WASHINGTON — After decades of legal battles over hydroelectric dams that have contributed to the depletion of salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest, the Biden administration is expanding settlement negotiations with plaintiffs hoping the solution they seek — removal of the dams – is near.
The federal government has been charged five times for its failed efforts to save salmon in the Columbia River basin and for violating longstanding treaties with the Nez Perce, Yakama and Umatilla tribes. But now the Biden administration and others say that the recovery of the salmon population is a matter of tribal justice, and also the only real solution.
Last month, the government released a report on the feasibility of removing four dams in the lower Snake River to aid salmon recovery, and another on how to replace the energy they produce. The first report, conducted by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and released in draft form, found that major changes are needed to return salmon to fishable levels, including the removal of at least one and possibly all four dams. on the lower hose and reintroducing salmon to areas completely blocked by the dams.
The Biden administration stopped endorsing the findings, but said it was reviewing all information to set long-term goals for the Columbia River basin. And earlier this month, in a related lawsuit, the administration and plaintiffs agreed to suspend the process for a second year to continue working on “sustainable solutions” for recovering salmon stocks while also ensuring economic, energy and tribal relief. needs.
Washington Democrat Senator Patty Murray, who has long opposed any salmon recovery plan that included the removal of the four dams, joined Washington Governor Jay Inslee, a fellow Democrat, in conducting a separate study that was released this summer. That study found that removing the four dams was the most promising approach for salmon recovery.
Ms Murray and Mr Inslee have not yet taken a position on whether the hydropower dams should be removed, but the report concluded that between $10.3 billion and $27.2 billion would be needed to restore the electricity generated by the dams. and to find other ways to transport grain from the region and provide irrigation water.
Mrs. Murray is the Northwest’s most powerful senator in Congress. But she will need the rest of the Democratic delegation to join her in support of salmon recovery efforts to turn the tide. The report states that removing dams requires congressional approval, a funding strategy and a concrete timeline.
“Clearly we need to support salmon recovery from every possible angle,” Ms Murray said in a statement.
Before the dams were built, the Snake River flowed wildly through parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming, and nothing prevented adult salmon from swimming upstream to their spawning grounds or the fry to reach the Pacific Ocean.
The dams were built between 1957 and 1975 and now supply energy to millions of people in the Pacific Northwest. But they’ve shrunk the Chinook salmon population in the Columbia River basin in the Pacific Northwest because the fish struggle to migrate and therefore reproduce.
In total there are eight dams through which the salmon has to pass during its migration. Each time, their chance of survival is reduced by 10 percent, according to Tucker Jones, the program manager for Ocean Salmon and Columbia River Fisheries at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“The Snake River dams provide a very small fraction of the power generated by the hydropower system,” said Mr. Jones, “and have a disproportionate impact on the salmon population based on the energy you get back.”
Before the dams were built, about 50,000 Chinook salmon spawned in the spring and summer. Since then, numbers have plummeted, putting fishermen and tribes at risk of losing an important economic, nutritional and cultural resource.
Kat Brigham, the chairman of the board of trustees for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, said all stakeholders should come together and find a long-term solution to the problem, rather than keep throwing billions at solutions that didn’t work.
“Coming together and rebuilding our salmon for our children’s children is something we need to do because salmon recovery is important to the survival of the Columbia River basin as a whole,” she said.
Thirteen species of salmon and steelhead trout are listed as threatened or endangered in the Columbia River basin, an area that includes parts of Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, and British Columbia.
The salmon is critical to the watershed’s ecosystem, serving as a food source for animals as large as bears and as small as insects. They contribute to the survival of endangered orcas, which depend on eating Chinook during the winter and spring.
The Snake River dams are federally owned. They are operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers, which has rejected the tribes’ request to remove the dams in 2020. Federal courts have criticized the Corps and other federal agencies responsible for protecting the Chinook since 2001.
In 2016, Michael H. Simon, a federal judge in Oregon, ordered that a new plan be drawn up to restore the species. He said previous conservation efforts by federal agencies had violated laws designed to protect the environment, endangered species and tribal sovereignty. He cited the Army Corps of Engineers’ refusal to even consider the tribes’ request to remove the dams from the lower Snake River.
Congress is probably the only other entity that can remove the hydroelectric dams.
Tribes and other salmon defenders have not given up their fight. They say the dams could be replaced by other energy sources, including wind power.
Fifteen tribes from the Columbia River basin made legally binding treaties with the United States in the mid-19th century. Those treaties retained sovereign and inherent rights, including the right to fish in traditional locations, on and off reserves, and to protect fish in those locations.
The tribes have long called on the federal government and political leaders to respect their treaty rights by removing the four lower Snake River dams.
Instead, the government responded with multiple commissions, bills and programs aimed at reducing the impact of the dams on fish and the environment. But every attempt at a solution has failed to protect the salmon.
Pacific Northwest salmon plays a vital role in the tourist and fishing economies, is a food source for many species of wildlife and supports thousands of commercial and fishing jobs.
“Unless prompt, leadership action is taken, many of these fish are doomed to extinction,” said Samuel Penney, president of the Nez Perce.
The lower Snake River dams do more than just generate energy; they also provide a significant economic benefit. Boats carry an average of 10 million tons of cargo worth more than $3 billion annually through the dam system. Forty percent of the country’s wheat is transported through it.
American Rivers, a nonprofit organization focused on keeping rivers healthy, calls the Snake River one of the most endangered in the country. Climate change and the dams are increasing the river’s temperature, which can kill fish, said Amy Souers Kober, a spokeswoman for the group.
“We’re really at the point where it’s time to make a decision,” Ms Kober said.
The Army Corps of Engineers recognized in 2020 that removing the dams “would provide a long-term benefit to species that spawn or breed in mainstream Snake River habitats.”
But it also said that “short-term adverse effects to fish, riparian states and wetland habitats in the Snake River and Columbia River confluence would occur,” due to the changes in the river’s depth and flow after removal.
The force has said removing the dams, a clean energy source, would increase energy costs for local residents and increase greenhouse gas emissions from other energy sources. It has also said it would be difficult to quickly replace the dams with other sources of green energy.
Representative Dan Newhouse, a Washington State Republican, said removing the dams would have more economic impact on his voters than anyone else living around the Columbia River basin.
“The bottom line: breaching these dams will not help improve our salmon population and will only harm the communities in Central Washington and the Pacific Northwest that rely on them,” he said. “I really think there’s some misinformation and some misinformation going on here by focusing on the dams as the root of the problem.”
But not every Republican in the region continues to oppose the removal of the dams. In May, Representative Mike Simpson of Idaho defeated his main opponent in a landslide after he introduced a plan to remove the four dams and replace the services they provide to rescue salmon, at a cost of $34 billion.
His opponent was in favor of keeping the dams.
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