Army Corps says it won’t breach Snake River dams

The Associated Press

SPOKANE — The agency that built four dams on the lower Snake River concluded Monday the huge structures should not be breached to improve endangered salmon runs.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in a long-awaited opinion forwarded to other federal agencies, concluded the dams should instead be modified to improve the survival of the fish.

"That is more cost-effective and has a minimal economic impact," said Nola Conway, a spokeswoman for the corps office in Walla Walla.

Environmental groups that want to remove the dams were quick to denounce the recommendation.

"It comes as no surprise the corps would recommend keeping the dams and continuing to spend a heck of a lot of money to retrofit them," said Rob Masonis, acting regional director of American Rivers in Seattle. "It’s in their best interest to keep going on that tack."

The four dams — Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite — were built starting in the 1960s and are located on the Snake River between Washington’s Tri-Cities of Richland, Pasco and Kennewick and Lewiston, Idaho.

They provide electricity, irrigation water and navigation for barges. The 1,250 megawatts of power produced are enough for a city the size of Seattle.

Environmentalists blame the dams for blocking the migration of salmon and steelhead to the Pacific Ocean, leaving the native populations either extinct or listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Business groups and many Republican lawmakers have been critical of proposals to breach the dams, and President Bush declared during his election campaign that he opposed their removal.

Conway said the corps did identify some benefits to breaching during the five-year study, notably that it would help restore the Snake River to more natural flows.

But breaching, which would be tied up for years in court and technical studies, would also have taken the longest time to implement, Conway said.

The corps did not publicly release details of its recommendations. That is expected early next year.

The corps in the past five years has studied four alternatives. Rejected were options that called for making no changes to existing operations, breaching the dams or simply expanding programs in which juvenile salmon are barged or trucked past the dams.

The corps found that improving passage through the dams "provides increased juvenile salmon and steelhead survival and maximizes operational flexibility."

Those changes include improving how and when water is spilled through the dams, and juvenile fish transportation systems.

The corps is also proposing spillway improvements, upgraded adult fish passage systems, upgraded juvenile fish facilities and additional fish transportation barges.

Long-term improvements include turbine upgrades, removable spillway weirs and surface bypass and collection structures.

The recommendation was sent to the National Marine Fisheries Service, Bureau of Reclamation, Bonneville Power Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service.

The corps is seeking final federal input prior to broader public release of the recommendations.

The decision will be released for public comment early next year. A record of decision is expected later in the year.

Masonis said groups in favor of removing the dams will take a look at the recommendation before deciding on a response. But the corps decision was widely anticipated, he said.

Many people in the region support removal of the dams, and those efforts will continue, Masonis said.

Environmentalists believe that improving existing fish ladders and other expensive alterations to the dams will have little benefit in restoring salmon runs, Masonis said.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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