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Commentaries and editorials

Dams are Not the Problem

by Jeff Sayre
Idaho Mountain Express, November 24, 2021

Mother Nature is in charge. Mother Nature runs it all. She runs the entire earth.

Graphic: River water temperatures at the confluence of the Columbia River and the Snake River, from EPA's Cold Water Refuge Plan. On Nov. 3 the Idaho Mountain Express ran a letter about lower Snake River water temperature's being high the last 20 years 64% of the time.

Hogwash.

Here is what they were before Ice Harbor was opened in 1964. The U.S. Corps of Army Engineers did a study from 1952-57 at Sacajawea, Washington. From July 5-16, those years without any Snake dams, it hit 68 F. The highest was 79 F on Sept. 19, 1956, 76 F on Sept. 24, 1957. It was 71-74 F the other years in late August and into September. Why is that? Obviously it's not the dams? To blame them now is pure hogwash.

Mother Nature is in charge. Mother Nature runs it all. She runs the entire earth.

Figure it out. The most modern and four newest dams in the Pacific Northwest and America are the problem? No. Wrong. Why just the lower Snake dams? What's the real matter? Something else is at work here with nature. It's all upside down. Why? People? Pollution? Overfishing? Predation?

Ocean conditions worldwide are a mess. Pharmaceuticals not removed by water treatment plants? It's the most complex natural resource issue in America today. So much at stake. So many people with differing opinions on what the matter is here. Who is right? Who is wrong? It matters to all of Idaho for sure.

Salmon are very resilient. Are we as human beings to figure it out? To help solve the matter and help salmonids? A federal judge is not a biologist, nor a hydrologist or a dam operator. Facts matter. Why are they not returning? It's not the dams on the Snake. Let's figure it out. Together.

Related Pages:
Dams and Fish are Possible If We're Willing to Talk It Out by Jeff Sayre, Lewiston Tribune, 10/6/19
Can't We Seek Common Ground on Dam/Fish Divide? by Jeff Sayre, Lewiston Tribune, 9/15/19
Puget Sound's Orcas are Dying from Pollution, Not Dams by Jeff Sayre, Lewiston Tribune, 2/3/19


Jeff Sayre of Lewiston served as regional director to former U.S. Sen. Larry Craig.
and Grain Origination & Marketing Camas Prairie, Craigmont, ID at CHS Primeland (208) 743-8551
Dams are Not the Problem
Idaho Mountain Express, November 24, 2021

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