washington business
“ It is 2022 . With technology and research , salmon , dams , and people can coexist .”
— Michelle Hennings
hatchery practices , predation , competition , … and ocean conditions .” Further , all of the dams “ have state of the art fish passage and are part of the most robust fish recovery program in the world .”
Noting that salmon returns have improved in recent years , Miller says , “ We very much support salmon recovery … What we disagree with is that the dams need to be breached for salmon to recover .” Survival rates for salmon along the Pacific Coast , whether the fish are returning to free-flowing or dammed rivers , are virtually identical to the experience on the Snake River , he says .
“ If the replacement resources have to be in place before the dams are removed , then the dams won ’ t be removed . Every megawatt of new generation is already spoken for .” an improbable redundancy
The Murray-Inslee draft makes another bold and improbable assumption .
“[ T ] his report assumes that replacement actions would be in place before dam breaching so there is no loss of benefits . In specific instances where actions cannot be implemented in advance , mitigation measures would be needed during a transition period .”
Get that ? The roads , rail , and carbon-free energy must be operating before the dams are breached . Few Washingtonians will be unfamiliar with the challenges of permitting , funding , and building major infrastructure programs . In the energy sector , there are also substantial technology and capacity challenges as the push for renewables accelerates .
“ If the replacement resources have to be in place before the dams are removed , then the dams won ’ t be removed , Miller says , “ Every megawatt of new generation is already spoken for .”
— Kurt Miller , executive director , Northwest RiverPartners conclusion
Regardless of whether Murray and Inslee support dam removal , Congressional agreement on breaching the dams is unlikely before the midterms and possibly even less likely after the elections . With inflation soaring and after successive years of extraordinary federal spending , agreement on a new spending package for a breaching project with speculative benefits , high costs and dubious feasibility seems unlikely .
In 1975 , Washington ’ s long-serving U . S . Sen . Warren Magnuson , whose support for the dams was critical to their completion , remarked on the challenges .
“[ O ] ver 35 years ago we planned for the future ,” he said . “ We can tell the nay-sayers that we have succeeded where they said we would fail .” With the benefits produced by the dams clearly manifest , that success is something to build upon , not a thing to be undone . As Hennings comments , “ It is 2022 . With technology and research , salmon , dams , and people can coexist .” The dams should remain .
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