the film forum library tutorial contact

Don't Sacrifice Salmon While Pursuing Power by Mike Carlson Letter to Editor, Seattle Times - December 17, 2002

After reading the editorial ("More power and fish?" Dec. 13) about the Northwest Power Planning Council and its current attempts to subtly subvert the salmon-recovery process, I feel it's important to speak out.

The process has been carefully planned through years of hard-fought negotiation at all levels of civic and political life. Now, this organization that supposedly treads a line between what's good for fish and what's good for energy production is chipping away at all that hard work in favor of a small increase in regional energy production with an unknown and irresponsible impact on salmon.

They claim that current research is uncertain, but their plan is equally, if not more, uncertain in its suggestion that the same populations of salmon can be sustained with less water.

It is up to the planning council to prove this won't impact salmon before they are allowed to proceed with such a foolhardy approach. The projected 3.5-percent increase in annual electricity production could just as easily be achieved through solar and/or wind-power technology.