Herald readers have a lot to say on Snake dams and a direct train route to Seattle | Opinion
No guarantees with dam removal
Kudos to Rep. Dan Newhouse and the Tri-City Herald for their well-informed efforts to save the Snake River dams. Advocates for removing these dams are unrealistically arguing that salmon runs would be restored. Prospects for restoring salmon to pre-dam levels are exceedingly low, with or without dams.
Yes, dams have reduced salmon runs, as have ocean factors including over-fishing, pollution and warming. U.S. and Canadian studies of salmon returns on dammed and undammed rivers indicate ocean factors are the primary cause of poor returns. Poor returns of some salmon species have continued for more than a decade after dam removal with no clear evidence of future success.
Ocean temperatures are spiraling upward, progressively endangering salmon and other sea life. The world lacks the financial resources and proven technologies to quickly reverse global warming. Decades will be required to replace fossil fuels with alternatives that have serious technical shortcomings. Ocean warming, and its adverse effects on salmon, will continue indefinitely.
Pragmatic solutions are needed, not wishful thinking. Rather than remove essential dams, we should develop more-resilient strains of salmon and enhance land-based salmon farming. We should incentivize Native Americans to employ these technologies to augment depleted salmon runs.
Russ Treat, Richland
Snake salmon die ‘by 1,000 cuts’
I attended the recent field hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee on the importance of Eastern Washington’s Lower Snake River dams. Rep. Dan Newhouse’s invitation promised “experts in fish and science, power and transmission, navigation and transportation, and food, irrigation, and trade.” Instead I witnessed a “dog and pony show” warning of dangers of breaching the four lower Snake River dams.
I hoped for a discussion of why Columbia River salmon and steelhead have not returned to historic, pre-dam numbers despite the investment of over $1 billion to improve fish survival. Several panelists suggested that it is not the dams but rather ocean conditions that cause the low salmon return rates.
One panelist mentioned bass fishing is popular in Lewiston. Dams create reservoirs that require ocean-bound smolts to pass from a cold water river through warm-water pools where they are exposed to predation by bass, walleye and crappie. A recent study estimated that 300,373 juvenile Chinook salmon were lost to smallmouth bass predation in the upper portion of Lower Granite Reservoir over a three-year period.
“Death by a thousand cuts” is a good description of the current fate of Columbia River salmon and steelhead.
Edward A. Lisowski, Yakima
Restore Tri-City rail service to Seattle
I was heartened to read that there’s an effort to restore rail service from the Tri Cities to Seattle. I hope the local communities will get behind the effort because it’s a necessary part of expanding transportation across the Cascades.
Driving is a miserable slog, flying is quick until you get to SeaTac and buses are no better than driving.
I admit I love train travel so I am biased. As a child my parents would put me on the train to Tacoma or Spokane to visit relatives. Eating in the dining car as the train traveled through Yakima canyon seemed so sophisticated at the time. This was before Amtrak and the Northern Pacific was running trains through Pasco and Kennewick.
Back to today. A new station, cooperation with other cities along the route could be the start of something good. Tie it in to the local wine industry and who knows?
Robert Doyle, Sedro Woolley
