Ten reasons bringing down these barriers are key for mitigation and adaptation.
||| FROM HIGH COUNTRY NEWS ||| POSTED AT REQUEST OF ORCASONIAN READER
As the climate crisis escalates, a huge amount of attention and money is being focused on climate solutions. These can be divided into two categories: solutions that pursue “mitigation,” which lowers greenhouse gas emissions, and those that pursue methods to adapt to climate impacts to increase human and ecological resiliency.
Dams, of course, create enormous environmental harms, many of which have already been described in scientific literature. Equally well documented is the fact that removing dams can restore seriously damaged ecosystems. But missing from almost every climate-solution story and study is how dam removal can be key for both mitigation and adaptation.
Here are 10 reasons why dam removal fights climate change:
Thank you for posting this article. This is a critical time for the Chinook salmon and the Southern Resident Orcas.
There are more than double the number of salmon in the Columbia River system than before the four lower Salmon River dams were constructed. Every dam has a detailed fish passage count … the counts go back to when Bonneville Dam was finished in 1938. Most of those fish are hatchery fish … estimates up to 90%.
Grand Coulee Dam has no fish passage. That dam blocks fish migration on the entire upper Columbia River. Good news is fish programs are now underway to restore salmon on the upper Columbia.
Southern Resident Orcas have actually most likely slightly benefitted from the hatchery programs put in place to mitigate spillway and turbine losses of the four lower Snake River dams. They rarely but occasionally swim down the West Coast as far south as San Francisco. NOAA studies show about 90%+ of their preferred salmon diet come from two rivers … the Thompson and Frazer rivers flowing from British Columbia. A chinook hatchery fish is just as good as a wild chinook to an orca.
Clearly, climate chaos is threatening what we Islanders value. Iconic species like our visiting Orca families and salmon are threatened by warming of ocean and river spaces. Can’t we do something to help? And, clearly, there is a pressing need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, perhaps most economically by using electric heat pumps where we live and work and using electric vehicles to move us about, eventually including ferries, too.
But, for electrification to help, the power source must also be clean, yes? Lucky us! Most of OUR power comes to us economically by electricity generated from falling water through dams built in our region long ago. In fact, our sources are some 97% greenhouse-gas free. That’s a happy thing for us, but for others across the region and beyond, it will be as struggle. They must look to new renewable energy facilities to help. But, investments in all new facilities must ultimately be repaid. Even if encouraged by Federal tax cuts or co-investments, they are not free, and must ultimately be repaid through sharply higher rates (e.g., California). But here again, Lucky us! Most of us already live safely and modernly among our 20 electrified islands. We already have low cost, green power … though we must also be mindful to to protect what we have.
But again, can’t we do something more to help the salmon? Again, lucky us.
Methods to boost Salmon over the dams have been well refined over many years. Now, our major mainland power provider recently announced a new 20 year deal with native tribes to give salmon a lift for the first time above our largest dam in the region. This new, long-term effort is expected to increase the salmon population in the region without a pronounced effect on wholesale electricity rates.
New infrastructure is costly. For example, major new facilities often cost of hundred of millions of dollars. Usually, we expect new benefits accordingly, such as new renewable generation. Removal of existing facilities is also very costly, even before considering further major investments to replace existing benefits. For example, the removal of two regional dams supporting a single industrial customer was indeed wonderfully successful in aiding salmon recovery, but at a cost of several hundred million taxpayer dollars.
Life as responsible slanders must include doing our part to mitigate climate change, but not single-mindedly. We Orcas Islanders enjoy an intense sense of community with an abundance of services that few mainland communities can ever hope to achieve. But now, inflation, housing costs, and ferry issues are threatening the ability of young families to thrive here. And, those families must thrive for all of us to continue to enjoy the quality of life and community we have come to expect. And for that, we must remain economical in our commons, responsible in protecting what we have, and wise in our of natural resources among our islands and throughout our beautiful Northwest.
What benefits do the four dams provide? To have a balanced article, both sides of the issue should be told.
I do not see a balance in this article, or most others for that matter.
In order to better understand the various claims about LSRD replacement, here are two significant reports
done under the sponsorship of Governor Inslee, Senator Murray, and the Whitehouse, released last year.
Lower Snake River Dams: Benefit Replacement Report
https://governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-11/LSRD%20Benefit%20Replacement%20Final%20Report_August%202022.pdf
BPA Lower Snake River Dams Power Replacement Study
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/E3-BPA-LSR-Dams-Report.pdf
These were used to inform the MOU document recently released. These reports provide more detail
than the article above.
The piece is an op-ed not a news report.
The Smolt to Adult returns for Snake River Sp/Summ Chinook, 10 year average (which still needs to be brought current) is ~.7%. Dismal. The last two years are virtually zero. For SR Fall Chinook is ~.9% 10yr av, and same rock bottom last two years pending true up. Source: Columbia River DART (Data Access in Real Time).
For the Southern Residents, hatchery fish are smaller and provide less nutrition to them. Wild fish are more resilient to climate change. Hatchery are also a threat to wild fish. A losing equation.
The Oregon Capital Chronicle wrote of the orcas on 9/28/23:
“Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division project the number could decline by half during the next 20 years.” That means it’s getting too late right now. Dam breaching must happen immediately.
Two excerpts from: SOUTHERN RESIDENT KILLER WHALES & COLUMBIA/SNAKE RIVER CHINOOK: A REVIEW OF THE AVAILABLE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE, Bain et al 2020:
“the largest potential for increased Chinook abundance – by orders of magnitude – anywhere in the Southern Residents’ range is Chinook from the Columbia-Snake River Basin.”
“As NOAA itself stated in its 2008 Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery Plan “[p]erhaps the single greatest change in food availability for resident killer whales since the late 1800s has been the decline of salmon in the Columbia River basin.” The Snake, of course, is the Columbia’s largest tributary and once produced nearly half of the entire basin’s Chinook.”
Snake River Fall Chinook and Snake River Spring/Summer Chinook are both on NOAA’s list of top 10 priority populations for SRKW.
https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/dam-migration/srkw-salmon-sources-factsheet.pdf
One excerpt from: ”Comparative Survival Study of PIT-tagged Spring/Summer/Fall Chinook, Summer Steelhead, and Sockeye., 2023 Annual Report”, by the Comparative Survival Study Oversight Committee and Fish Passage Center. Partner members include the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“Analyses in this chapter shows that under poor ocean and flow conditions associated with climate change, the PA will not stop population decline, whereas the breach alternative is predicted to maintain SARs above 1% and avoid population decline. These analyses indicate that failing to implement the breach alternative presents the greatest risk to future population abundance and avoidance of extinction.”
Three excerpts from: Technical review of Welch et al. (2020), titled, A synthesis of the coast-wide decline in survival of West Coast Chinook Salmon (Onchorhynchus tshawytsha, Salmonidae). Dec 4, 2020, Fish Passage Center
“There is no doubt that the ocean is important and affects numbers of returning adults. However, the number of smolts that enter the ocean is dependent on freshwater survival and management strategies that result in the highest freshwater survival, because not even the best ocean conditions can resurrect a dead fish.”
“The analytical techniques and underlying data used by the authors are inappropriate, misleading, and unreliable.”
“apples to oranges” comparison at best, and a misrepresentation of the data utilized and erroneous conclusions at worst.”
Breaching LSRD will instantly free up much needed transmission that’s bottlenecking crucial development of non-emitting resources, a category to which LSRD with their 86,000 metric tons CO2 equivalent of potent methane annually, do not belong.
The salmon situation in the whole NW must be fixed but the orcas and Snake River salmon are OUT of time. They cannot wait any longer. And notably, no analyses have proven LSRD power must be replaced. It’s hypothesis, meanwhile the surplus goes out of region and no events are shown to have been thwarted by LSRD, the MWs of which cost 50% more to make than the big storage dams on the Columbia. Textbook deadbeat dams that need to go so the species and all of us, not just a select few, can thrive.
The “PA” being the “Preferred Alternative” of the 2020 CRSO EIS, ie how things are being operated and managed currently.
LSRD MWs “cost 50% more to make than the big storage dams on the Columbia”.
Pg 31, Table 11. https://www.bpa.gov/-/media/Aep/finance/integrated-program-review/bp-22-ipr/20200612-BP-22-IPR-Initial-Detailed-Publication.pdf
Heather is absolutely correct — breach the LSRD ‘s now or eliminate the salmon and the Orcas. Where have we done this before? On my side of the country (the East Coast) , everywhere except Maine* and we’re working hard on Maine, but there are some clever folks up there who care enough about their fish to put up a good fight. Are there any of those types out West besides Heather and her gang?
*To quote the book, “[Atlantic Salmon] once returned by the hundreds of thousands along the Northeastern United States, but now only return in small numbers to rivers in central and eastern Maine….”
Heather is absolutely incorrect – read NOAA’s fact sheet she sites (https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/dam-migration/srkw-salmon-sources-factsheet.pdf). I read it as virtually opposite of her statements as the LSRD’s effect SRKW’s. Easily understood info on Columbia River salmon counts also in the fact sheet.
Two brief but hugely important points to consider:
Will predicted climate change of warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers over the next say 20-30 years make the Snake River temperature tolerable to salmon? There are knowledgable fishing advocates that are questioning whether a significant number of wild salmon can even survive in the Snake River since temperatures above 64ºF are marginal, and 68ºF are fatal to salmon species. Anyone who has been on the Snake River in the summer know it’s one of the hottest places in the PNW. Multiple rivers from California to mid British Columbia are showing salmon declines that both the wild fish advocates and scientists are in general agreement that less mountain snow and faster snow melt are responsible for warming river temperatures that can be lethal to salmon. Where are the NOAA studies that evaluate Snake River water temperatures and flows will continue to be tolerable for wild fish, much less a wild fish rebound in any significant numbers?
And who will benefit from the estimated $13 billion to $34 billion taxpayer dollars to remove four LSRD’s IF more wild salmon and steelhead do successfully return? Some tribal fishing of course, a handful of fishing and adventure outfitters, and maybe a couple thousand fishing men and women. Meanwhile, the demand for electrical power grows exponentially, and BPA’s contract for Northwest power to utilities expires in 2028. OPALCO is projecting a 6% a year power increase until then … but with fast increasing California and adjoining states power demands, 6% a year electrical power increase after 2028 is likely a pipe dream.
And finally, let’s remove the SRKW’s from the LSRD breaching or removal issue once and for all because they have more Columbia River salmon now than they will ever have if the four LSRD’s are breached or removed and the hatcheries releases reduced. And like cited NOAA fact sheet states, the SRKW’s seem indifferent to whether Chinook salmon were born in a hatchery or in a river.
There seems to be a lot of confusion and disagreement about the details of salmon and Southern Resident Orcas in regard to removal/breaching of the Lower Snake River Dams. Fortunately for decision making purposes, we don’t need to know those details in order to make wise choices. The simple and undeniable fact is damming a river damns it. Period. It is literally not the same river anymore if it doesn’t flow naturally. This article covers the topic in far more length and detail than is suitable for this forum:
https://www.nwcouncil.org/reports/columbia-river-history/damsimpacts/
We cannot save any individual species without saving entire ecosystems. Freeing the rivers, restoring our forest watersheds and maintaining a stable global climate are all necessary in order to save any of the species native to the Cascadian biome.
Should we remove those dams? Of course we should. Will it make any difference to the fish and whales? Probably not much. But it might help a little in the short term and every little bit counts. More importantly, it sets an example of the direction we need to go; undoing the damage industrial civilization has inflicted upon the Earth.
Ken, agreed it’s obvious that damming a river is detrimental. Although, what leads you to believe this regarding breaching LSRD? “Will it make any difference to the fish and whales? Probably not much.” Do you disagree with the science and experts on how that will prevent their extinction? Breaching will prevent the death of millions of juvenile salmon right away which will be food for the orcas in just a few years. Wondering what makes you feel it won’t help them.
Robert, regarding the top 10 priority stocks, how do you explain this statement as being incorrect? “Snake River Fall Chinook and Snake River Spring/Summer Chinook are both on NOAA’s list of top 10 priority populations for SRKW.” And how do you read the fact sheet “as virtually opposite” of that? Snake River fall Chinook is grouped with number 3, and Snake River spring-summer Chinook is grouped with number 5 on the list.
Also Robert, per your comments on climate change and, “Where are the NOAA studies that evaluate Snake River water temperatures and flows will continue to be tolerable for wild fish, much less a wild fish rebound in any significant numbers?” This is one of the biggest reasons LSRD need to be breached. To eliminate the stagnant reservoirs, increase water travel time, lower water temp, and allow access to the largest and best high elevation pristine habitat in the lower 48 where the salmon can stay cooler.
Five from: “Rebuilding Interior Columbia Basin Salmon and Steelhead”. NOAA. Sept 30, 2022.
https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/2022-09/rebuilding-interior-columbia-basin-salmon-steelhead.pdf
NOAA states that:
“most urgent” is “an expedited pathway to mainstem lower Snake River restoration” which “requires dam breaching” that “specifically refers to removing the earthen portion of each dam”.
“as the frequency of drought, low snowpack, elevated water temperature, and poor marine conditions increase, managers must do more, not less, to restore properly functioning tributary habitats and mainstem migration corridors currently degraded by human uses.”
“How climate change will affect each individual salmon or steelhead stock also varies widely, depending on the extent and rate of change and the unique life-history characteristics of different natural populations (Crozier et al. 2008). In light of this variability, habitat restoration actions should support climate resilience (Jorgensen et al. 2021) in freshwater spawning, rearing, and migratory habitats, including access to high elevation, high quality cold-water habitats” (The latter describes the Snake Basin.)
“Actions that have the highest likelihood to buffer climate change impacts and support restoration fit into three categories:” First item: “Maintaining suitable water temperatures and flows in mainstem and tributary habitats.” Third item: “Maintaining and restoring access to climate resilient habitats for spawning and rearing (e.g., high-elevation spawning and rearing habitats with snowpack-driven hydrology, or extensive connected floodplain habitats).”
“Restoring more normalized reach-scale hydrology and hydraulics, and thus river conditions and function in the lower Snake River, requires dam breaching.”
Even the 2020 CRSO EIS projects power rates to go down with breaching. I think that’s reflected in Table 3-312 in Appendix Q. LSRD’s would be breached not removed. I haven’t seen how the $13-34B is good numbers. Hefty pork pricetag for aged out dams that can’t keep up on their maintenance and fish obligations, most of which is for purported peaking power which again, is not from proven analysis and runs counter to empirical generation data.
NOAA’s line you referred to: “As far as researchers can determine, the whales do not distinguish between hatchery and naturally produced adult salmon.” They reference: “Species and stock identification of prey consumed by endangered southern resident killer whales in their summer range”. Hanson et al, 2010. 1) “As far as” they could tell… in 2010. 2) No matter, the orcas do not get as much nutrition from hatchery, whether they do or don’t distinguish them from wild.
Three from Dr. Deborah Giles declaration 2021:
“The current depleted level of adult Chinook returns to the Columbia is a critical component of the prey scarcity these whales face. This shortage is compounded by the fact that adult Chinook returns, especially hatchery stocks that comprise most of these returns, consist of an increasing number of younger – and hence smaller – fish than in the past.25 This fact means that these whales must expend far more energy today to obtain the same caloric value of prey with the net effect of less nourishment.”
(The reference was CSS (Comparative Survival Study) 2017 Annual Report, Chapter 6 at pp. 171-174.)
“The best available science also establishes that Southern Resident orcas will not be recovered without breaching the four lower Snake River dams, as the Snake River is the Columbia’s largest tributary and once produced nearly half of the entire basin’s Chinook. Even given the decimated Chinook populations in the Columbia-Snake system, the Southern Resident orcas currently rely heavily on those populations. In a recent NOAA Fisheries study, Columbia River Chinook salmon represented slightly over half (54%) of the prey remains samples collected off the Washington coast, which NOAA Fisheries called remarkably similar to the approximately 53.7% collected in outer coast troll fisheries based on genetic analysis.”
(Ref: Hanson et al. March 2021, p. 17.)
“Breaching the four lower Snake River dams would open the gateway to a vast, 5,500-mile expanse of largely intact spawning and rearing streams that run through millions of acres of wilderness. These are the highest elevation streams, and, therefore, the most global warming resistant salmon streams in the entire lower 48 states. In short, breaching these dams would greatly increase a critical food source for the Southern Resident orcas, particularly in the winter and spring months.”
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ukut_wA9NhnGvlFZ1Zmwb7TdzIaWSMcW/view?usp=sharing
Survival of SRKW and LSRD breaching are intrinsically tied. These orcas need big healthy abundant wild Chinook. Ailing, shrinking, less resilient hatchery fish will not stop their impending extinction happening today.
With the mandated move to electric vehicles coming very soon without a plan to build out new infrastructure to generate electricity it might be premature to take out functioning dams that create clean power.
Interesting blog by Cliff Mass-
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2023/12/low-winds-winter-sun-and-lots-of-clouds.html
The Cliff Mass blog used the BPA graph without interchange generation, which was 3000MW and includes surplus. “Net Interchange is energy being exported outside our BA – on the interties of CA and BC, and to neighboring BA’s in the PNW.” BA means Balancing Authority. Then wind kicked up to ~2500MW on Dec 22 sending interchange to over 4000MW. The big storage dams on the Columbia can manage when the wind isn’t blowing then store up when it is. Grand Coulee alone (one of the largest in the world) has a capacity of 6800MW with a reservoir storage capacity of 9.5 million acre/feet of water. While LSRD reservoirs have some acre/feet of water and a few feet of elevation to work within (5ft for LGranite & LGoose, 3ft for LowMon & Ice Hbr, and less during fish operations?), LSRD are run of river, not storage dams, and not remotely on the scale of Coulee or the other large Columbia R. storage dams.
Grand Coulee’s reservoir elevation operating range is 1208 to 1290 feet (above sea level). That’s 82 feet of vertical operating range of that large reservoir. On Dec 17 it was at 1285 feet. That’s 77 ft above bottom range, or 94% of storage capacity. It maintained during the week noted in the blog, with a bit of a marked rise since Dec 21.
The blog wrote of LSRD, “These dams can produce up to 3000 megawatts of power”. But that’s only possible in spring when it’s not needed.
Here’s the BPA 7 day lookback with interchange.
https://transmission.bpa.gov/Business/Operations/Wind/baltwg3.aspx
A recent article on hatcheries:
“Analysis of Northwest, other salmon hatcheries finds nearly all hurt wild salmon populations”
More than 200 studies across 40 years revealed large-scale salmon hatchery programs weaken wild salmon diversity and lead to wild population declines
https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2023/12/18/analysis-of-northwest-other-salmon-hatcheries-finds-nearly-all-hurt-wild-salmon-populations/