WASHINGTON — After a decades-long legal battle over a hydroelectric dam that helped deplete the Pacific Northwest’s salmon population, the Biden administration says the solution they’re looking for is near: removing the dam. We are extending settlement talks with the plaintiffs we want.
The federal government has been sued five times for failing to protect salmon in the Columbia River Basin and for violating longstanding treaties with the Nez Perce, Yacama and Umatilla tribes. But now, the Biden administration and others say restoring salmon populations is a matter of tribal justice and the only real solution.
Last month, the government released a report on the feasibility of removing four dams on the Lower Snake River to help salmon recover, and another on how the energy they produce could be replaced. Announced. The first report was conducted by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Released in draft formatHowever, returning salmon to acceptable levels requires drastic changes, such as removing the dams on at least one, and possibly all four, of the lower snakes and reintroducing salmon into areas completely blocked by the dams. I found it necessary.
The Biden administration did not endorse the findings, but said it was considering all information to determine long-term goals for the Columbia Basin. And earlier this month, plaintiffs in related lawsuits with the government agreed to stay the case for two years and continue working. “Durable Solution” To restore Salmon Run while accommodating the needs of the economy, energy and tribes.
Washington State Sen. Patti Murray (D-M), who has long resisted salmon recovery plans that include the removal of four dams, joined fellow Democrat Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, I commissioned another study to be published this summer. the research Removal of the four dams turned out to be the most promising approach to salmon recovery.
Murray and Inslee have yet to give an opinion on whether the hydroelectric dam should be removed, but the report points to $10.3 billion to replace the power produced by the dam and find others. concludes that $27.2 billion in spending will be required from A method of shipping grain from an area and providing irrigation water.
Murray is the most powerful Northwestern senator in Congress. But she needs the rest of the Democratic delegation to join her to support salmon recovery efforts to turn the tide. and stated that a concrete timeline would be needed.
“What is clear is that we need to support salmon recovery in all possible ways,” Murray said in a statement.
Before the dam was built, the Snake River flowed through parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming. Nothing stood in the way of getting there.
The dam was built between 1957 and 1975 and now provides energy for millions of people in the Pacific Northwest. However, Chinook salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest’s Columbia River Basin have declined.
There are a total of eight dams that salmon must pass through on their journey. Each time, he decreases their chances of survival by 10 percent, according to Mr. Tucker, his manager of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Ocean Salmon and Columbia River fisheries program.
“The Snake River dam provides only a fraction of the electricity generated by the hydroelectric system,” says Jones.
About 50,000 Chinook salmon spawned in the spring and summer before the dam was built. Their numbers have since declined dramatically, and fishermen and tribes are at risk of losing important economic, nutritional and cultural resources.
Kat Brigham, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the United Tribes on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, said all stakeholders must come together to find a long-term solution to the problem. I worked.
“Salmon recovery is critical to the survival of the entire Columbia River Basin, so we need to work together to rebuild salmon for our children’s children,” she said.
Thirteen species of salmon and steelhead trout are listed as endangered in the Columbia River Basin, which includes parts of Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, and British Columbia.
Salmon are important to river basin ecosystems and provide a food source for large animals such as bears and smaller animals such as insects. They contribute to the survival of the endangered killer whales, which depend on eating chinooks in the winter and spring.
The Snake River Dam is federally owned. They are managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which rejected tribal requests to remove the dam in 2020. Since 2001, federal courts have criticized the Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies responsible for protecting the Chinook.
In 2016, Oregon Federal Judge Michael H. Simon said: ordered the creation of a new plan revive the seed. He said previous conservation efforts by federal agencies violated laws aimed at protecting the environment, endangered species and tribal sovereignty. He noted that the Army Corps of Engineers has refused to even consider the tribe’s request to remove a dam from the lower Snake River.
Congress is likely the only agency that can remove hydroelectric dams.
The tribe and other salmon advocates have not given up the fight. They say dams can be replaced with other energy sources, including wind power.
Fifteen tribes of the Columbia River Basin signed a legally binding treaty with the United States in the mid-19th century. These treaties reserved sovereign and inherent rights, including traditional sites, the right to fish on and off reservations, and the right to protect fish on those sites.
The tribe has long called on the federal government and political leaders to honor their treaty rights by removing four dams on the Lower Snake River.
Instead, the government has responded with multiple commissions, bills and programs aimed at reducing the dam’s impact on fish and the environment. However, every attempt at a solution failed to protect the salmon.
Pacific Northwest salmon play an important role in the tourism and fishing economy, being a food source for many species of wildlife and supporting thousands of commercial and fishing jobs.
“Without prompt and proactive action, many of these fish are doomed to extinction,” said Samuel Penney, chairman of the Nez Perce.
Downstream, the Snake River Dam does more than just generate energy. It also provides important economic benefits. Boats carry an average of 10 million tons of cargo through the dam system each year, worth more than $3 billion. His 40% of domestic wheat is transported through it.
American Rivers, a nonprofit organization focused on maintaining river health, lists the Snake River as one of the nation’s most endangered rivers. Climate change and dams are raising water temperatures in rivers, which can be deadly for fish, said group spokeswoman Amy Sours-Kover.
“We are really at a decision time,” Korver said.
In 2020, the Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged that removing the dam “provides long-term benefits to species that spawn or breed in the mainstream Snake River habitat.”
However, it also states that post-clearance changes in river depth and flow will “cause adverse short-term impacts on fish, riparian and wetland habitats at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers.”
The Legion says removing the clean energy source, the dam, will increase energy costs for nearby residents and increase greenhouse gas emissions from other power sources. It also said it would be difficult to quickly replace dams with other green energy sources.
Washington State Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse said the removal of the dam would affect his voters more economically than anyone else living around the Columbia River Basin.
“The bottom line is that violating these dams will not improve salmon populations, it will only hurt dam-dependent communities in central Washington and the Pacific Northwest,” he said. “I really think there is some disinformation and misleading information going on here by focusing on the dam being the root of the problem.”
But not all Republicans in the region continue to oppose dam removal. In May, Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho said he would spend $34 billion after he introduced plans to remove four dams and replace the services they provide to protect salmon. Overwhelmed the main opposition.
His opponents favored keeping the dam.