Oregon governor is off base. Breaching the Snake River dams is not the answer | Editorial

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s support for a future without the Snake River dams does not align with reality.

Her letter, penned to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee earlier this month, stated that, “The science is clear that removing the earthen portion of the four lower Snake River dams is the most certain and robust solution to Snake River salmon and steelhead recovery.”

In truth, federal studies have shown time and again that breaching the Snake River dams would do little to boost the salmon population.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration concluded in the past that removing the dams is not necessary to help salmon and orcas.

Its newest findings will be released later this month as part of a U.S. Court-ordered federal environmental study, but NOAA reported last summer that its conclusions likely will be similar to those in previous years.

So we are not certain which “science” Brown is referring to in her letter.

There have been private studies funded by groups looking for results they agree with, but those cannot be considered reliable.

Brown’s letter does more harm than good, spurring on the misguided idea that breaching the Snake River dams is a panacea that will increase wild salmon and save the Southern Resident Orca.

This perception is wrong. And it is dangerous because it allows people to ignore other, more effective ways to improve marine life habitat.

Salmon populations are declining worldwide, not just off the Northwest coast.

Ocean conditions are a critical piece in this debate, and now we have reports of traces of meth and other drugs found in Seattle waters.

Scientists from the University of Washington in Seattle and Tacoma used new technology to collect water samples at 18 different sites in Puget Sound, and they identified 64 chemicals that had never been detected before, according to The Daily Herald in Everett.

Their report was released in December, and the chemicals found include herbicides, food additives, antidepressants, blood pressure medication and chemicals found in plastics and tires. Some of these are considered to be at harmful levels for marine life, The Daily Herald reported.

Todd Myers, of the Washington Policy Center and a member of the Puget Sound Recovery Council, spoke on the issue at a legislative committee meeting in Olympia last month.

“If we are going to recover salmon stocks and if we are going to especially help the orca, the battle will be won or lost in Puget Sound. This is where the battle is,” he said.

Myers said that fish that end up on the edges of the water in the Montlake Cut in Seattle die because of pollution.

In addition to ignoring problems in Puget Sound, Brown’s letter also skims over the looming power shortage that’s worrying lawmakers and leaders of regional utility districts.

In the last several days, the Tri-City Herald has published two guest opinions on the topic. One was written by Sen. Maureen Walsh, R-College Place, and the other by Benton PUD Commissioner Lori Sanders.

Both questioned how we can discuss plans to get rid of the Snake River dams — and the reliable, clean hydropower they produce — when the state’s new clean energy rules gut our power supply in the near future.

The Washington Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA), which was approved by the state Legislature last year, removes coal as a power source, which has utility leaders scrambling to find ways to quickly make up for that loss in power production.

Oregon’s 18 rural electric co-ops were blindsided by Brown’s letter, according to Willamette Week.

The co-ops serve customers mostly in rural Oregon, and they depend on low cost hydro power. The newspaper reported that co-op representatives were angered Brown would favor taking the dams away, which would cause an economic burden for rural residents in the state.

Brown’s letter was unnecessary and unfortunate. She wrote of removing the Snake River dams as if that was the magic answer to saving fish and whales, and it isn’t.