Craig’s Challenger Backs 3-Year Test Of Drawdowns

Democratic U.S. Senate challenger Walt Minnick says he supports a three-year test of drawing down four lower Snake River reservoirs to help save dwindling Northwest salmon and steelhead runs.

“You aren’t going to know whether it works unless you do it for three years,” Minnick said Friday during a campaign swing through Lewiston. “If you are going to draw one down, then draw all four down.”

The former Boise forest products executive challenging Republican Sen. Larry Craig in 1996 said he would support subsidizing truck and rail freight for shippers inconvenienced by the 8-week-long drawdowns with roughly $10 million.

“We are going to have to choose between inconveniencing shippers and saving steelhead,” Minnick said. “Not everything I say will be popular with every audience, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to say it.”

He said drawing down the lower Snake River reservoirs in Eastern Washington during April and May would not cost much in power generation and would take less water than the federal government’s fish flush program, which calls for water to be drawn from upstream reservoirs.

Drawdowns also would be better for agricultural interests, he said.