The cost of maintaining the lower Snake River waterway is growing rapidly. The Snake River basin and where the salmon (used to, and again, will) swim. “Extensive evidence indicates that breaching the four lower Snake River dams would provide more certainty of achieving the kind of long-term … A focus of the EIS will be the lethal warmwater reservoirs created by the four lower Snake River dams. Congress did not authorize flood control as a purpose and the dams were not designed for it. Despite these factors and hundreds of thousands of voices supporting the removal of the four lower Snake River dams, including Oregon’s Governor Kate Brown, the three federal government agencies (Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and Bonneville Power Administration) rejected dam removal altogether in their draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). Together they create approximately 140 miles of slackwater, and made Lewiston, Idaho the “farthest inland seaport” on the west coast. So, the question is will salmon and Southern … Ice Harbor Dam is lowermost of the four lower Snake River dams and therefore offers the best indication of the entire waterway’s economic viability. The 2009 Washington State Marine Forecast projects the growth of freight transportation on the lower Snake from 2003-2030 to be 0.3 percent. It receives the Hoback and Greys Ri… A 2014 study by the Lewis Clark Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization cited rail improvements and construction of a unit train loader at the Port of Lewiston as the number one priority for improved transportation in the Lewiston area. Opened 46 years ago in 1975, the dam is located 22 miles (35 km) south of Colfax and 35 miles (56 km) north of Pomeroy. Costs for operation and repairs currently exceed power revenues and economic benefits derived from navigation and irrigation. The nameplate capacity of the 4 lower Snake dams totals 3,033 Megawatts, but over the past 11 years they have only produced an average of 961 aMW (annual Megawatts), or 33% of nameplate capacity. Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson flirted with backing the removal of the four lower Snake River dams during a conference here on salmon recovery Tuesday. For more graphs, click on the above headline. The four Lower Snake River hydroelectric dams are the low cost, carbon-free backbone of Oregon’s power supply and essential to meeting our region’s renewable energy goals. The four dams on the lower Snake River are part of a vast and complex hydroelectric power system operated by the federal government in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. They are “run of the river” dams with very little storage capacity and are thus almost totally dependent on the amount of snowpack and rate of runoff. Reality: The four lower Snake River dams are relatively unreliable sources of power compared to some other dams in the federal Columbia River system. Lower Snake River Hydropower Has Already Been Replaced. Earlier today, a long-awaited federal report on the prospect of removing the four lower Snake River Dams was released, offering little hope for the watershed’s endangered wild salmon and steelhead. tons shipped through Ice Harbor Dam trending down. Each year, millions of tons of grain make their way along what was once one of our wildest river systems, the Columbia-Snake River. Free-flowing … Data source: Port of Lewiston (portoflewiston.com). They are part of the problematic aging U.S. infrastructure that requires more money for maintenance every year. On a broader scale, such consideration lays the analytical groundwork for potential later consideration of a determination to breach one or more of the four Lower Snake River dams. A high use waterway produces 300-500 billion ton-miles each year. Today the lower Snake River dams (LSRDs) preform various functions; providing hydropower, navigation, irrigation and fish passage. Containers shipped to ports on the lower Snake River are measured in TEUs, which means Twenty Foot Equivalent Units, a standard global measure for sea freight. Further downstream are Little Goose Dam, Lower Monumental Dam, and Ice Harbor Dam. Even the 2009 Washington State Marine Cargo Forecast prediction of 0 percent growth from 2002-2030 has proven to be much too optimistic. In 1995 freight transportation on the lower Snake River peaked at 9.16 million tons. The proposed removal of four Lower Snake River dams has been the subject of legal battles since 1991. The plan guides dam management on the Columbia River System, which includes the four controversial Snake River dams. Look at real time amounts of energy being produced and sold on BPA’s website. container shipments down drastically at Port of Lewiston. The plan guides dam management on the Columbia River System, which includes the four controversial Lower Snake River dams — Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower … Through the turbines, letting water over the spillway (there is mandatory spill the court has ordered to aid salmon passage), through the fish ladders (adults), through the juvenile fish passage system (where they enter a small orifice upstream and are counted as they travel through the pipe to the other side) and finally they utilize barges and trucks to transport juveniles downstream. More than 5,000 cormorants were removed and more than 6,000 nests were destroyed.” – Letter from NPCC to U.S. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has developed and constructed fish cooling systems at Lower Granite and Little Goose dams to alleviate warming water concerns. Freight transportation has declined drastically as the combination of trucks and railways have become more efficient than trucks and barging. At the heart of this issue are the cumulative, negative impacts of the four dams on the lower Snake River, a major Columbia River tributary, which has severed fish passage to rich spawning habitats in Idaho. The comment period closed on April 13, 2020. Its six dams on the main stem of the Columbia River provide all the electricity its contracted customers need; the electricity generated by its 25 other dams, including the four lower Snake River dams, is all surplus. Washington State is investing in bridge improvements so these short lines can service heavier cars at higher speeds. We now have excellent examples of indisputably successful dam removal and river restoration projects: the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams on the Elwha River of Washington state, Condit Dam on the White Salmon of Washington state, four dams on the Penobscot River in Maine and Marmot Dam on the Sandy River in Oregon. The four dams in particular question are Ice Harbor, Little Goose, Lower Granite and Lower Monumental. • Breaching the four lower Snake River Dams per the Court’s strong admonition that such an alternative be considered in detail in the CRSO FEIS (MO3); • Maximizing spill for the benefit of ESA-listed salmonids (MO4); and • The Preferred Alternative, based on a flexible spill strategy designed to allow for adjusting operations to allow for achieving the best balance among the System’s many … The federal government wants to keep the Four Lower Snake River Dams in place. Economic benefits of the dams are far below the costs (benefit to cost ratio of .15, meaning 15 cents in benefits to every tax dollar spent). The Lewiston Dam was built approximately 4-miles upstream from the confluence of the Clearwater River and lower Snake River in the 1920’s. It’s simply a matter of time before the federal agencies admit it. Generation is limited by both spill requirements and seasonal river flow. Any waterway under 0.5 billion ton-miles is considered a waterway of. “The science is clear that removing the earthen portions of the four lower Snake River dams is the most certain and robust solution to Snake River salmon and steelhead recovery,” Brown wrote. According to the U.S. Army … In addition to direct taxpayer costs, the many benefits lost from maintaining this project—from vastly improved sports and commercial fisheries to alternate investment in a transportation system that can benefit a much wider range of businesses — make the early removal of the four lower Snake River dams imperative. Fish and Wildlife. Problems inherent in the huge slack water reservoirs created by the dams cannot be fixed. The Snake River dams in Washington would remain in place under a final study released Friday, July 31, by federal agencies. The lower Snake River project is economically unjustifiable and fiscally unsustainable. We can build new rail lines, new roads, and new water infrastructure. For more graphs, click on the below headline. Further mitigation: In the past few years, BPA has begun culling and disturbing sea lion and birds. This is because no power plant is running at 100% capacity all of the time. Wild salmon advocates, tribal representatives and renewable energy advocates, who support removing the four Lower Snake River dams in southeastern Washington, say this decision will hurt salmon and the orcas that depend on them for food. To provide an up-to-date and comprehensive perspective on this issue, ECONorthwest compiled the recent literature and … Corrected Cost and Economic conclusions based on Corps data and planning processes show breaching via channel bypass has benefits ranging from 4 to 20 to 1 with Regional effects adding more than 5K jobs in E. Washington and Lewiston. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers uses ton-miles to represent the value of a waterway for commercial navigation. The Snake River basin and where the salmon (used to, and again, will) swim. The cost of mitigation hatcheries for lost Snake River stocks is rising a rate of 5 percent annually, and turbine rehabilitation over the next 15 years will require at least $775 million in today’s dollars. Four aging dams in Washington state block passage along the lower Snake River, a major migration corridor linking pristine cold water streams in central Idaho to the mighty Columbia River and out to the Pacific Ocean. The four lower Snake River dams are important to the Northwest’s power needs, provide important support for the transmission system and help keep our system low in carbon emissions. This does not include the millions for annual operations and maintenance on the dams, along with other major repairs, over that same time period. The Port of Lewiston’s container shipments peaked in 1997 with 17,611 TEUs and have been on a long, steady slide ever since. These dams will be breached in the future due to the economics. Fish passage at the dams can happen a couple ways. The dams do not provide flood protection or any meaningful amount of irrigation. Beginning with the 2002 Lower Snake River Juvenile Salmon Migration Feasibility Report, all projections of future levels of freight volume on the lower Snake River have been vastly overstated. If the open market price for this power is below the tier -1 guaranteed power rate of $36MWh, money is being lost. Lower Monumental Dam on the Snake River in Washington is one of four dams considered for removal or breaching in a long-running debate. They are “run of the river” dams with very little storage capacity and are thus almost totally dependent on the amount of snowpack and rate of runoff. Oregon Gov. Over the span of fifty years, wild Chinook salmon populations virtually ceased in the basin, while wild steelhead struggled to navigate the fish ladder(s) and populations plummeted. With the support of elected officials, the Corps has the authority and the time to update the 2002 EIS now and still act this year. It is time for the lower four Snake River dams to come down. On the lower Snake River in southeastern Washington, it bridges Whitman and Garfield counties. The four lower Snake River dams can generate enough electricity to power the entire city of Seattle. Compelling evidence proves dams kill salmon. They are economically unsustainable now. As a result, salmon populations have declined by more than 90%. Climate change is adding another challenge as warming water temperatures in the reservoirs behind the dams threaten salmon which depend on cold water and snowmelt. The department of fish and wildlife manages the 26 facilities that release millions of salmon a year. Are the 4 Lower Snake River dams next? Shipping statistics from Ice Harbor indicate water-born commerce peaked on the lower Snake in 1995 and has been on a long, steady decline ever since. In fact, the Port suspended 100 percent of its container traffic indefinitely in April 2015. These improvements have not worked. The four Snake River dams on the lower Snake in southeast Washington were completed in the 1960’s and 1970’s. It was removed during the 1970’s. Though they have a high capacity, it is seldom realized. It rejects dam breaching arguing that such a dramatic approach would destabilize the power grid, increase overall greenhouse emissions and more than double the risk of … The Four Lower Snake River Dams Improving Salmon Passage, February 2002 Army Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District; The Snake River is the principal tributary to the Columbia River, draining approximately 109,000 square miles in Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Washington, and Oregon. Flows in the lower Snake River are highest in the spring (average annual peak of approximately 165,000 cubic … The outcome of the EIS will affect some of the West’s most historic steelhead rivers, including Snake River tributaries like the Grande Ronde River in Oregon and the Clearwater River in Idaho. The widely-celebrated removals of these large dams has reduced taxpayer waste and restored fisheries, injecting additional dollars into rural economies. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon in 2016 ordered dam managers to consider removing or altering the four Lower Snake River dams. Birds like double crested cormorants nest on shorelines and islands while they feed, only to be killed, chased away or have their habitat destroyed. The four Snake River dams on the lower Snake in southeast Washington were completed in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Justifying this action takes the spotlight away from negative impacts of the dams, scapegoating and pinning the problem on other species. When demand for energy is high in summer and winter, the dams only contribute small amount of power, as shown for Lower Granite Dam, it’s potential is reached at 100-200 MW. It is time for the lower four Snake River dams to come down. LSR Freight Transport graph. Barging on the lower Snake River from Lewiston through Ice Harbor Dam is in serious decline. The four lower Snake River dams are a major cause.2 Recovery measures for wild salmon costing billions of dollars have failed. A reanalysis of the 2002 Lower Snake River Juvenile Salmon Migration Feasibility Report demonstrates the Army Corps’ Walla Walla District underestimated the average annual cost of keeping the lower Snake River dams in place by a staggering $160.7 million. Data source: Walla Walla District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers … The current use of this savings figure by ports and special interest organizations is unsubstantiated propaganda. Due to sediment build up, Lower Granite Dam actually creates a flood risk to Lewiston, Idaho and requires conveyance dredging to mitigate this risk. The Army Corps of Engineers has spent $600 million dollars over the last thirteen years for System Improvements, intended to improve fish passage for imperiled wild salmon and steelhead populations. Together, the four Lower Snake River dams have a “nameplate” (maximum) generating capacity of 3,000 megawatts. The proposal to build the four lower Snake River dams drew strong opposition, particularly from state and federal fish biologists. The dams are aging, and escalating costs of necessary maintenance—paid for with tax and rate payer dollars—are stressing already-tight federal agency budgets. A growing set of cost indicators suggest the government can’t continue propping up the system. The Walla Walla District’s claim in its 2014 Lower Snake River sediment management plan that the lower Snake River waterway provides cost savings of $8.45 per ton is false. Lower Granite Dam is located approximately 40-miles downstream of Lewiston, Idaho. The four dams generate less than 3% of the power produced in the Pacific Northwest. sierraclub.org. The lower Snake River dams are all run-of-river dams, which means they don't store water, and thus don't provide any flood control. The draft EIS identifies and evaluates a no-action alternative and five alternatives, one of which includes breaching the four lower Snake River dams. “From 2015 to 2017, the Fish and Wildlife Service authorized the lethal removal of Doublecrested Cormorants in the Columbia River estuary. We can build new rail lines, new roads, and new water infrastructure. Study suggests breaching the lower Snake River dams benefits the economy – February 2016. Economic Tradeoffs of Removing the Lower Snake River Dams The debate regarding the potential removal of the four Lower Snake River dams in Washington has been ongoing for over two decades, but much of the existing information is either outdated or incomplete. As the federal agencies become more desperate to recover salmon, we must hold them accountable to stop the use of this method, and start seriously considering breaching. Today even this projection is proving too optimistic. They are “run of the river” dams, meaning they were not built to store water. The Columbia River flows about 325 miles (523 km) further west to the Pacific Ocean near Astoria, Oregon. By the 1990’s, lower Snake River Coho were extinct, and lower Snake River spring Chinook, fall Chinook, and steelhead were listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Below the tourist town of Jackson, the river turns west and flows through Snake River Canyon, cutting through the Snake River Range and into eastern Idaho. Now, the operation of those four dams — Ice Harbor, Little Goose, Lower Monumental, Lower Granite — is under reconsideration. Kate Brown said removing the four lower Snake River dams in Washington state is the most certain way to boost salmon and steelhead recovery in the Columbia Basin. Topics: Hydropower, Navigation, Irrigation, Fish Passage, Costs. This controversial recovery method is at odds with the migratory bird act. A free-flowing river could greatly improve wild salmon and steelhead populations in the Clearwater Basin, and deposit nutrients throughout the basin’s ecosystem. Restoring the lower Snake River by removing the four dams that block its flow would precipitate changes in the region’s physical infrastructure, electric grid operations, carbon emissions, grain transport, irrigation, recreation, fish habitat, and riverine and marine ecosystems. The Lower Snake River Project's four dams and navigation locks have transformed this part of the Snake River into a series of reservoirs. Tell our Northwest congressional delegation that we need them to lead on a robust economic development package that takes down the lower four dams and rebuilds our northwest economy. We can redevelop and create new economic opportunities for our state and the … None of this includes the $782 million the Bonneville Power Administration spends annually on fish mitigation (hatcheries, barging smolts, etc.). There are an estimated 37,000 acres of industrial farmland irrigated by the reservoir behind one dam, Ice Harbor. Shipping statistics from Ice Harbor indicate water-born commerce peaked on the lower Snake in 1995 and has been on a long, steady decline ever since. The rapidly rising costs of maintaining the lower Snake River system are presenting significant challenges to the federal agencies that manage the dams. Indeed, it is a river system that binds their very culture. They argued that damming the free-flowing lower Snake River would decimate wild fish runs. The four lower Snake River dams are Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite. For example, Clearwater Paper, Lewiston Idaho’s largest employer, is located 2 miles from the Port of Lewiston and exports paper and paperboard. Due to the lack of water storage, the dams also don't offer much in the way of irrigation. Because these dams can’t provide flood control and have virtually no storage capacity, they can reach that maximum for just a few days in any year (during a rapid spring snowmelt for example). They are particularly valuable in times of extreme hot and cold weather, when demand for electricity peaks. The four dams were built with six turbines each, a capacity to produce 3,033 MW of power. Clearwater Paper now ships 95 to 100 percent of its product by truck and rail. Kate Brown said removing the four lower Snake River dams … The plan guides dam management on the Columbia River System, which includes the four controversial Snake River dams. The American taxpayer continues to heavily subsidize operation, maintenance, and repairs on the four lower Snake River dams. Lower Snake River Dams Stakeholder Engagement Final Report — March 2020 2 which perspectives carry more weight than others. Over the past 20 years the volume of freight transported on the lower Snake River has declined by 69 percent. Two unit train grain terminals have come on line in eastern Washington in the last 11 years, and a third is being built west of Spokane and will be fed in part by short lines that penetrate the Palouse Prairie. Sea lions gather at the mouth of the Columbia waiting for the salmon, and some are intelligent enough to detect the barges and trucks that will release their next meal. Most recently, in May 2016, a federal district judge ordered dam operators to put all options on the table to save threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead – including dam removal on the Snake River. The confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers at Burbank, Washington is part of Lake Wallula, the reservoir of McNary Dam. Janet Higbee-Robinson, Bellingham The dams generate a negligible amount of power, and it will be cheaper to take them out than to update them to modern standards.” No fish= No orcas ! The costs greatly outweigh the benefits. With several large sawmills in the region, the Port of Lewiston has not shipped any lumber for at least seven years. The Clearwater Basin of North Central Idaho provides excellent habitat for wild salmon and steelhead. Problems inherent in the huge slack water reservoirs created by the dams cannot be fixed. Once they are released, they are subject to similar undesirable conditions as wild fish are, as they migrate through the system to and from the Ocean. 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