrosystem in 1980, the, Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act, enshrined into law salmon’s importance to the region with a purpose statement that includes: “to protect, mitigate and enhance the fish and wildlife, including related spawning grounds and habitat, of the Columbia River and its tributaries, particularly anadromous fish which are of significant importance to the social and economic well-being of the Pacific Northwest and the Nation.”, Since the Act’s passage in 1980, Bonneville has spent $16.4 billion on its. The Northwest Power and Conservation Council told the In 2017, the returns of adult Chinook and Sockeye salmon were well below their 10-year average and a fraction of their historic levels. But even if you toss out the challenged survey and use the other two study results and you also assume that only Northwest households care about the fate of salmon, then the intrinsic benefits of aiding wild salmon recovery still exceed the costs of taking out the dams. Online at washingtonpolicy.org. push to destroy the dams, which is not simply misguided — it is irresponsible. The Kellen post certainly substantiates he/she has done any fact finding on the 4 dams and their production of electricity. But funds don’t move easily across jurisdictions, watersheds, and national boundaries. Facts about Lower Snake Dam Removal Click on the link for news, letters of record, archives, reports, documents, videos, presentations, and how to help. In this May 15, 2019, file photo, the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River is seen from the air near Colfax, Washington. in the state combined. The Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake River. first off read where salmon come from .there a ocean fish that moves up to fresh water and adaps. of the ECONorthwest study found fault with the wording of one question in the survey sponsored by the Save Our Wild Salmon advocacy group and the application of willingness to pay research to households in California, arguing that people in San Diego don’t care about wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest. Despite The Clearwater was closed to steelhead fishing in the fall of 2019 due to poor returns, and returning adult salmon and steelhead numbers in the whole Columbia River Basin were some of the lowest on record. ECONW applied this range of values to a population of West Coast states plus Idaho and Montana and came up with a figure of $11 billion for the value today of helping the salmon on the Snake River. But the Corps has not kept up with the times. When Congress revamped the management of the Columbia River hydrosystem in 1980, the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act enshrined into law salmon’s importance to the region with a purpose statement that includes: “to protect, mitigate and enhance the fish and wildlife, including related spawning grounds and habitat, of the Columbia River and its tributaries, particularly anadromous fish which are of significant importance to the social and economic well-being of the Pacific Northwest and the Nation.”. Regards, Tony Jones, Rocky Mountain Econometrics, I think the removal of those Dams is is not the answer to saving the fish the reason why why are fish are not returning is because the sea loins are eating them and the seals and not only that when you put nets in the rivers and and string them all the way across the river it’s pretty hard for them to get up the River that’s why we don’t have the fish like we use to those ones that get to net rivers know who I am talking about. The outcome of the EIS will affect some of the West’s most historic steelhead rivers, including Snake River tributaries like the Grande Ronde River in Oregon and the Clearwater River in Idaho. A federal judge ordered Bonneville to make a plan to address declining salmon populations in the Columbia River system and to include removal of the Snake River dams as one measure for consideration. Again, scientists disagree. For many Northwesterners, salmon are the needle and thread that bind their place together: ocean and coast, rain forest valleys and grassy plains, swift streams and snowy mountains. Overview of Impacts Anticipated in the Event of Removal of Snake River Dams By Wanda Keefer, Manager, Port of Clarkston October 7, 2019; updated 10-28-19 CUMULATIVE EFFECT FOR THIS REGION: While the cumulative effect analysis of an EIS typically puts together all impacts and looks forward into the future for the entire project, we No, that does not come across as an overly “scientific” basis for my conclusion. If non-US people count, the number would go higher still. important watersheds for Puget Sound orca, ranking the Snake River ninth Since the early 1990s, have endorsed a set of analytic tools for determining the economic value of natural features when market prices don’t exist. dams would be more than $1 billion — equal to more than 11 years of state salmon marginal change in the total salmon available to the killer whales.”. Under court order, the US Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) will issue an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in 2020 and the Bonneville Power Administration (Bonneville) will make a decision on whether to remove Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite dams as part of a systemwide review of the operations of the Columbia River hydro system. are “very close to achieving, or have already achieved, the juvenile dam passage dams now cause higher mortality than would arise in a free-flowing river” on Legislature last year that the region faces an energy shortage in upcoming Make a donation to Sightline now. Salmon, most Northwesterners believe, are more than just fish. who is pushing to destroy the dams, where that money would come from. © 2019 Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business – All Rights Reserved. For the endangered salmon in the Snake River, these programs cost $72 million in 2016. fact, NOAA fisheries and other scientists argue salmon may not be helped by Courts, states, and US federal agencies like the Bureau of Reclamation have used these techniques to assess changes in non-use values including for the environmental assessments of removing of the Klamath River dams in 2012. If removing all of the dams is the “unspoken goal,” it is so “unspoken” that I, an employee of an NGO dedicated to preserving rivers, have never heard of anyone seriously proposing it. How about eliminating electricity generation equivalent to every solar panel and wind turbine in Washington state? Find this article interesting? We work to promote smart policy ideas and monitor the region's progress towards sustainability. Dams’ Hydropower Is No Longer Particularly Cheap. Columbia river salmon that face all the same ocean conditions, but only 3 or 4 Columbia River dams, such as those that spawn in the John Day, are doing much better than those that return to Idaho, even though Idaho’s habitat appears to be better and vastly more money has been spent on the LSRD. Numerous scientific studies published in 2019 and 2020 point to changing ocean conditions caused by … the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife prioritized the most (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, file) Oregon governor calls for tearing out Snake River dams News > WA Government Snake River dam differences run deep, study finds. This cycle of life is perhaps Cascadia’s defining cultural story and allegory, reflected in Native mythology, enacted in seasonal fisheries and feasts, immortalized in the region’s literature and art, and taught to school children across the region. Sign-up for our e-newsletter filled with featured stories and latest news. 7 percent of Washington’s electricity generation, more than all wind and solar The same critic claimed the study would “steer.. money away from projects that would meaningfully improve salmon habitat and populations.” ECONW was not tasked with ranking the cost-effectiveness of every potential protection and recovery measure in all the salmon ecosystems in the Pacific basin. There are many impacts from the dams that don’t show up in “the numbers”, loss of spawning habitat, predators in the reservoirs, loss of flow to facilitate down stream travel for smolts to name a few. In this May 15, 2019 photo, the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River is seen from the air near Colfax, Washington Gov. By carefully tabulating costs and benefits for all the aspects of the dam dilemma that are easily monetized—forgone electricity production, the costs of breaching the dams, the costs of new diversions for irrigation—ECONW finds the dams are better left in place. Jay Inslee signed the state's operating budget Tuesday, May 21, 2019 … https://www.critfc.org/full-dam-counts/?fish=chin_adult&dam=LGR, Kellen, the rationale for removing the dams on the Lower Snake River is not only to improve the return rates of adult salmon but also to increase the amount of spawning habitat for adult salmon and to reduce the mortality of juveniles headed downstream. Removal of all dams on Columbia and Snake is the unspoken goal. There are many tributaries between Bonneville and the Snake, and many beyond that have Chinook returns, most of those fish are going elsewhere. allies. spending scarce resources on the dams would mean other salmon-recovery projects The Legislature provided funding to the governor’s office in the 2019-21 operating budget to conduct a stakeholder process to understand the views of Washingtonians on breaching and removing, or retaining, the lower Snake River dams. Myth 9: Lower Snake River dam removal will cause an increase in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers who are not willing to reveal their sources, their data, and their methodology don’t deserve to have any credibility attached to their reports. Todd Myers is a member of the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Council and environmental director for the Washington Policy Center, which has offices in the Tri-Cities, Spokane, Seattle and Olympia. But even if you toss out the challenged survey and use the other two study results and you also assume that only Northwest households care about the fate of salmon, then the intrinsic benefits of aiding wild salmon recovery. In this four-part series, I break down the key findings from the ECONW report so those with an open mind can consider how breaching the dams could affect fish, carbon-free electricity, agriculture, and jobs. US Reps. Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-Spokane) and Dan Newhouse (R-Yakima) stoked east-west divisions, labeling the report “another example of Seattle-based interests seeking to disrupt our way of life in Central and Eastern Washington.” The Tri-City Herald’s verdict on the highly researched, lengthy technical report was that it “belongs in the trash.”. of removing of the Klamath River dams in 2012. They were openly pro-dam removal, booing some of their own congressional reps when their images came up on screen. You can check my fish count statistics in the links below. Has anyone proposed removing a 200+ ft section of the dams earthen portion on a trial basis (say 10 yrs) to see how the fish respond? for conducting studies like the one underway for the Columbia River system counts the “use-values” of salmon as a source of recreation or food but ignores the “non-use-values” or intrinsic value of salmon as a viable species. UPDATED: Fri., Dec. 20, 2019. A July 2019 report by a Portland-based economics firm indicates that removing dams on the Snake River in Eastern Washington would have huge financial benefits as well. ECONW evaluated three prior studies on people’s willingness to pay to improve the odds for salmon survival and found that survey research indicates people were willing to pay, on average, between $34 and $46 per household per year to “reduce extinction risk,” “recover,” or “protect” wild salmon. right. You can power us forward on sustainable solutions. By leaving out the largest category of benefits of breaching, the Corps’s study will almost certainly conclude that the dams should remain. Their fertilized eggs grow into fry that travel hundreds of miles down the Snake River through the Columbia and into the Pacific Ocean. However, as a statistician, I have learned to not ignore simple correlations that provide reliable results. On their way, some are eaten by marine mammals, including the endangered orcas. After decades of court battles and grassroots action by river advocates, 700 pounds of dynamite blew Washington State’s Condit Dam to smithereens. But the dams are also … the Snake. recovery funding. Don C. Brunell is a business analyst, writer and columnist. By Jacques Leslie • October 10, 2019. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Originally published on … Inslee’s office releases draft report on breaching Lower Snake River dams Dec. 20, 2019 at 10:57 am Updated Dec. 20, 2019 at 5:13 pm Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River May 29, 2019. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers takes another jab at a study of the Snake River dams supported by Gov. The Chelan County PUD officially opposes removal of lower Snake River Dams. They also submerged 63 rapids big enough to have earned themselves names and increased the mortality of salmon smolts heading downstream and adults returning upstream to spawn. In July, the economic consulting firm ECONorthwest (ECONW), funded by the philanthropic arm of the late Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc. on the benefits and costs of restoring the river. Support more research like this with a year-end gift! Human and non-human predators, climate change, and other dams challenge salmon recovery too. This is nonsense and contradicted by their own During this year’s legislative session, state lawmakers approved $750,000 in the 2019-21 budget for a stakeholder process to continue ongoing discussions over whether the four lower Snake River dams should be breached to aid salmon and killer whale recovery. Large public enterprises including Bonneville and the Corps would change how they do business. Myth 9: Lower Snake River dam removal will cause an increase in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Below we present facts from fisheries scientists This is a familiar Sat., Oct. 26, 2019. By Simone Del. These changes would likely increase the populations of endangered fish and reduce the risk of extinction. For me the easiest metric is this. Q13 FOX. To find more articles on Sustainable Living. Reality: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found that the removal of the four lower Snake River dams would actually decrease total air emissions … Since the Act’s passage in 1980, Bonneville has spent $16.4 billion on its fish and wildlife program, including $450 million in 2017 for measures including barging juvenile fish around dams, spilling water over the dams to help salmon make the trip downriver, and capital improvements to steer fish away from the dams’ turbines. But the Corps has not kept up with the times. “Despite billions of dollars spent on these efforts, the listed species continue to be in a perilous state,” Simon wrote. We can’t go out of the kind of the scope of our charge.”. The agency’s. And yet for all this spending, salmon runs continue to decline. killer whales in Puget Sound. would go unfunded. FILE - In this Oct. 19, 2016 file photo, a man fishes for salmon in the Snake River … Many people (including some Sightline readers) who care about fish and climate don’t know what to think about the dams. In spite of Vulcan’s reputation for funding unbiased scientific inquiry, the reaction to the study by the dams’ proponents was furious. A 2017 study by the Fish Passage Center, a nonpartisan, government-funded Columbia Basin research group, found that removal of the four Snake River dams would result in a two- to three-fold increase in salmon abundance in the Snake River Basin, even though the fish would still have to negotiate four more dams downstream, on the Columbia River. Tucked into Washington’s $52.4 billion operating budget passed Sunday night by the Legislature is controversial funding for a “stakeholder group” tasked with looking into what would happen should the four Lower Snake River dams be removed or altered. One of the most important lessons gleaned so far is that rivers bounce back quickly. Courts, states, and US federal agencies like the Bureau of Reclamation have used these techniques to assess changes in non-use values including for the. You should be embarrassed! Since the early 1990s, leading economists have endorsed a set of analytic tools for determining the economic value of natural features when market prices don’t exist. We cannot know for certain that salmon will recover, given other stressors. pushing policies that would increase air pollution, raise electricity rates and The report is clear about its sources and methods. But the Corps, which operates the dams, determined. magically find the money. natural gas. Support more research like this with a year-end gift! 22,000+ citizens place a full page ad in Seattle Times informing Gov. divert money from effective salmon recovery. We asked University of Washington scientist Deborah Giles, for The Nature Conservancy, analyzed the impact of the Snake River dams while Should non-use values extend to households beyond the five-state region to the nationwide US population, the values would be approximately 6.5 times larger. migrants.” Destroying the dams would increase the survival rate by, at best, a She survival objective of 96 percent for yearling Chinook salmon and steelhead If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. orca, not destroying the dams. Published October 24, 2019. ... 2019, 2:33pm PDT. Essentially, I’ve check with Adam Domanski at ECONorthwest, asking if they had any additional information they could share (methodology, cost data, etc. Inslee got his appropriation of $750,000 for stakeholder input on Snake River dam removal, our money should be directed on how to improve, not remove, those dams. those arguing we need to destroy the Snake River dams suggest we do both. 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