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Costs of Saving Endangered Snake River Chinook Salmon
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Newsletter: | Volume: IV5 # May, 1997 |
Source Reports: | New York Times "New Plan for Rescuing the Salmon: Breaching Dams Would Let Endangered Fish Swim to Sea", April 21, 1997 |
Subject: | 3. Cost and Economic Impacts Analyses |
Environmental Media/Problem: | b. Water e. Ecosystems b. Water - Surface |
| Newsletter Article Text: |
| The population of the endangered Snake River chinook salmon has fallen more than sevenfold in the last 20 years from 28,000 to 4,000. The salmon spawn in the Idaho wilderness and make their way along a 350-mile stretch of the Snake and Columbia Rivers that has eight hydroelectric dams. Studies show that between 70 and 90 percent of juvenile fish are killed by hydroelectric turbines, predators and other accidents. The solution to prevent extinction preferred by the Clinton Administration, which had also been backed by the Reagan and Bush Administrations, is to suck the salmon out of the water at the dams and sluice them into barges for the trip to the sea. Salmon advocates and Indian tribes have urged the Fisheries Service to let baby salmon swim to the sea on their own. As a compromise the agency will allow half to swim free. Reed Burkholder, a musician and piano teacher, has proposed creation of breaches in four dams on the Lower Snake letting the river flow free. He argues that almost as much money is spent annually on efforts to restore the salmon ($425 million a year) as it would cost to remove the dams ($525 million). In addition, the Army Corps of Engineers has proposed spending more than $20 million over the next five years for fish screens, new fish-collection devices, adult fish ladders, new turbines and other equipment. Thirteen Indian tribes who have rights by treaty to catch chinook salmon year round, several environmental organizations, and a taxpayers' group support breaching. Industry groups oppose the plan because a 150-mile of the Snake River between Lewiston, Idaho and Pasco, Washington would no longer be navigable. Hundreds of millions of dollars of grain, pulp and paper products and petroleum now shipped on the river would have to be carried by truck or rail at a cost two to three times current costs. About 60 percent of the grain exported to the Pacific Rim is shipped down the Snake. The Pacific Northwest Grain and Feed Association estimates that $500 million of grain will be shipped on the Snake this year. They claim breaching would destroy eight inland posts, increase irrigation costs for some farmers, and reduce Bonneville Power Administration revenues by $208 million a year, or about 10 percent. The authority owes the U.S. Treasury about $16 billion, much of it from taking over the debt of the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPSS). WPSS went bankrupt after starting construction on five nuclear reactors whose power was not needed. Senators Slade Gorton of Washington and Larry Craig, and Governor Phil Batt, all Idaho Republicans, favor the industry position. A 1992 Congressional Budget Office report found the Snake- Columbia waterway costs taxpayers $9.1 million a year, several times more than the bill footed by the government to operate the Mississippi waterway. |