Dam Breaching Cost Could Hit $360 Million

The cost of replacing the power lost by breaching four lower Snake River hydroelectric dams to save salmon could run anywhere from $150 million to $360 million annually, a preliminary federal study estimates.

But the research is incomplete and has not determined yet if power rates would even rise.

“The facts are not in yet,” Army Corps of Engineers feasibility study manager Greg Graham told a Thursday public briefing.

Removing the earthen embankments along the dams downstream of Lewiston is one of three approaches the agency is studying to revive struggling wild salmon and steelhead runs in Idaho.

The other two are maintaining the current system which includes barging juvenile salmon, and major system improvements to the dams. A draft environmental impact statement will be released in April.

An economic work group has made preliminary estimates of some of the impacts of breaching the dams.

The group put the increased cost of transporting crops by rail instead of barge at up to $60 million a year. And water supply impacts, including loss of farmland, are estimated at $8.6 million to $20.8 million annually.

But about $25 million per year spent to operate the dams would be saved.