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Commentaries and editorials

Don't 'Tear Out' Dams
-- Breach Them

by Julian Matthews
The Chronicle, April 1, 2022

Little Goose Dam on the Lower Snake River dam. I read the article on the Lower Snake River dams published on chronline.com. The author said there is growing support to "tear them out."

It is fairly humorous since what I thought is we'd have to get the "Incredible Hulk" to come and "tear them out" I guess if he could. A more accurate portrayal of the issues is that many tribes, individuals and citizens of the Pacific Northwest support the "breaching" of the Four Lower Snake River Dams.

If readers look into the issue you can see that these four Lower Snake River Dams were designed with half of them earthen and half concrete, which is where the term "breaching" is applied. They were designed to be breached, which is why the earthen part exists or they would have been all concrete all across the dam.

This is in contrast to the dams on the Columbia or other areas that are all concrete and do not have the "earthen" part that can be removed to allow the rivers to flow freely and allow for the natural migration of salmon and other species up to the headwaters where they can spawn naturally and not in hatcheries.

By the way -- hatcheries up this way are a total failure and waste of money.


Julian Matthews, Pullman
Don't 'Tear Out' Dams -- Breach Them
The Chronicle, April 1, 2022

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