Less pork, more salmon

If there was ever a pork barrel project, dock extension at the Port of Lewiston is it. The port employs six people. Yet, it was just awarded a federal grant to double the size of its dock. Over the past decade the port has seen container shipments decline by approximately 75 percent. That includes lumber, paper and grains. Unit trains are coming to the Palouse, indicating barge traffic will decrease further.

If U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and port manager David Doeringsfeld are serious about creating jobs and boosting the regional economy, then we need a modern facility that can efficiently transport goods to domestic and international markets to the east and west. Viewing the Columbia River system as a “marine highway” is a dead end.

With wild salmon populations declining and the Obama administration’s biological opinion declared illegal, dock extension makes even less sense. If dam decommissioning is going to be on the table, as Sen. Mike Crapo suggests, then why are taxpayers being forced to invest in the status quo?

At the end of the day, we need less cement in our waterways, a 21st century transportation system and more wild salmon in our rivers.

Brett Haverstick

Moscow, Idaho