||| FROM THE OFFICE OF REP. RICK LARSEN |||
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Rick Larsen (WA-02) celebrated House passage of his bipartisan legislation to protect marine mammals, including Southern Resident killer whales.
“In the Pacific Northwest, Southern Resident killer whales are an important cultural symbol and environmental linchpin,” said Larsen. “I am encouraged by the Navy and Coast Guard’s recent efforts to work together to enhance protection of Southern Resident killer whales in Puget Sound. The POMM Act builds on this critical work by enhancing ongoing conservation, science and technology measures to protect marine mammals.”
The Protecting Our Marine Mammals (POMM) Act expands federal protections for marine mammals to include near-real time monitoring of whales, monitoring of underwater soundscapes to reduce noise impacts on marine mammals and grants for seaports to make investments to reduce vessel collisions. The bill also invests in the study of vessel quieting measures and establishes a position within the Coast Guard Puget Sound Vessel Traffic Center to better coordinate protection efforts between the Coast Guard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the marine industry.
Support for the POMM Act
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01), Raul Grijalva (AZ-03), Derek Kilmer (WA-06), Suzan DelBene (WA-01), Kim Schrier, M.D. (WA-08) and Marilyn Strickland (WA-10) signed on as original cosponsors of the bipartisan POMM Act.
The POMM Act also received endorsements from several key stakeholders and organizations, including the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Seattle Aquarium, Friends of the San Juans, Defenders of Wildlife, the Oceanic Preservation Society, Ocean Conservation Research, the Environmental Investigation Agency, Gotham Whale, the Center for Biological Diversity and Cetacean Society International.
Larsen’s Record
Larsen, a founder and co-chair of the Congressional Estuary Caucus, has been a leading voice in Congress to protect marine mammals and ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest and across the country. Earlier this year, Larsen supported the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment to combat climate change and support green jobs in U.S. history. He also supported the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which makes bold, long-time investments to improve water infrastructure and enhance fish passage and salmon habitat. For more information on Larsen’s efforts to protect Southern Resident killer whales, click here.
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All measures are needed including to address harms posed by vessels and appreciation is due to all those who contributed to the provisions that can help, however given the importance of the Southern Residents to the 40th LD, our Rep should also be acting to replenish their food supply in large quantity and quickly.
“[T]he largest potential for increased Chinook abundance – by orders of magnitude – anywhere in the Southern Residents’ range is Chinook from the Columbia-Snake River Basin.” (Bain, Giles et al, 2020 white paper). The Snake is the largest tributary. Their dependence on this source has also increased, while decreasing for Puget Sound, (Couture et al, 2022). And Snake Chinook are in peril.
But Rep. Larsen, who represents all the San Juan Island’s orcadorks, orca experts and marine scientists has been staunch in opposition to the action needed to restore the Snake Chinook which is breaching the lower Snake River dams pronto (NOAA & NMFS, Sept 30 2022). In 2019, less than a year after Tahlequah earthquaked the region and the world in her 17 day tour of grief carrying her dead baby who could only take a few first breaths in this life, Larsen said “I don’t support breaching the dams. Those four dams.”. If the starving orcas had a choice to get their largest food supply back, he told islanders in 2020, “They live in my district, but they aren’t voters. I’m not sure how they would vote.”
Larsen also said in 2019, “I feel pretty confident in the actions I’m taking in Congress to save the, to contribute to saving the Southern Resident killer whales.”
Where are we today? The Southern Resident population has not increased. An emergency order was put in effect last June after finding 12 of them are in “poor body condition” with 2 to 3 times increased probability of dying on top of already being a critically endangered species (WDFW, June 30, 2022). Then last month, the Pacific Fisheries Management Council reduced their allocation of Chinook by one third. 343,000 less Chinook for the orcas. Nor have they yet attained legal rights like voters have.
It’s almost four years since Larsen said let the Orca Task Force “do its job”.
In December 2021, Founder and Senior Scientist of the Center for Whale Research Ken Balcomb said, “K’s and L’s both are dependent on the coast, the runs off the Columbia and Snake River system. They’re on their way out. They’re already going extinct.” Yes this year finally saw a female K birth after twelve years of none, but she has to survive and become an adult, plus have abundant food for successful pregnancies. Ken said of the whole population, “We’ve got some reproduction but it’s just not enough”, and “It takes food… and that’s not happening, it’s not available. If we don’t have the salmon, it’s not available to the whales.”
Ken said it’s past time, the dams need to be breached now and, “It’s the only way these whales are going to survive into the future.” He said, “It’s not gonna happen on the Elwha or on the Skagit or on the little streams we’ve got up and down the coast. But that Columbia/Snake system is, that was the big horse in the whole ecosystem.” And, “I can see the passion over the Nooksack and over various tributaries, little rivers going into Puget Sound. Fix those too, don’t leave them behind but the biggest bang for the buck by far is the Snake.”
Rep. Larsen has tuned out the top orca expert’s advice. “Right now the four on the lower Snake are still being used and it’s, and I think contributing to the economy. They’re also contributing to the debate about salmon populations”, he had said after Tahlequah’s grief tour. There may not be a more bitter example of which Ken spoke in his well known admonition, “Doesn’t make any difference how much you talk, they can’t live on words, they live on salmon.”
“There’s a cost benefit analysis to everything we do. And right now I don’t think that the cost of, the cost of breaching those dams is worth, is worth it given the cost of the other actions we can take for salmon population restoration to support the Southern Resident killer whales”, Larsen computed.
The Congressman’s statement is primarily a let down because equitable treatment is required for fish & wildlife affected by the federal hydro, per federal statute of the NW Power Act. Other purposes of the system may not take higher priority. Period. But defiantly, — unaccountably — the salmon and orca have been run into the ground.
His view of the cost vs benefit is definitely not agreed on. Regardless, it’s clear the Southern Residents don’t take precedence for Larsen, as he follows the pattern of choosing alternatives to avoid breaching, which has played out in failure, driving the salmon and orca to the precipice and also costing billions. If he flipped today, Congress still wouldn’t be the mover but it’s worth knowing where your rep stands and what they’re representing.
Ken had said, “To me, it’s absolutely ludicrous to have any priority other than save those whales, save those fish, save the ecosystems, save some of the earth that we’ll be able to live on in the future. I just don’t see the economic argument or the electrical argument being anywhere near as important.” Also conveyed by this world’s preeminent observer of the Southern Residents, “For us to be able to live on this planet with those amazing creatures, it’s a gift. And we’re killing the gift.”
Thank-you so much, Heather.
““Doesn’t make any difference how much you talk, they can’t live on words, they live on salmon.”
The lower Snake River dams are a drag on the regional and even the national economy, not a positive. They are obsolete, extraordinarily expensive to maintain — particularly the ancient-technology turbines — and the Corps of Engineers, if able to act on the truth, would breach them in a nanosecond based on costly obsolence alone. Area politicians like Congressman Larsen — and several others who purport to be in favor of the environment, Orcas, salmon, and such — are just typical greasy politicians on the take from short-sighted local special interests that, in truth, run contrary to both regional economic and environmental interests. But what’s new with U.S. congress members — all bought off by special interests.
Our electricity rates would fall by 5.1% after the four lower Snake River dams are breached.
The most authoritative source for determining the cost of LSR breaching is the $80 million NEPA document prepared during the Trump Administration, titled the Columbia River System Operations EIS, signed as a Record of Decision a few weeks before the fateful November election.
In summary, costs to BPA ratepayers drop 5.1 percent due to a large decrease in Capital Costs, and Operation & Maintenance costs. Once Idaho’s salmon have recovered, the shuttering of the forty-five year old Compensation Plan Hatcheries further increases the costs savings to a drop of 15.1%.
CRSO EIS Chapter 3 excerpt:
Under MO3, total costs are anticipated to decrease between $159 and $54 million annually, or between 15.1 to 5.1 percent decline compared to the No Action Alternative (Table 3-312). The present value of the construction of the structural measures for MO3 are estimated to be $1.2 billion. Of the $1.2 billion, $953 million (or 77 percent) are costs associated with breaching the lower Snake River dams. When amortized over the 50-year period of analysis, the annual equivalent cost is approximately $47 million ($36 million for the costs for breaching the lower Snake River dams). A sensitivity analysis was conducted on the timing of the construction of the structural measures in terms of its impact on annualized costs under MO3, comparing the cost of completing MO3 over a 10-year timeframe, versus the two-year implementation assumption. Delaying and spreading out costs for breaching the lower Snake River dams would result in a change in annual equivalent costs of $3.8 million (from $46.7 million with a two-year implementation to $42.9 million with a 10-year implementation schedule) or a 0.4 percent reduction in total annual-equivalent costs under MO3. This difference in cost ($3.8 million) represents approximately 8 percent of the construction costs of the structural measures and 0.4 percent of total annual-equivalent costs under MO3. The difference between a two-year and a ten-year implementation schedule does not warrant deviation from the two-year approach used throughout the study.
MO3 would result in a large decrease in capital costs ($32 million or 13.1 percent) and O&M costs ($79 million or 16.5%) across all projects compared to the No Action Alternative, with the largest decrease at the lower Snake River projects (Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite) (Table 3-312). Upon the breaching of the LSR dams, Bonneville would no longer have an obligation to fund USFWS for O&M of the LSRCP facilities, estimated at $34 million. Bonneville’s funding authority is directly tied to the operation of the LSR dams. However, the co-lead agencies recognize that there would be transitional needs that would be addressed. Additionally, the Bonneville F&W Program funding for offsite mitigation projects in the Snake River Basin would be reviewed and potentially adjusted. Any changes of this nature would be implemented over time as the effectiveness of dam breaching is observed, and would be done in consultation with fish and wildlife managers, regulatory agencies, and the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. Consistent with this, offsite mitigation projects for the other CRS dams would be reviewed and could be adjusted as operations change over time. As a result, Bonneville’s F&W Program costs are estimated as a range: from the same as under the No Action Alternative to a 37 percent decrease, or a decrease of $105 million annually when compared to the No Action Alternative. Future budget adjustments would be made in coordination with the region through Bonneville’s budget-making processes and other appropriate forums and consistent with existing agreements. The CRFM costs would also decrease under MO3 by $1.0 million annually, while the Reclamation’s ESA-related costs would remain the same as under the No Action Alternative ($14.3 million per year).
Additional mitigation costs to offset the adverse impacts of MO3 are estimated to be $45.4 million annually. The largest mitigation costs would occur at the lower Snake River projects, including measures for vegetation, wildlife, wetlands, and floodplains; water quality; cultural resources; anadromous fish; resident fish; public safety; navigation and transportation; and other mitigation measures. Details on the additional mitigation measures are described in Section 5.4.3 and Annex B of Appendix Q, Cost Analysis.
Keep in mind these estimates arrive before the Billion Dollar windfall profit of this year’s record surplus sales (driven primarily by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine). Using these newly found funds removes the need for “spreading out costs for breaching the lower Snake River dams.”