‘I Was Just A Fisherman Who Got Mad,’ Activist Says Clothing Store Owner Sued To Stop Dam-Building In ‘70

Art Solomon Jr. was no political activist when he sued the federal government in 1970 to stop construction of Lower Granite Dam.

“I was just a fisherman who got mad,” says Solomon, 71, who owned a women’s clothing store in Spokane. “Everyone told me it couldn’t be done.”

No one had worried much about salmon and steelhead runs when the first three Snake River dams were built in Washington. Adult fish and fingerlings would use fish ladders “with very little delay or loss,” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers brochures said.

Fisherman soon suspected that wasn’t true. Solomon and steelheading buddies noticed a decline on the Grande Ronde River, a tributary of the Snake where they did most of their fishing. He became determined to stop the fourth dam.

With Solomon as their leader, eight fishing and conservation groups filed the lawsuit. In a move that shocked the dam’s proponents, they were joined by the state of Washington.

Before the lawsuit, Solomon fished at least once a week. During the seven years the case was working its way through the courts, he didn’t fish at all.

He became comfortable walking the corridors of the state Capitol, lobbying legislators to support the cause. He persuaded Trout Unlimited, a national conservation group, to help with fund-raising. In one day, he sent telegrams to every member of Congress, and got return calls from some of their staff.

Fisherman Glen Kivett, who worked with Solomon on the suit, remembers being called anti-American for the stand he was taking.

“I didn’t think I was an enemy of the United States,” he says. “I wanted to make sure my boy had a place to fish.”

Ultimately, the naysayers were right. A federal judge tossed out the suit two years after the dam was completed. But first the judge ordered the government to spend more than $50 million replacing some of the wildlife habitat lost to the new reservoir, building fish hatcheries and making the dam less deadly to fish.

“If it wasn’t for the suit, they wouldn’t have done a bit of mitigation,” says Kivett.

Solomon, Kivett and others believe that the added cost of helping wildlife was enough to scuttle other proposed Snake River dams, including one that would have flooded Hells Canyon.

Kivett, 74, says if he were a younger man, he’d join the fight to dismantle the four dams, even if odds of victory are slim. He doesn’t regret the effort he put into the losing legal battle nearly 30 years ago.

“At least I’ll never have to explain to my grandchildren why I never did anything,” he says.