Pasco Chamber of Commerce: Another year, and Lower Snake River dams removal activists continue to press

Like Groundhog Day, the Progress Edition article from the Pasco Chamber of Commerce has always featured an element of the importance of the Lower Snake River Dams to our region and the Northwest. Once again, this year is no different.

Last year’s Progress report took to task Gov. Jay Inslee’s Orca task force study of removal of the dams in response to the dire state of the southern resident orca population and the pod’s loss of a calf. This turned out to be a waste of our taxpayer dollars, since the study concluded that “residents remain deeply divided” on this topic.

In addition, the Army Corp of Engineers had just concluded its multi-million dollar and multi-year draft environmental impact study on our hydropower system and found that keeping the Lower Snake River Dams is the preferential option. I summarized by stating that the fate of the dams are in the U.S. House of Representatives’ hands.

I should be careful what I say. Earlier this year, Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, released a proposal to remove the Lower Snake River dams — at a price tag of over $34 billion. To be clear, there is no legislation. But that price tag should prove the value of these dams.

That is more than NASA’s 2019 estimates of $20 billion to $30 billion to get man back to the moon. Tokyo Olympics has a $13.5 billion price tag. And it’s 12 times the cost of SoFi Stadium in California, which well exceeded the original budget of $2.5 billion.

So, removing over 1,000 megawatts of carbon-free energy when an additional 4,000 megawatts of fossil fuel is coming off the grid in the next handful of years makes absolutely no sense. I don’t believe there will be unanimous support from our Northwest congressional delegation for Rep. Simpson’s proposal, but we should fear what the Biden Administration might do with this fissure. During the Clinton Administration, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt made an effort to remove the Lower Snake River Dams, yet we as a community fought back and won.

The Pasco Chamber has taken the position that our resources are better served to focus on speedy environmental rehabilitation of Puget Sound and its salmon-bearing rivers to have the greatest positive impact on the recovery of the Pacific Salmon.

To be proactive on this topic, we launched “RiverFest, Our Rivers, Our Way of Life” community event in September 2018. Over the years, we have partnered with over 150 organizations from around the Northwest to tell their story of how the river system is important to them.

With a lot of support and help from the community, we had over 7,000 people attend this family friendly event that featured hands on activities for children and educational facts for the community highlighting the importance of our river system. RiverFest even inspired Congress to host a congressional field hearing for the House Natural Resources Committee to discuss the Lower Snake River Dams.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t continue this tradition again last fall because of COVID-19, but we pivoted to take advantage of the situation and take our message digital. We produced a documentary titled “Our Rivers, Our Life” and broadcast it on locally on KVEW TV reaching over 16,000 households in Eastern Washington and Northeastern Oregon, and launched a digital campaign targeting the I-5 corridor producing nearly 1,000,000 impressions. And we are attempting to further engage the Seattle area featuring “Our Rivers, Our Life” on broadcast TV. You can watch sections and the whole feature at RiverFestwa.com.

This year we are proud to have the leadership of Jason Hogue of American Family Insurance in Pasco, as the 2020-21 board president. Jason is a strong leader with marketing experience and a great sense of humor.

The Pasco Chamber of Commerce remains a friendly and personable group of businesses and professionals who have not lost sight of person-to-person contact and the comfort that comes with attending monthly luncheons, albeit virtually, where everyone gets to know your name. 

Over 100 years ago, the Pasco Chamber was created to promote and advocate for economic development and free enterprise. Pasco Chamber membership provides small business affordable entry to our region’s growing economy and business community.

Over the last year, we urged the governor to offer fair and reasonable restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19, and not hurt small businesses that can’t compete with megastores that were able to remain open. We also assisted in dispersing CARES Act money for businesses impacted by COVID-19 and continue to assist making our business workplaces safe for employees and customers.

Network and increase your company’s visibility to demonstrate your commitment to the residents and businesses of Pasco. Not only is the Pasco Chamber the champion of agri-business, it provides a conduit to the growth potential for your business since Pasco’s population is expected to grow 50,000 in the next 20 years. The application takes two minutes and is available at pascochamber.org/online-application.html

This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 12:08 AM with the headline "Pasco Chamber of Commerce: Another year, and Lower Snake River dams removal activists continue to press."