Corps Studies Plan To Breach 4 Dams

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has included Boise piano teacher Reed Burkholder’s idea for breaching four lower Snake River dams among proposals being studied to save endangered salmon runs.

“It is a significant idea, and it is being seriously considered,” said Nola Conway, a spokeswoman for the Walla Walla District of the corps, which manages eight federal dams in the Snake River Basin.

Burkholder’s idea would revert the lower Snake from Lewiston to Kennewick to a free-flowing river, complete with rapids. While Burkholder and others believe that would halt the sharp decline of Idaho’s salmon, many dismiss the idea.

Returning the river to year-round natural flows is just one in a wide range of possibilities being evaluated by the corps, including leaving the system completely unchanged.

Idaho’s population of chinook and sockeye salmon - which return from the Pacific Ocean to spawn in the state’s lakes, streams and rivers - are protected under theEndangered Species Act.