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conservation and protection of these stocks In fact, no single industry has done more or given up 

 more for the sake of conservation than we have There is in fact no directed harvest anywhere in the 

 Columbia on any ESA listed stocks, nor has there been in many years. Yet today there are fewer 

 fish in the river than when all directed harvests on these listed stocks were stopped Therefore 

 harvest is not the cause of these declines, nor is regulation of harvest going to lead to a solution The 

 crash of these stocks is caused by the dams themselves and how they are operated, and it is the dams 

 themselves (and their mismanagement) that must be fixed. This &ct must sooner or later be faced: 

 on average, 90% or more of all human-induced mortality in the Columbia and Snake River 

 systems is caused by the hydropower dams, as compared to less than 5% attributable to all 

 commercial, sport and tribal fishing combined. ^ Congress will get far more "bang for its bucks" 

 by once and for all fixing the hydropower system than by any other option 



The fishing industry has done its part and then some It is now time for other industries to pony 

 up their share of this efifort, including those industries (such as the aluminum industry), which 

 receive massive federal subsidies in cheap power from the system Today the Northwest's power is 

 often considered the cheapest in the nation However, once you figure in the "externalized" 

 environmental damage and increased social costs of this damage, you will soon arrive at the true 

 costs created by an artificially distorted rate structure The true costs of that "cheap power" has been 

 tens of thousands of fishing jobs and billions of dollars of personal income impacts lost every year, 

 not to mention the tens of millions of dollars more each year now required for increased social 

 services to help remedy the human sufiFering this destruction has caused ' Once these real costs 

 have been figured in, it may well be that the Northwest has the most expensive power in the nation. 



2. Estmute of himun-tiKtaced mortality from Oregon Dept of Fish Sl WikUife. 



3 Coastal communities in our area report poverty levels tave risen in jast tbe past two years from 40% to 

 90% Bank foreclosures on boats and hemes have nseo drainaticaUy Equipment capital investments m boats now have 

 little or no maiket value A giUn^ penmt that would have been worth $50,000 as recently as 1988 now has httle or no 

 economic value The economic cost m terms of mcrsased social services required to deal with increased family stress, 

 drinking, domestic violence and other similar problems linked to unemployment has put increasing burdens on local 

 c<xiimuiiities while tax revenues needed to pay for these services are at an all-time low 



