||| FROM SHARON GRACE |||
Is breaching the four lower Snake River dams a tough decision for us or OPALCO? While anything can be argued from many sides, where do the facts lead? Do economics, science and ethics strongly point in one direction towards breaching the four dams?
The Bonneville Power Administration-funded Fish Passage Center has established that the four lower Snake River dams are driving Snake River salmon and steelhead (“salmon”) runs to extinction. Therefore, we must make a choice between saving Snake River salmon or preserving the arguable benefits the dams provide that either have been, or can be, replaced.
If you support dam breaching, please let OPALCO know.
First, it is a myth that breaching the four lower Snake River dams presents a choice between clean energy or iconic Northwest salmon. We can have both clean energy generated by existing new renewables—primarily solar and wind installations—and we can have abundant salmon and steelhead (“salmon”) runs. The Fish Passage Center’s studies reveal that if the lower Snake dams are breached and more water flushed (“spilled”) over the four Columbia mainstem dams, spring/summer chinook salmon abundance could increase as much as four-fold.
Second, OPALCO consumers will pay less for electricity if the dams are breached. The lower Snake River dams do not produce low-cost energy. In 2020 the federal government completed the Columbia River Systems Operations/EIS, (CRSO EIS). It showed the four dams on the lower Snake River must be breached to recover Snake River salmon. And with breaching, Snake River salmon will be restored and breaching will reduce Bonneville’s annual costs by up to 15 percent compared to the disastrous status quo—the No Action Alternative. See Table 3-309 below from the CRSO EIS, Chapter 3. (MO3 is the Alternative of breaching the four lower Snake River dams.)
Third, lower Snake River dam breaching will benefit the environment and help reduce climate change. The lower Snake dams have degraded the entire lower Snake River Basin ecosystem. The reservoirs behind the lower Snake River dams are methane factories. Algae growth is spurred in the dams’ reservoirs due to their warm temperatures and high nutrient loads from agricultural runoff trapped by the dams. Algae then decomposes in the reservoirs’ oxygen depleted water to produce significant amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas at least 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
The reservoirs also have flooded out riparian areas that previously acted as carbon sinks. Snake River Basin forests are less healthy because the dams have deprived them of marine nutrients formerly provided by abundant salmon runs. Consequently, the forests have reduced ability to sequester carbon, and have become more susceptible to wild fires that emit catastrophic amounts of hydrocarbons, which further propels climate change. Breaching the dams will recover salmon, return marine nutrients to the ecosystem, restore carbon sequestering riparian areas, and rebuild healthy forests that can again capture and store carbon. This will reduce climate change, help all living things on earth, and provide a safer and more secure environment for future generations.
Fourth, we do not need the energy produced by the lower Snake River dams. In the last decade the energy has been replaced many times over by solar and wind energy. There is a glut of energy in the West, and over 50% of the dams’ hydropower is produced during the spring runoff, the months with the least demand for power. The Snake River is at its lowest flows during the hot summer and coldest winter months when energy is needed most. Despite contrary claims, the Snake River dams did not provide anything other than its ordinary output of energy during the June 2021 heat dome and the December 2021 cold snap.
A few other points. Pro-dam advocates conflate the benefits provided by the entire 31 dams in the Federal Columbia River Power System with the benefits provided by the four lower Snake River dams. This is a mistake. The Snake River dams were the last built in the hydrosystem. They do not have the capability of producing the large amounts of energy of the earlier built storage dams, such as Grand Coulee or Chief Joseph dams. The Snake dams are run-of-river dams on a relatively low flow river that cannot store more than a few hours of useful water at any time. They are not storage dams in the sense that they can store water for days or weeks at a time and then release it to meet some urgent energy requirement. Thus, they have little potential to back up variable renewable energy.
Salmon on the lower Snake River are not recovering, as shown by the chart below. The orange line on the chart shows spring/summer chinook spiraling toward virtual or complete extinction. These are the fish the Southern Resident orcas historically depended upon to get them through the winter.
What is your choice? Let OPALCO know.
This should be an easy call for us and OPALCO. Do we allow salmon and the Southern Resident orcas to become extinct on our watch, in exchange for the relatively minimal benefits from the four lower Snake River dams for which there are ready alternatives? Or do we stand with the salmon and orcas to survive as species for future generations to enjoy?
OPALCO contact info: phone 360-376-3500, email communications@opalco.com.
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First, let’s restate the ultimate fact: OPALCO has no influence on whether the Lower Snake River Dams stay or go. OPALCO is contracted with BPA for all of its power purchases through 2028 and has zero ability to influence policy or where they purchase power to deliver to us. Grace continues to skew information in her Don Quixote campaign: OPALCO’s research yields a different set of facts and presents them with citations – read up and decide for yourselves https://www.opalco.com/newsroom/quick-facts/.
If you care deeply about species survival in the Salish Sea, the most important action you can take is to reduce (or eliminate) your carbon diet by electrifying your heating and transportation loads. OPALCO has tools, financing and incentives to help you do so. We are leading the charge in San Juan County toward clean energy, clean air and water. We can move the needle fast and effectively through decarbonization in our sensitive environment.
Let’s establish our common ground and work together. What we CAN DO is increase local energy resilience by changing land use designations in San Juan County (call your County Commissioners) to allow for renewable generation, switching from gas-powered transportation to electric vehicles, and making homes and businesses as efficient as possible.
Climate change is the fast-moving wildfire effecting the health and sustainability of our whole ecosystem and decarbonization is the remedy.
I agree with Suzanne Olson on this:’
If you care deeply about species survival in the Salish Sea, the most important action you can take is to reduce (or eliminate) your carbon diet by electrifying your heating and transportation loads. OPALCO has tools, financing and incentives to help you do so. We are leading the charge in San Juan County toward clean energy, clean air and water. We can move the needle fast and effectively through decarbonization in our sensitive environment.”
If we increase energy efficiency using OPALCO’s terrific incentive programs, the salmon and orcas will be better off. There are differing perspectives on whether the power produced by the four Lower Snake River dams is truly essential to a low carbon future. Each dam is unique, and the Snake River dams have built-in compromises; their sites and their designs were not optimised for producing hydropower because the best sites along the mainstem Columbia River were already taken. And designing for barge traffic introduced other less optimal features. For me, the methane question is really important. The data that MethaneSAT will produce will reveal the “bad actors” among the methane-releasing dams.
I feel Sharon’s grief deeply, and the thought that someone (not ourselves, of course) may be responsible for its cause gives rise to anger. and germinates witch hunts which while cathartic, expand the damage by destroying the ethos that we need to work together as a community to solve a very complex problem.
Since World War II, except for a fossil fuel blip in November 1973 (which I remember), we Have Had it All. The Club of Rome “Limits of Growth” report came out 50 years ago. Now, tragic evidence of long known limits have become visible and no longer theoretical to the average person. Not being used to restraint, fingers are pointed. Some of us, just enough of us, might look inward before pointing fingers.
It should be possible for a “consume less and live more” spirit to be sharable. It isn’t speech, it’s example, that speaks loudest.
As for the dueling data on the necessity and economics of the power produced by the four Lower Snake River dams, I find Sharon Grace’s position the more credible. The power produced by these dams is largely during the Spring from snow melt -when extra power is not needed. Extra power is sometimes needed in the summer and mid-winter when the Lower Snake River dams contribute very little because of the way they were engineered. The excess Spring power must be used -so it is transmitted at a steep discount to areas outside the Pacific Northwest, such as California. At times, BPA even must pay California utilities to take the excess power.
If you care about saving the salmon and orcas, call Governor Inslee’s office at 360-902-4111 and say you support breaching the Lower Snake River dams.
Call Senator Murray’s office at 206) 553-5545 and say you support breaching the Lower Snake River dams.
I’ll mention in regard to where OPALCO stands on the dams: “The regional power plans in place today depend on all current hydro production to rapidly decarbonize emissions from transportation, heating and power in the coming decades.”
It should be clarified the power plan only stays in effect for about 5 years until the next one re-evaluates the system and our decisions. Also, demand forecasts out to 2050 are based on uncertain futures that include not only factors of power decarbonization but also industry and development ambitions that may not come to pass or necessarily fit with all desired objectives. And it doesn’t account for the many improvements and technological advances that will occur. This is why the power plan is redone frequently and with ongoing updates within the 5 year period. Power planners understand that 2050 is far from set in stone and that our resources are going to look a lot different as we progress, more so now than ever. There’s just no point in sacrificing Southern Resident killer whales and salmon for any reason, but least of all when we have a lot of breathing room. Another aspect is the power plan did not run a scenario that omitted LSRD power. So it’s effect isn’t known (officially) at this point.
The issue with the Snake River dams and these species Suzanne, is that they are completely out of time and their survival hinges on breaching immediately. If the science weren’t completely clear on this, there would not be such urgent movement happening.
-Thank you and best.
I don’t understand this comment by Bill Appel: “I feel Sharon’s grief deeply, and the thought that someone (not ourselves, of course) may be responsible for its cause gives rise to anger. and germinates witch hunts which while cathartic, expand the damage by destroying the ethos that we need to work together as a community to solve a very complex problem.” Is someone angry and fomenting witch hunts? The only pointing I see here is from comments like this. I think Sharon Grace and Janet Alderton and Heather Nicholson explained things pretty well.
Gov. Inslee just passed bills ramping up all things technocratic, throwing money at building homes quickly – and seems to want to help save the chinook. Rather than appeal to OPALCO, why not appeal to him and to our senators and congress people for our district?
I am grateful for the help I get to pay my very high OPALCO bills – through Project Pal, their low income program, and some help the state gives to the poor. I honestly don’t know how the working class is paying all of this. I have one of the lowest KWH uses – at least that is what I was told – back when i could talk with people and not machines. I’m not convinced that all-electric power is affordable or the only way, but I don’t know enough to know what is – certainly NOT nuclear or LNG or fracked gas or oil heat. Solar and wind are not without their own problems. Don’t know enough about Tidal to have an opinion.
I do my part to use less electricity, out of both financial necessity and caring for the earth.. What incentives do others have? If breaching the lower Snake River dams would help restore salmon habitat, is there any question about why we need to do it?
My comment was in response to the increasing need for electric power to serve a population used only to business as usual, and subscribing to the “more is better” mantra. Reducing consumption will, I think, eventually come to pass of necessity. We will get to the point where we either have the conveniences and stuff we feel entitled to, or we can share life with the biota and fauna around us.
The problem is that this point is approached gradually, not suddenly, resulting in a few people sensing the problem, then more and more over time. No one wants to be the first to conserve, as all that does is leave more for others to consume. This is known as the “free rider” quandary. The brave conserve anyway, seeing the issue as one of individual integrity. There are few of these today.
I agree that the solution has to be political, because it’s an everybody or almost nobody issue. Until there is sufficient political will, the breaching of the Snake River dams will not happen. And if and when it does, power conservation (the cheapest form of power recovery) will need to be practiced more. Starting early as you, Sadie, indicate, is an excellent first step to be followed by the rest of us.
With all due respect to my friend Suzanne, who I love, I don’t believe that Sharon Grace is tilting at windmills. OPALCO has been arguing that we in SJC need the 4 Lower Snake River dams. I don’t believe we do. And those dams actually are contributing to climate change.
If our pursuit of more electricity results in the extinction of the Chinook salmon and the Southern Resident Orcas that have populated this region for eons, what does that say about our ability to interact as part of an ecosystem and to be stewards of this place that many of us have called home for, at most, a few short decades? That doesn’t bode well for our own future as a species.
https://www.opalco.com/where-does-opalco-stand-on-regional-power-and-the-dams/2022/03/
“OPALCO’s mission is to provide reliable power to its membership. As soon as the region develops a reliable replacement plan for the power produced by the LSRD and full funding for the solution, OPALCO will be in a responsible position to carefully consider the situation and take a position on dam removal.
To fight climate change, the region is planning to double the amount of electricity it needs by 2050. The low-carbon northwest hydro system is a key part of the solution. The regional power plans in place today depend on all current hydro production to rapidly decarbonize emissions from transportation, heating and power in the coming decades.”
I’m in favor of breaching the 4 Lower Snake River dams, and I encourage all those who agree to contact President Biden and urge him to order that these dams be breached this year. After many years of efforts to save the Chinook salmon, there isn’t a moment to waste. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wpV-LOe01c&t=23s
Sharon & Mike,
I love your song and the video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wpV-LOe01c&t=23s
Well done!