Regional Economy

When all four dams on the lower Snake River were completed in 1975, all of the free-flowing, river-related recreational benefits were gone and replaced with big, silent reservoirs with sterile shorelines. What was once a canyon where people floated, hiked, camped and hunted was transformed into a deserted place where few ever bother to go. What was once a booming recreation economy in towns like Lewiston, Clarkston, Riggins, Salmon and Stanley was transformed into a taxpayer-subsidized system of dams and locks of little–and decreasing–interest even to the farmers who use it. 

This economic contribution will support and generate jobs, tax revenue, and boost incomes. The economic models clearly show that this economic activity will contribute to nearly 150 industry sectors, many of which are not directly related to the recreation industry. What is not captured by this analysis are the up-river and down-river economic effects of a free-flowing river.

A free-flowing Lower Snake River would increase tourism in Lewiston, making it a more attractive city to live in as incomes grow.

Should a greater number of salmon return to spawn upstream, Idaho would likely have increased opportunities for recreational fishing.

Down-river, the effects may be even greater. Wildlife viewing generated the most consumer expenditures in Washington State in 2014. Whale watching, centered on the Southern Resident Killer Whales, provides an immense value to the state through wildlife viewing opportunities. The Southern Resident Orcas rely on salmon for food. While it may be difficult to predict the mortality of these whales over time if wild and hatchery Snake Chinook fall below current levels, the orcas’ diminishing numbers will certainly have an impact on viewership and economic benefits that are now running at about $60 million per year in Washington. Given the status of the Snake River stocks outlined in the Salmon Update/Reevaluation White Paper, a crashing population of wild/natural/hatchery Chinook could lead to starvation given that 70-80% of the Southern Residents’ diet is Chinook. It should also be noted that the [2015] birth of nine calves would require at least 30,000 more Chinook per year that, under the current system, must come from commercial or sport fisheries.

Breaching the dams will increase recreation expenditures in the six counties adjacent to the lower Snake River by at least $400 million annually. This will support between 3,000 and 4,000 jobs in the surrounding counties.

Reference Regional Economic Dev Summary, Reevaluation, Lower Snake Dams Earth Economics 2.22.2016 

It is noteworthy that this shuttle service delivers most of the grain to a loading facility built after 2002 on the Columbia River that loads it onto barges.  Because pro-dam advocates often state, albeit erroneously, that barge traffic has not declined on the Columbia/Snake system, this shift from the lower Snake to the Columbia gets ignored.  From an economic standpoint, the Snake projects are separate from the Columbia.  Similarly, petroleum shipments through the lower Snake navigation leg have ceased even though there is a viable and growing terminal at river mile 1 on the lower Snake, but it is not affected by breaching.  These improvements have all been market driven and show that the conclusions drawn in the 2001 FR/EIS were wrong, even though data in the report showed otherwise.  This analysis has all been updated by my work (Jim Waddell) and that of EarthEconomics.

There are however, further improvements which could be made to expedite the transfer of the remaining grain shipments to rail.  These are: a $29 million repair/upgrade of the rail line between Dayton and Prescot, WA, owned by the Port of Columbia; rail siding improvements and handling facilities at grain elevators and perhaps a unit train loading facility along this line, $5-37 million; upgrade of 2-miles of rail line in Idaho to the Lewis and Clark Grain Terminal and expansion of siding and handling facilities, $5-32 million.  Total improvements range from $40 to $98 million.  Now that these mitigation cost are known, they should be included in the total cost of breaching.

In the final draft of its 2002 study on breaching the four lower Snake River dams, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers assigned to a dam breaching scenario a net recreation benefit of $71 million per year. This grossly understated estimate–lower than the Corps’ own contractors determined–was called into question even as the study was published.

As noted in a December 2000 Washington Post series examining corrupt cost benefit analyses performed by the Corps, the very economists hired for the study had actually estimated recreation benefits would range from $82 million to $509 million a year, with a midpoint of $196 million per year.

So where did the Corps’ $71 million figure come from? How could the agency justify such a gross understatement of the economic bounty a free-flowing lower Snake River would provide?

Part of the oversight may have been due to a lack of data, which became available seven years later. In 2006, the Outdoor Industry Association published the first comprehensive valuation of outdoor recreation in the U.S. According to its estimate, this sector of the economy is worth $646 billion annually. Western States’ disproportional share of the total is $256 billion annually, generating $31 billion in taxes and directly employing 2.3 million people.

Other regional and local analyses have followed. The National Park Service estimates non-motorized boating in the Grand Canyon generates $83 million annually and nearly 600 jobs. In 2007, according to the Colorado guides and packers association, river rafting in that state was worth $153 million. In the same year, fishing, jet boating, kayaking and rafting on the remote, 34-mile wilderness segment of the Rogue River in Oregon was worth $30 million.

None of these numbers cited above take into account the enormous economic impact a restored salmon and steelhead fishery would have on the Snake River and communities upstream in Idaho and eastern Oregon.