Link
This GOP congressman wants to remove 4 dams to save Idaho’s salmon. It’ll cost billions.
An Idaho Republican congressman wants to end the salmon wars by removing select hydroelectric dams, replacing the electricity lost, paying communities and businesses, and giving American Indian tribes more power.
A $33 billion Pacific Northwest energy and infrastructure proposal would end litigation over endangered salmon and authorize the removal of four dams on the Snake River in Washington beginning in 2030. U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson of East Idaho released the plan after asking more than 300 groups what they would need if the dams came out.
Power marketed by the Bonneville Power Administration from the four controversial dams would be replaced. Shippers and farmers would get funds for alternatives to the barge shipping on the Snake and compensation for closed barge facilities. Lewiston in Idaho and the Tri-Cities in Washington would get billions for economic development.
Farmers across the Pacific Northwest, including those in Idaho’s Magic Valley, would get billions of dollars in incentives for water-quality projects. Farmers in Washington that now pump out of the reservoirs behind the Snake dams would get millions in compensation that they could use for altering their diversions.
The plan would be funded by a federal infrastructure bill.
“If we give the farmers, bargers, ports, the BPA and communities the necessary resources, each sector can develop a certainty and security putting the Northwest and Idaho salmon on a path to sustained viability,” Simpson said in a video news release released Saturday night.
Simpson says his “concept” would ban litigation over the four Columbia River dams for 35 years and increase salmon funding for states and tribes, which would co-manage salmon restoration.
The newly free-flowing river would be protected in a proposed Lower Snake River National Recreation Area.
Other dams, such as Idaho Power’s Hells Canyon Complex, would have their licenses extended for 35 years with a cap of 50 years. A $500 million fund would be set up to provide an incentive to voluntarily remove dams like these and other river structures.
Simpson said a bill crafted by the bipartisan Pacific Northwest congressional delegation and the governors of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana could be incorporated into an infrastructure package proposed by President Joe Biden this year, when the delegation has the most clout because of its tenure and committee assignments.
The plan calls for removing the Ice Harbor, Little Goose, Lower Monumental and Lower Granite dams — all four of the dams between Lewiston and the confluence with the Columbia River near the Tri-Cities.
For Idahoans, Simpson’s proposal would improve the salmon fisheries and overall water quality, while working to keep power rates down. It also would boost the economies of rural communities along the Salmon River all the way to Stanley. But it would remove Lewiston’s port.
Idaho salmon runs have dwindled from the millions of wild fish to, in some years, only a few thousand. Fewer than 4,000 wild spring chinook returned to Idaho in 2019.
“I want to be clear that I’m not certain removing these dams will restore Idaho salmon and prevent their extinction,” Simpson said. “But I am certain if we do not take this course of action, we are condemning Idaho salmon to extinction.”
This GOP congressman wants to remove 4 dams to save Idaho’s salmon. It’ll cost billions.
An Idaho Republican congressman wants to end the salmon wars by removing select hydroelectric dams, replacing the electricity lost, paying communities and businesses, and giving American Indian tribes more power.
A $33 billion Pacific Northwest energy and infrastructure proposal would end litigation over endangered salmon and authorize the removal of four dams on the Snake River in Washington beginning in 2030. U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson of East Idaho released the plan after asking more than 300 groups what they would need if the dams came out.
Power marketed by the Bonneville Power Administration from the four controversial dams would be replaced. Shippers and farmers would get funds for alternatives to the barge shipping on the Snake and compensation for closed barge facilities. Lewiston in Idaho and the Tri-Cities in Washington would get billions for economic development.
Farmers across the Pacific Northwest, including those in Idaho’s Magic Valley, would get billions of dollars in incentives for water-quality projects. Farmers in Washington that now pump out of the reservoirs behind the Snake dams would get millions in compensation that they could use for altering their diversions.
The plan would be funded by a federal infrastructure bill.
“If we give the farmers, bargers, ports, the BPA and communities the necessary resources, each sector can develop a certainty and security putting the Northwest and Idaho salmon on a path to sustained viability,” Simpson said in a video news release released Saturday night.
Simpson says his “concept” would ban litigation over the four Columbia River dams for 35 years and increase salmon funding for states and tribes, which would co-manage salmon restoration.
The newly free-flowing river would be protected in a proposed Lower Snake River National Recreation Area.
Other dams, such as Idaho Power’s Hells Canyon Complex, would have their licenses extended for 35 years with a cap of 50 years. A $500 million fund would be set up to provide an incentive to voluntarily remove dams like these and other river structures.
Simpson said a bill crafted by the bipartisan Pacific Northwest congressional delegation and the governors of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana could be incorporated into an infrastructure package proposed by President Joe Biden this year, when the delegation has the most clout because of its tenure and committee assignments.
The plan calls for removing the Ice Harbor, Little Goose, Lower Monumental and Lower Granite dams — all four of the dams between Lewiston and the confluence with the Columbia River near the Tri-Cities.
For Idahoans, Simpson’s proposal would improve the salmon fisheries and overall water quality, while working to keep power rates down. It also would boost the economies of rural communities along the Salmon River all the way to Stanley. But it would remove Lewiston’s port.
Idaho salmon runs have dwindled from the millions of wild fish to, in some years, only a few thousand. Fewer than 4,000 wild spring chinook returned to Idaho in 2019.
“I want to be clear that I’m not certain removing these dams will restore Idaho salmon and prevent their extinction,” Simpson said. “But I am certain if we do not take this course of action, we are condemning Idaho salmon to extinction.”
