Dams unsupported

For years, advocates of saving salmon and ending wasteful spending have urged elected leaders to get serious about the cost and value of the Snake River dams. Thanks to Patagonia, maybe more pressure is now being applied.

Del Carmen’s May 17 letter contains the same misinformation and false consequences that “save the dams” folks have been saying for years. I will address each of his assertions.

Power: All the federal power is managed and distributed by the Bonneville Power Administration. Removing the Snake dams would have little or no effect on Whitman County electricity rates. The six dams on the Columbia produce about 95 percent of BPA’s power, the four on the Snake about 5 percent.

Flooding: The Snake dams are “run of the river,” meaning what goes into the reservoir, must come out. With neither storage nor flood plain, these dams actually accelerate downstream flooding.

Irrigation: Irrigation occurs near the confluence with the Columbia. The small acreage is approximately the same as it was pre-dams.

Navigation: Barging from all of the Snake River ports has been diminishing for years. Only massive tax- and rate-payer subsidies have kept the system going.

Facts support my assertions; nothing supports Carmen’s.

Harvey Morrison

Spokane