#FreeTheSnake

Feds ask for public input on breaching Snake River dams

Back in May, a U.S. District Court judge in Portland sided with anglers, conservationists, the State of Oregon and the Nez Perce Tribe, ruling that the latest in a series of impotent federal plans for protecting endangered Northwest salmon was just as dubious as the rest. The court ordered a do-over. And people across the region will now weigh in on its creation via a series of upcoming public hearings.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon said federal agencies have “done their utmost” to avoid considering breaching the Snake River dams, despite strong suggestions to do so by a previous judge overseeing the case.

Although Simon won’t dictate what options agencies should consider, he’s made it clear that proper analysis under federal law “may well require” breaching, bypassing or removing one or more of the four Lower Snake River dams. The feds have till March 2018 to craft their new proposal.

Why remove the dams? Easy. It’s the only action that provides real solutions for: 

1) Continued water-quality degradation

2) Loss of in-stream flows due to reservoir evaporation

3) Ineffectual fish passage schemes like moving salmon around dams in trucks and barges that do not meet the Endangered Species Act criteria for “recovery” or “delisting” of “wild, self-sustaining” fish populations

4) Economic costs of the dams compared to removal costs and better energy, water, and transportation alternatives

5) Snake River dams increasingly impacting fish survival and recovery on the mainstem Columbia

Comments received during the public-scoping period (now through January 17, 2017) will be used to help agencies pinpoint issues and concerns that could be analyzed in an Environmental Impact Statement. For meeting dates, locations, webinars, and public comment instructions, see here. 

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