Salmon Recovery Backfiring, Lawmakers Told Water Policies Ineffective, A Drain On States, Orofino Official Says

The federal government’s efforts to help salmon are “an absolutely rudderless ship” that spends a lot of money with questionable results, a witness told a congressional hearing Friday.

James Grunke, executive director of the Orofino Chamber of Commerce, said his North Idaho community has been hard hit by water policies intended to help salmon.

“We feel the direct impact of salmon recovery every year,” he said, when Dworshak Reservoir is drawn down to provide more water for salmon in the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia river system.

Using that water to flush salmon, ignoring the severe impact on Orofino, is “completely ill-conceived.”

Dworshak Reservoir has been dropped up to 115 feet in recent years, Grunke said, turning one of the region’s top recreation facilities into “an unusable mud bog that nobody would want to use to recreate.”

“The community of Orofino is the sacrificial lamb of salmon recovery efforts,” he said, estimating the economic impact of drawdowns at $3.3 million in 1992, $5 million in 1993 and $7.1 million in 1994.

Like others testifying before a hearing conducted by Rep. Michael Crapo, Grunke called for better coordination of efforts to save salmon.

Boise attorney Bruce Smith, who represented clients in the timber, mining and agricultural industries, said, “Problems with the dams on the Columbia and lower Snake rivers remain the foremost obstacle to salmon recovery efforts,” but the National Marine Fisheries Service seems to be searching for a solution using Idaho water and habitat management.

“NMFS cannot solve the problems at the lower Snake River dams by requiring more Idaho water and by trying to mitigate for the problems by shifting its focus to habitat measures,” he said.

Peter Wilson, vice president of the Port of Lewiston Commission, said area farmers are highly dependent on river transportation for their products.

“Today, there are proposals that sug gest the four lower Snake River dams should be removed or breached and that stretch of the river should be returned to its natural state,” he said.

The port commission feels it’s too early for such action before there’s scientific consensus on its value, he said. “There currently is no such consensus about dam breaching,” Wilson said.

“No one has more incentive to solve the salmon problems in Idaho than the Port of Lewiston,” Wilson said. “We will strive to maintain the defense of the economic interests of our valley and our state without making demands that others bear the entire burden of saving salmon.”

Scott Campbell, witness for the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation, said that “some of Idaho’s hardest-working citizens” feel they are under siege from their own government. He said despite restrictions that have hurt farmers, little has been accomplished.

“Unless the Environmental Species Act is substantially changed, the citizens of Idaho and other states in the West will become ever more polarized and combative,” Campbell said.

He urged Congress to change environmental laws to balance “the real economic interests of citizens” with the efforts to preserve species.