the film forum library tutorial contact

Dams and Salmon Can Coexist by Jeff Van Pevenage Spokesman-Review, June 26, 2023

Maintaining operations of the Snake River Dams provides the safest,
most carbon friendly means of achieving the Biden's goals on climate change.

The debate over the lower Snake River dams' removal along Washington's Columbia River system has gone on for decades. In 2021, Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson announced a $34 billion plan for dam removal in an attempt to restore "healthy and abundant" salmon and steelhead populations throughout the Columbia Basin.

Recently, President Biden announced that he endorsed tearing down the four hydropower dams, which conflicts with scientific assessments from the federal government. Ripping out one of our nation's key green energy sources over unsubstantiated eco concerns is a significant waste of tens of billions of dollars considering the minor impact such a project will have on restoring fish populations.

Maintaining operations of the Snake River Dams provides the safest, most carbon friendly means of achieving the Biden administration's goals on climate change.

The recommendation from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on the matter shifts from year to year. In 2008 and 2014, NOAA produced biological opinions that stated breaching the four lower Snake River dams was not a necessary action for salmon recovery. And according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who runs the dams, last year the Bonneville Lock & Dam saw the best sockeye return on record and it was the second highest return for sockeye to the Lower Granite dam since 1962.

I've worked at Columbia Grain International (CGI), a distributor of bulk grains, pulses, edible beans, oilseeds and organics for both the U.S. domestic and worldwide export markets for more than 30 years, and I witness daily just how integral these dams are to agriculture, flood control, navigation, irrigation, and recreation in Washington and throughout the U.S. We work with thousands of farmers across the northern tier of the United States and we depend on the Snake River to fulfill our mission of nourishing the world, safely.

(bluefish corrects: the four Lower Snake River dams do NOT provide flood control benefits. These are run-of-river projects with little storage capacity. On the contrary, flood risks have increased for Lewiston/Clarkston, and USACE has investigated raising the levees that protect these communities.)

The removal of this river route will force a massive shift to land-based infrastructure for shipping, placing further stress on an already strained supply chain and will cause food prices to go up despite record-high inflation.

According to a study conducted by the FCS Group, beaching the lower Snake River Dams will require at least 201 additional unit trains and 23.8 million miles in additional trucking activity annually.

(bluefish corrects: The FCS Group report makes no mention of trains or trucking.)

Though the breaching of the lower Snake River dams has been framed as a conservation solution, shifting infrastructure from barge to rail and truck will also increase carbon and other emissions by over 1,251,000 tons per year. In short, removing the dams will reduce U.S. farmers competition against foreign markets, lower producer prices, and significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions to transport the same amount of grain to market. Dam breaching will also put more than a 1,100 farms at risk of bankruptcy. That is a lose, lose, lose proposition that affects our capacity to feed the world.

Additionally, breaching the dams will remove a reliable source of renewable energy. The infrastructure of the Snake River Dams provides clean, renewable, safe, and affordable energy to homes and businesses and scientific research says that we should continue to use them. The dams are part of a system that provides 90% of the renewable power generated in the Northwest.

(bluefish points: This is another example of conflation, common among dam supporters. The four Lower Snake River dams produce 4% of the Northwest region's electricity, and much of that power is exported daily to California when prices there bring profit to Northwest ratepayers.)

What will it take in terms of money, emissions and jobs to rebuild our well-established system of feeding the world? Hydroelectric dams, navigation locks, and salmon can and do co-exist, dam breaching on the other hand is a simplistic and extreme concept that does not fully address the problem.

Thanks to these dams, the Columbia Snake River System is able to act as a low emission superhighway, providing sustainable and efficient transport of our farmers' crops for export around the world. Breaching the dams would have a devastating impact on national and global food supply chains, affecting the farmers as well as all who benefit from the nourishing grain and pulse crops they provide.

Related Sites:
LSR Barge to Rail Analysis and Proposal for Resilience, Solutionary Rail

Related Pages:
Railroads Trumpet Trains Over Trucks in Climate Pitch by Valerie Yurk, E&E News, 3/2/21
Barging Grain on the Lower Snake River: It's Time for Plan B by Linwood Laughy,Spokesman-Review, 3/17/23
Ag Shippers Hope Surface Transportation Board Efforts will Improve Rail Performance by Matthew Weaver, Capital Press, 5/12/22
Surface Transportation Board Tells Railroads to Provide Recovery Plans by Matthew Weaver, Capital Press, 5/6/22
Farmers Celebrate $5.6 Million Grant to Rehab Rail by Matthew Weaver, Capital Press, 5/28/19