Breaching Effects Minimized Corps Study Says Only 500 Jobs Would Be Lost

Breaching Snake River dams would have little long-term impact on employment in the Inland Northwest, according to a soon-to-be-released government study.

The report for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is just one element of a $20 million study on dam breaching. Its results were published last week by The Oregonian, which obtained a copy from sources the newspaper didn’t name.

Breaching the dams would cost the region fewer than 500 jobs in the long-run, the study says. In the short-run, it would create 10,000 high-paying construction jobs for the nine-year breaching project.

Corps spokesman Greg Graham, who verified the accuracy of the newspaper report, said the study takes into account farm jobs, like those at Broetje Orchards, which the authors assumed would disappear. Jobs lost in agriculture, barging and other industries in Eastern Washington could be off-set by recreation-related jobs created upstream, the study says.

Critics say the predictions are preposterously optimistic. Proponents of breaching say the outlook is actually better than the economists predict.

Liz Hamilton, executive director of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, notes that the economists didn’t consider job gains in coastal communities if sport fishing seasons are made longer.

Hamilton contends that Northwest guides, tackle manufacturers and sporting goods dealers have lost 10,000 jobs in the past decade due to the decline of salmon and steelhead. But while politicians have talked much about the farm, manufacturing and transportation jobs threatened by breaching, few have mentioned the jobs Hamilton’s industry has already lost.

“The years that I’ve been at this desk, I’ve seen a lot of businesses go under,” Hamilton said from her office in Oregon City, Ore. “I’ve seen some big ones with losses in the millions. The lucky ones are just holding their own.”