Why hasn’t the Corps of Engineers acted to breach the dams?
Lack of regional political leadership to even ask the Corps to breach. And, a misguided belief by the public and agencies that further studies, legislation, and a new Environmental Impact Statement will solve the problem when in fact all it does is prolong effective action. 25 years has been spent trying every other method to recover salmon. Strong […]
Can we save endangered species without breaching the dams?
It’s highly unlikely that we can save endangered species without breaching the dams. In the 2002 Feasibility Study/Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) (which took 7 years and $33 million dollars to create), the Corps identified dam breaching as the alternative that would provide the highest probability of meeting salmon survival and recovery criteria (see page 25). […]
Why not wait for the results of more state and federal studies?
Simply put – we’ve waited nearly too long already and we already have the answers. Salmon and Orca populations have declined since NOAA’s protection, conservation, and recovery efforts on their behalf began. All snake river wild salmon and steelhead runs were listed under the endangered species act by the late 90s. Southern Resident Orcas officially […]
What’s the rush? Why breach now?
The four Lower Snake River Dams are man-made structures with a finite lifetime. They are part of the problematic aging U.S. infrastructure that requires more money for maintenance every year. These dams will be breached in the future due to economics. They are economically unsustainable now. It’s simply a matter of time before the federal […]