Ithaca 37
New member
I hope this will help clarify the dam situation:
The cost of gridlock: How we all pay
Shippers
The Potlatch forest-products plant has historically accounted for about 40 percent of container shipping through the nearby port of Lewiston. But Potlatch — frustrated with bottlenecks in the port of Portland downstream from Lewiston — is now doing much of its shipping by rail and truck to Puget Sound ports.
Potlatch says Lewiston and the other lower Snake River ports in Washington remain in its long-term shipping plans. But what about the ports' future? "We've been asked about that a lot," Lewiston port Commissioner Dale Alldredge says.
No wonder. Four lower Snake River dams helped create the ports. But many scientists say breaching the dams would give Idaho salmon their best and perhaps only chance at recovery. This lingering debate leaves the ports — and cities such as Lewiston — in economic limbo.
Water users
As long as the region struggles to figure out how to save salmon, Idaho water will be at risk. That places pressure on farmers, who control about 93 percent of the water taken from the Snake River, its tributaries and the aquifer fed by the river.
Water users dodged a bullet this month. U.S. District Judge James Redden said no to salmon advocates who wanted him to use Idaho water to speed up the flow of the river and push young salmon to the ocean. But their request underscores the continuing, unresolved battle between Idaho farmers and downstream groups. Both covet water that is in especially scarce supply during a drought.
River communities
When salmon season comes to a small town, visiting anglers spend millions of dollars on meals, motels and gear. "(It's) what Christmas is to Wal-Mart," said Don Reading, a Boise economist who has studied the value of salmon fishing.
But Christmas comes every year; big salmon runs don't.
And Idaho won't reap the full benefit of salmon fishing — $544 million a year, Reading says, spent largely in towns that have lost mining or timber jobs — until salmon runs come back to where they were in the 1950s. Reading's forecasts assume developers will build hotels and lodges in towns such as Riggins and Challis, but developers won't invest until they can bank on an annual salmon season.
Indian tribes
Northwest tribes have relied on salmon fishing for sustenance and spiritual renewal for millennia. "Salmon are the heart of our culture, our beliefs, our traditions, our language, our health and our economy," says Rebecca Miles, above, chairwoman of Nez Perce Tribe.
An 1855 treaty with the federal government gives the tribe fishing rights — but if the salmon don't come back, tribal members can't catch them. The tribe has voluntarily reduced its salmon harvest as fish populations have fallen but fiercely defends its right to fish. As Miles told a congressional hearing in Clarkston, Wash., this month, "We are not an interest group. We are a sovereign nation."
Power consumers
On the upper reaches of the Snake River, about 500 miles from Lewiston, Idaho Falls wrings hydropower from four city-operated dams. But as a Bonneville Power Administration utility, it buys its power from the federal government.
So Idaho Falls' 20,300 residential and 3,150 commercial customers could pay higher electric bills to save Idaho salmon. Redden wants BPA to "spill" water over five Snake and Columbia river dams, rather than running water through dams that produce cheap power but kill young fish. The BPA says the spill would cost ratepayers $67 million. In Idaho Falls, that should translate to about $2.25 a month, a 2.5 percent increase, said Mark Gendron, manager of the city's electric utility. The spill order is under appeal. But the lack of a salmon recovery plan means customers of BPA, which supplies about a fifth of the power used in Idaho, are subject to changing rates.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050619/NEWS05/506190321/1052
The cost of gridlock: How we all pay
Shippers
The Potlatch forest-products plant has historically accounted for about 40 percent of container shipping through the nearby port of Lewiston. But Potlatch — frustrated with bottlenecks in the port of Portland downstream from Lewiston — is now doing much of its shipping by rail and truck to Puget Sound ports.
Potlatch says Lewiston and the other lower Snake River ports in Washington remain in its long-term shipping plans. But what about the ports' future? "We've been asked about that a lot," Lewiston port Commissioner Dale Alldredge says.
No wonder. Four lower Snake River dams helped create the ports. But many scientists say breaching the dams would give Idaho salmon their best and perhaps only chance at recovery. This lingering debate leaves the ports — and cities such as Lewiston — in economic limbo.
Water users
As long as the region struggles to figure out how to save salmon, Idaho water will be at risk. That places pressure on farmers, who control about 93 percent of the water taken from the Snake River, its tributaries and the aquifer fed by the river.
Water users dodged a bullet this month. U.S. District Judge James Redden said no to salmon advocates who wanted him to use Idaho water to speed up the flow of the river and push young salmon to the ocean. But their request underscores the continuing, unresolved battle between Idaho farmers and downstream groups. Both covet water that is in especially scarce supply during a drought.
River communities
When salmon season comes to a small town, visiting anglers spend millions of dollars on meals, motels and gear. "(It's) what Christmas is to Wal-Mart," said Don Reading, a Boise economist who has studied the value of salmon fishing.
But Christmas comes every year; big salmon runs don't.
And Idaho won't reap the full benefit of salmon fishing — $544 million a year, Reading says, spent largely in towns that have lost mining or timber jobs — until salmon runs come back to where they were in the 1950s. Reading's forecasts assume developers will build hotels and lodges in towns such as Riggins and Challis, but developers won't invest until they can bank on an annual salmon season.
Indian tribes
Northwest tribes have relied on salmon fishing for sustenance and spiritual renewal for millennia. "Salmon are the heart of our culture, our beliefs, our traditions, our language, our health and our economy," says Rebecca Miles, above, chairwoman of Nez Perce Tribe.
An 1855 treaty with the federal government gives the tribe fishing rights — but if the salmon don't come back, tribal members can't catch them. The tribe has voluntarily reduced its salmon harvest as fish populations have fallen but fiercely defends its right to fish. As Miles told a congressional hearing in Clarkston, Wash., this month, "We are not an interest group. We are a sovereign nation."
Power consumers
On the upper reaches of the Snake River, about 500 miles from Lewiston, Idaho Falls wrings hydropower from four city-operated dams. But as a Bonneville Power Administration utility, it buys its power from the federal government.
So Idaho Falls' 20,300 residential and 3,150 commercial customers could pay higher electric bills to save Idaho salmon. Redden wants BPA to "spill" water over five Snake and Columbia river dams, rather than running water through dams that produce cheap power but kill young fish. The BPA says the spill would cost ratepayers $67 million. In Idaho Falls, that should translate to about $2.25 a month, a 2.5 percent increase, said Mark Gendron, manager of the city's electric utility. The spill order is under appeal. But the lack of a salmon recovery plan means customers of BPA, which supplies about a fifth of the power used in Idaho, are subject to changing rates.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050619/NEWS05/506190321/1052
