399 



helps them find their way back as 

 adults. Although the Corps relies 

 heavily on barging juvenile fish, 

 some biologists have reported 

 that barging may have a negative 

 impact on the numbers of wild 

 salmon that return to spawn. 

 And, of course, despite the Corps' 

 best and expensive efforts at 

 barging, wild salmon stocks in the 

 Snake River and elsewhere have 

 continued to decline toward ex- 

 tinction. 



We can fix the dams 



and make the river worit — 



for salmon €md for us 



CONSERVATIONISTS and fish ad- 

 vocates have called upon the 

 Corps of Engineer to stop the 

 barging and fix the dams — to 

 provide once and for all a safe in- 

 river migration for juvenile fish. 

 Pivotal to this goal is a minimum 

 travel time from spawning bed to 

 the sea. 



All the federal agency, state 

 agency, and tribal fish biologists 

 in the region who have banded 

 together in the Columbia Basin 

 Fish and Wildlife Authority, have 

 uneuiimously stated that travel 

 time (as measured from Lower 

 Granite to Bonneville Dams) 

 must be reduced to 15 days at 

 most. 



One way to achieve the travel 

 time goal is simply to flush more 

 water down the Snake and Co- 

 lumbia Rivers during the peak ju- 

 venile fish migration in April- 

 June. There is adequate stored 

 water in the Columbia River sys- 

 tem to augment flows as needed. 

 However, in the Snake, even 

 draining all existing storage in 

 the basin simply would not reli- 

 ably meet the biologists' target for 

 smolt travel time. 



That is why conservationists 

 have turned to the other way to 

 achieve the travel time goal: 

 drawdowns — lowering the eleva- 



tions of the reservoirs behind the 

 four Lower Snake dams (and the 

 John Day project on the Lower 

 Columbia) during the juvenile 

 fish migration. As the man-made 

 lakes become narrower and shal- 

 lower, the same amount of water 

 flow in the river system runs 

 faster and faster. 



In a 1992 Environmental Im- 

 pact Statement, the Army Corps 

 of Engineers concluded that a 

 drawdown of the four Lower 

 Snake reservoirs, as environmen- 

 talists have proposed, would meet 

 the federal, state, and tribal biolo- 

 gists' travel time objective — what 

 the fish really need — every year, 

 regardless of droughts or any 

 other adverse conditions. 



Changing the dams 

 will create problems — 

 but they are solvable 



DRAWDOWNS and greater water 

 flows do pose some problems, but 

 none without affordable solutions. 



■ As currently configured, adult 

 fish ladders and juvenile by- 

 pass screens on the Lower 

 Snake dams would become in- 

 operable at lower water levels. 

 But the dams can be modified 

 so that facilities operate at 

 lower reservoir levels. 



■ Drawdowns would leave irriga- 

 tion pumps high and dry. But 

 the in-takes can be extended so 

 that the pumps continue to 

 work. 



■ The overall salmon "hit" on the 

 hydropower system can be eas- 

 ily made up through already 

 existing programs in energy ef- 

 ficiency, fuel-switching, sea- 

 sonal renewable resources such 

 as wind power, and seasonal 

 electricity exchanges between 

 the Northwest and California. 

 Hydroelectric generation de- 

 creases — but does not stop — 



during reservoir drawdowns. 



■ Investments in improved effi- 

 ciency for irrigation, conserva- 

 tion, and water bank leasing 

 offer good options to make more 

 water available when needed 

 most for salmon. 



■ Barge navigation in the Lower 

 Snake fi'om Pasco, Washington 

 to Lewiston, Idaho would tem- 

 porarily shut down during the 

 drawdowns. However, an 

 analysis by agricultural econo- 

 mists at several regional uni- 

 versities has concluded that 

 market forces coupled with in- 

 creased storage capacity, could 

 accommodate a temporary in- 

 terruption to river navigation 

 with Uttle or no impact on 

 prices or jobs. 



The structures and operations of 

 the Corps' fish-killing dams can 

 be changed — tmd at a cost that is 

 modest. According to a blue-rib- 

 bon economics panel for the Na- 

 tional Marine Fisheries Service, 

 the cost would translate to a 

 small hike on current electricity 

 rates of just 2-4 percent. 



Drawdowns of the four Lower 

 Sniike reservoirs combined with 

 flow augmentation in the Lower 

 Columbia can reliably meet the 

 travel time objective set by the 

 region's biologists — smd we can 

 end the failed practice of loading 

 small salmon into barges. Unless 

 and until we give young migrat- 

 ing fish a safe, in-the-river pas- 

 sage to the sea, other efforts such 

 as improvements in fish habitat, 

 will not be effective and will not 

 recover these endangered and de- 

 clining wild fish runs. 



Fishing plays a role, 

 but not the key role in 

 salmon decline 



WITHOUT QUESTION, over-fish- 

 ing took place in the past. Today, 



