Feds Find Reservoir Of Support For Dams Washtucna, Kahlotus Residents Decidedly Against Breaching Four Dams For Salmon
Judging by the size of the crowd in the gymnasium Tuesday night, a visitor might have thought the Tigercats were about to take on basketball rival Connell.
But this was no game to the 300 or so farmers, shopkeepers, government workers and retirees who came to Washtucna High School at the invitation of the federal government.
Sitting at seven tables on the gym floor were perhaps 75 residents of Washtucna and nearby Kahlotus - towns of fewer than 300 residents each. Their task was to predict how their communities might change economically and socially if Snake River dams are mothballed in an attempt to save salmon.
More than 200 other people watched from the bleachers, having arrived by bus or car from as far away as Yakima, nearly 100 miles to the west.
Somewhere in the crowd, there may have been a soul who believes it’s a good idea to breach the dams.
“If there is, I haven’t talked to him,” said Sid Mayes, a farmhand from 20 miles up the road. “People are real concerned.”
Asked on a scale of minus 5 to plus 5 what impact dam breaching would have on the towns’ economies, most people said minus 5. Only one person said it would be a wash, and one other said the town would be slightly better off.
Dam-breaching may be an esoteric debate in Spokane, Coeur d’Alene or Washington, D.C. Here it’s real.
The four dams were built in the 1960s and ‘70s, primarily so barges could navigate the river. Those barges carry wheat, and wheat is the lifeblood of towns like Washtucna.
But as reservoirs behind the dams were filling, salmon runs on the Snake River plummeted, and many since have been added to the federal list of endangered species. Taking out the dams is the surest way to ensure that the fish survive, a team of scientists recently concluded.
The towns already have their share of troubles, although participants at Tuesday’s meeting rate their overall quality of life as high. Big-city crime is nonexistent, they said, and mule deer sometimes wander through Washtucna.
Populations boomed during the dam-building years, but have fallen since, along with school enrollments. Kids have trouble finding jobs, participants said, and can’t afford to take up farming. So, they’re raising their own children elsewhere.
Railroads, which once ran through both towns, pulled up tracks after Congress deregulated the industry in the 1980s. Burlington Northern and other companies could make more money in regions where there is no competition from highly subsidized barge traffic.
Some stores at the western edge of Franklin County have moved to shopping centers in the Tri-Cities, taking their tax dollars with them, and nearly as many town residents now work for the government as in agriculture.
“If the dams go out, then what?” asked Larry Van Buren of Kahlotus. “Is there going to be an influx of jobs (for deconstruction of the dams) for a little while, followed by a graveyard?”
Few in the crowd would be affected by breaching as directly as Bob Hagman, the manager of the Central Ferry grain terminal along the river. The terminal would be shut down if the reservoirs are drained.
Hagman, who has worked at river ports for 27 years, said he’s skeptical that the concerns expressed Tuesday night will make much difference when the time comes to decide the fate of the dams.
“I’ve been going to these meetings ever since this (idea) started. Seems like 10 years,” although it’s only been half that long, Hagman said.
“Tonight, I’m just here to see what they have to say this time.”
This sidebar appeared with the story: Meetings Tuesday’s meeting was the second of its kind sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and led by University of Idaho sociologists. Identical meetings are planned this month and next in 15 other towns in Washington, Idaho and Oregon.