Snohomish PUD should pull funding of pro-dam group

Published 1:30 am Sunday, August 20, 2023

I appreciated the Herald’s recent editorial regarding concerns with salmon recovery and the lower Snake River dams (“Fate of four dams may turn on talks, climate,” The Herald, Aug. 12).

As the editorial note, it’s decision time for the Biden administration. It is to the administration’s credit that it is seeking to settle this long-running litigation. Previous administrations, of both parties, defended in court five prior federal salmon recovery plans. As it turned out, they were defending the indefensible, as each of those plans was struck down by the federal courts as inadequate and illegal.

The sixth plan, adopted in the waning days of the Trump administration, was headed for the same fate before President Biden and his team stepped up.

The science is clear. Threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead in the Snake River Basin cannot be restored to abundant, harvestable levels if the lower Snake dams remain in operation.

That’s why it is so disappointing that our local electric utility is funding an organization called Northwest RiverPartners, an organization waging a multi-million-dollar campaign of misinformation and distortion in defense of the dams. Last year, Snohomish Public Utility District paid RiverPartners $153,750 dollars of ratepayer revenue to support its work.

In May, Whatcom PUD chose to end its membership in RiverPartners. Whatcom PUD Commission President Christine Grant explained: “Northwest RiverPartners work is increasing the political polarization of this issue rather than fostering healthy dialog.“

Snohomish PUD commissioners should do likewise.

Shelley Mortinson

Marysville