Something Wicked This Way Comes

Today on the Cable Bridge that connects Kennewick and Pasco, residents and leaders of the Inland Northwest will gather above the rolling waters of the Columbia River for a rally in defense of our region’s hydroelectric dams.

It’s about time. The dams are a cornerstone of the Northwest economy. Indeed, they supply power important to California, as well.

But the dams are under attack, and it is an attack to be taken seriously. Several years ago, concerns for the spotted owl shut down timber harvests on some of the world’s most productive forest land. Now, the salmon is the endangered-species poster critter and the solution environmentalists have seized upon is breaching dams, dropping their reservoirs and shutting off their generators.

The owl fiasco left many coastal communities in a state of economic depression. Potential consequences of the assault on hydroeletric power make the spotted owl issue seem puny. Dams support numerous industries and hundreds of cities.

True, salmon runs also have been a regional asset. But they are just one asset, and there are many reasons for their decline - as shown by the fact salmon are considered threatened on coastal rivers that have no dams.

The complexity and importance of the issue is easy to lose as the salmon becomes a political celebrity. This year, national magazines and activist groups have begun breezy reports on the breaching of dams. It’s a dandy melodrama: Salmon good. Dams bad. According to the usual script, the dams at risk don’t generate much power and their reservoirs provide shipping for just a few evil corporations.

The people of our region need to confront this hogwash. In fact, barges on the Columbia and Snake are essential to shipping for the huge inland farming industry, whose old railroad spurs have been abandoned. Reservoirs also are valuable for boating, fishing and flood control.

And the power? According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the total rated generating capacity of the four dams on the lower Snake River is 3,000 megawatts. The capacity of John Day Dam, also a target for breaching, is 2,160 megawatts. To put that in context, the total generating capacity of dams owned by Avista Corp., which serves much of the Inland Northwest, is 955 megawatts. The Northwest Power Planning Council has estimated that to replace the capacity of John Day with combustion turbines would cost $1.25 billion. Care to pay that tab, ratepayers?

The stakes, for our region, could not be higher. We will need more than a rally, however, to keep our economy strong. The issue isn’t just fish. The issue is Boeing, Microsoft, Intel, Kaiser, wheat, irrigated farming, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Spokane and a lot of other towns and industries in between.