Senators Clash Over Breaching Outlook Murray Says Dams Unlikely To Go; Gorton Says Removal Is Possible

Two different senators at two different meetings got the same question Thursday: Is Congress going to allow the Inland Northwest’s dams to be breached?

They gave two different answers.

“I don’t think Congress is anywhere close to doing that,” Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat, told a group gathered in the new conference room at the nearly finished Grant County International Airport. “It’s one thing to talk about it. It’s another thing to take a vote that’s going to cost money.”

Sen. Slade Gorton, a Republican, told some of the same members of the Save Our Dams group that removal of some dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers could happen.

It’s true Congress would have to approve the removal of any federal dam on the rivers, Gorton told some 50 people gathered in the pasture at Al and Mardine Brower’s farm east of Moses Lake. “That is not the rule for dams that are not owned by the federal government.”

Dam breaching - removing much of the structure so water flows freely and possibly helps restore endangered salmon runs - is being studied by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for four structures on the lower Snake. All four are federal dams, the kind that Gorton and Murray agree are unlikely to receive billions of dollars from Congress to be breached.

Farmers who sat on hay bales in the Browers’ pasture asked Gorton why the declining wild salmon can’t be replaced by hatchery-bred salmon.

Scientists are divided over the question of wild versus hatchery-raised fish, Gorton said.

“The demand for natural runs comes from a mindset that says the state of nature is better than anything man has done to improve it,” he said.

Asked if the salmon are truly endangered, Murray said there’s no doubt they are.

“The question everybody is struggling with is, how much is enough to try to save” the Columbia and Snake runs, she said.

Members of Save Our Dams gave Gorton and Murray caps, T-shirts and copies of the same petitions they presented to House Speaker Dennis Hastert in Spokane on Wednesday. The stack of papers contain 70,000 signatures from people who oppose dam breaching, said Tom Flint of Ephrata.

Gorton said the majority of the Senate already would oppose dam breaching and suggested the group send the petitions to the White House.

“The biggest single help is to get a new president with a different attitude,” he told the group.

Murray said the biggest help would be to stop wasting “political capital” talking about dam breaching and start talking about other ideas to improve the salmon runs. That will keep a federal judge from ordering drastic measures, as was the case with the endangered spotted owl, she said.

Flint, who talked to both senators about the dams on Thursday, said he thinks Gorton is closer to being right than Murray.

Five years ago, he thought dam breaching wasn’t possible, Flint said. Now, he believes environmental groups are pushing so hard it’s a serious prospect.