SALMON VS DAMS
FIX NEEDED NOW – Wildlife Federation says crisis is at least three fold.
Brian Brooks and Garret Visser from the Idaho Wildlife Federation made a presentation to the May 5 meeting of the Salmon City Council concerning what they called a “new perspective” regarding Salmon and Steelhead fish.
Visser outlined fish history, the migratory life cycle habits of the species, the habitat between the Lemhi Valley and the ocean, the ongoing decline in numbers and what has been done to stop the decline in the past. He also presented figures on the annual one hundred-million-dollar economic importance of the fish to Central Idaho. Visser said between here and the lower Granite Dam 29 percent of the smolts die. The survivors then arrive at the four dams on the Snake River and go on to the four dams on the Columbia River. Visser said 50 percent of the surviving fish die in the hydro system. From there the fish meet with various warm reservoirs full of predators. The fish that make it through Bonneville Dam head for the ocean where 98 percent of them die. Those who don’t, live from two to five years in the ocean before starting the trip back to Idaho.
Brooks dated the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to 1937 and the FDR days of the New Deal. The BPA hydropower system’s original purpose was to provide power to the Pacific Northwest at cost. He said the cost was greatly over estimated. Too much supply and not enough demand resulted in the 1970’s bond default. Congress took over and created the Northwest Planning Act of 1980 which allowed the BPS to sell the excess supply of power. It also created funding and made BPA responsible for Salmon fish mitigation on which it has spent $17 billion to date. Brooks said congressional oversite was not included in the plan and the fish levels are worse now than in the 1990’s.
Brooks said BPA produces twice the power that is needed so it has been selling to states like California. Due to things like solar power, wind generation and natural gas the bottom has dropped out of the power sales and BPA is now $15 billion in federal government debt due to an oversupply of power and falling demand. BPA’s credit rating has been downgraded to “negative.” By the year 2023 BPA will reach its federal borrowing cap.
The hydro-dam system also supplies shipping which has declined 75 percent. In 2000 the Port of Lewiston shipped 17,590 TEU’s of containerized freight. In 2017 the number for container-on-barge shipping was zero and experts say the shipping will not return nor will the clientele. The Port of Lewiston closed its shipping operations in 2015. Brooks said it costs BPA about $24 million a year to take care of its shipping business. He said it costs taxpayers around $30,000 to send one boat 94 miles through the dam system.
Brooks said it boils down to three crises: Irreversible debt for BPA; Shipping is down to the “break even” point and, the fish are nearing extinction. The challenge is to fix BPA in a way that benefits tax payers, rate payers and fish. Solutions include: Breach the lower Snake River dams; replace the transportation infrastructure while bolstering the existing one and, replace the means of power generation. Brooks said to do that will require an Act of Congress.
He said right now the Pacific Northwest has a good base of congressional power within its states. He said now is the time to make the changes and that the changes have to be “win-win” for everyone, with the proper amount of horse-trading involved. He said the issues will not go away.
US Representative Mike Simpson’s plan was recommended as a good starting point. When asked about recovery Brooks said removal of the four lower dams could push fish returns from the current 1.4 percent to around four percent which would prevent extinction.