Credit Sam Beebe / Flickr
An Idaho congressman may have taken the first step in untangling the tricky knot of dams in the Northwest and their effects on salmon.
Representative Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, laid out a $33 billion Columbia Basin Fund.
While it includes breaching the four lower Snake River dams, it also addresses replacing their benefits, such as energy and irrigation for local agriculture.
Brian Brooks, executive director of the Idaho Wildlife Federation, said it s a critical lifeline for the region s endangered salmon and steelhead. My reaction to Simpson coming out with this plan is Finally! Brooks remarked. Finally, someone is giving this attention to this issue because it is such a big problem and it is going to require a big solution, and Simpson is giving it the attention it deserves.
Proposal to breach Snake River dams prompts praise, concern
Updated Feb 08, 2021;
Posted Feb 08, 2021
Water moves through a spillway of the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River near Almota, Washington.AP
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A new proposal to tear down the four Lower Snake River dams has people agreeing on one thing the dams’ value to the Northwest region.
But many of those who rely on the dams now to produce low-cost and reliable electricity, to barge farm products for export, to provide irrigation water and for recreation are dubious despite the plan’s attempts to make them economically whole.
U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho has proposed breaching the dams and spending $33 billion to dismantle them, build new energy and transportation systems and address the economic impacts of their loss.
After long impasse, GOP congressman pitches potential solution for Snake River salmon runs
Updated Feb 08, 2021;
Posted Feb 08, 2021
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By Lynda V. Mapes, Seattle Times
For nearly three decades, the region has been stuck in unending litigation and spiraling costs as salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers decline toward extinction. But in a sweeping $34 billion proposal from an unlikely source, at an auspicious moment, comes a chance for a fresh start.
Could Congressman Mike Simpson, a Republican from a conservative district in eastern Idaho, have launched a concept that will forever alter life on the Columbia and Snake and finally honor tribal treaty fishing rights in the Columbia Basin?