PNWA writes President Obama on salmon
 
PNWA wrote President Obama urging him to support the salmon BiOp and the Judge Redden-supervised collaboration rather than order a new salmon summit. We also described why dam breaching is not necessary. The text of the letter is provided at the end of this article.
 
The PNWA letter was prompted by a major political campaign by dam breach advocates urging the President to convene a new salmon summit and include breaching the four lower Snake River dams in a recovery plan. 
 
House letter.  Seventy-two members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent President Obama a letter March 27 asking him to consider breaching the four Snake River dams. 70 of the 72 signers are from outside the Pacific Northwest. Thirteen runs of fish in the Columbia Basin are listed under the ESA. Only four pass the Snake River dams. Removal of these dams will do nothing for the majority of the region's listed fish. We don't believe breaching will help the Snake River runs either.
 
Outdoor business letter.  A group of 100 outdoor and fishing businesses sent a similar letter on February 25. They said, "Science has shown again and again that any viable salmon recovery effort must include the removal of four dams on the lower Snake River. For the past eight years, however, federal agencies have attempted to circumvent this scientific consensus by failing to even consider dam removal." There is no consensus on breaching dams. Major federal studies, including the Columbia River System Operations EIS rejected dam breaching. In the years since that study, both juvenile fish survival and adult returns have increased dramatically, making breaching even less beneficial. Dam breaching is not the answer.
 
Endangered river listing.  American Rivers recently named the Snake River as the nation's third most endangered river. The Snake hasn't been on their list for years. In an interview that aired April 7 on Oregon Public Broadcasting, Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers, said the most endangered rivers list is not a scientific one, "The word 'endangered' here doesn't necessarily have the same meaning as 'endangered' species does. What we mean is that it's a river that is in danger. There is an immediate decision that's going to be made, either for the better or for the worse." It is a designation designed to accomplish political goals rather than biological goals.
 
Doomsday clock.  Several news stories, web pages and blogs have recently stated that the salmon will all die by 2017. That statement came from a study conducted by a dam breach advocate in the 1990s. It said that "if nothing is done" the salmon will go extinct by 2017. It is a snappy quote, but it does not apply today. Much has been done. Since that study was released, spillway weirs and other improvements have been installed at the dams. Historic Tribal and state Fish Accords have been put into action to protect thousands of miles of tributary habitat. Adult returns have been at record levels since 2000.
 
Campaign funds.  A new PAC, the Snake River Salmon Society, has been formed that will contribute campaign money to candidates who support dam breaching. We believe that our elected officials will make decisions based on what is good for fish and what is good for the region. They will not be swayed by this PAC.
 
Fish survival.  Dam breach advocates say that as many as 90 percent of the juvenile salmon die at the dams. That may have been true for three years back in the 1970s when the region experienced its lowest recorded flows ever and before fish passage improvements were implemented. Today, fish passage survival is between 94 and 98 percent at each dam. System survival is higher today than it was before the last four dams were built. Taking dams out will not help.
 
Carbon-free energy.  Finally, Bright Future, a recently released report by the NW Energy Coalition with support from several dam breach advocate groups, claims we can meet future energy needs and reduce carbon emissions by removing the four Snake River dams. They ignore the work of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, BPA, and the regional Integrated Resource Plans prepared by Northwest electric utilities that forecast increasing demand, a limit to conservation benefits and the need for a robust hydropower system to meet peak demand as the region increases wind and solar generation. It makes no sense to take out nearly 3,500 megawatts of carbon-free and emission-free peaking power that will be needed to meet demand and integrate alternative energy into the region's energy system.
 
Navigation benefits.  Dam breach advocates say that barge cargo can easily move to other modes. First, that is not true. Rail is not available at many river and country grain elevators. Trucking is prohibitively expensive for many of the region's shippers. Studies have shown that a billion dollars of investment would be needed to accommodate a shift from navigation to rail or truck. Second, shifting from barge to other modes is not good for the environment. Navigation is the lowest cost, most fuel efficient and least polluting mode of transportation. A federally-sponsored study showed that barging can move each ton of cargo 576 miles on one gallon of fuel. That is 40 percent better than rail and 270 percent better than trucking.
 
PNWA letter to President Obama:
 
April 7, 2009
 
President Barack H. Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 205100
 
Dear President Obama,
 
Recently, you were sent letters by Members of the U.S. House of Representatives as well as outdoor sporting goods manufacturers. They urge you to convene another summit to address Pacific Northwest salmon recovery, and specifically request you to consider partial removal of four dams on the lower Snake River.
 
Their proposed actions are not necessary.  This very conversation has already been underway for three years.  Judge James Redden has been supervising a collaboration of Federal Agencies, Northwest States and Native American Tribes as a part of the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) Biological Opinion (BiOp) lawsuit.  And this collaboration will continue to happen even after the BiOp is resolved, with annual review, plus five- and eight-year evaluations to assess the success or failure of mitigation actions.
 
We respectfully appeal to you and your staff that you 1) allow the current regional collaboration to continue, and 2) do not order a summit that would be divisive at a time when groundbreaking strides are being made for the fish.
 
The collaboration overseen by Judge Redden is composed of parties that have long been at odds over salmon: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration, and Bureau of Reclamation; the states of Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington; and seven Northwest Native American tribes. 
 
This collaboration has borne fruit, as evidenced by historic Columbia Basin Fish Accords signed by six tribes and the federal agencies last fall.  Years of divisiveness over salmon recovery efforts in the Columbia River Basin ended when the tribes and federal agencies signed unprecedented agreements designed to deliver specific, scientifically-valid biological benefits for the region's fish.  

In addition to the tribal accords, three of the four states have reached agreements with the federal agencies.  Montana's and Idaho's have been signed; Washington's is currently in the public review stage.

The court-supervised collaboration is designed to continue bearing fruit even after the BiOp case has been resolved.  Groups that have previously fought each other in court now have made commitments to work together over the next ten years.
 
Once the current court case is resolved, the salmon recovery effort will be where it belongs: out of the courthouse and debate halls and in the field where on-the-ground habitat and fish passage projects can actually help the salmon we all cherish.
 
Breaching the four Lower Snake River dams has been debated for many years and studied numerous times.  The answers have been conclusive every time: dam breaching is not the answer.  This has been reinforced over the last ten years as the news has only gotten better since those studies were completed:

• Juvenile fish survival through the river system has increased significantly and is now higher than before the last four dams were built, and
• Adult fish returns have increased dramatically, with the highest returns since the first dam was built in 1938.