COURTESY IDAHO RIVERS UNITED
Swimming Upstream
Can Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson’s plan to breach dams end the ‘Salmon Wars’? BY HARRISON BERRY
a bold move to save an iconic symbol of the Northwest, it has been an object of intense criticism from industry, water rights groups, Idaho’s executive and legislative branches, and other stakeholders who don’t like what they see in the crystal ball. The price tag on the Columbia Basin Initiative, in Simpson’s own words, is “very
Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson spent years talking to stakeholders about how to save the salmon in the Northwest. Now, he’s waiting for someone — anyone — to give him a better option than breaching four dams on the lower Snake River. “Nobody who looks at this seriously believes you can save the salmon without taking out the dams,” he “I listen to the says. “I listen to the experts, and what they’re telling me is that to experts, and what save the salmon, the dams need they’re telling me to come out.” is that to save the In February, Simpson, who represents Idaho’s second consalmon, the dams gressional district and is running for re-election in 2022, released need to come out.” a video outlining his plan, the Columbia Basin Initiative. If COURTESY MIKE SIMPSON adopted, it would remove the Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower expensive.” At $1.4 billion, actual dam Monumental, and Ice Harbor dams by removal represents a small fraction of the 2031, making it easier for migrating fish $33.5 billion package. Ten billion dollars to reach their spawning grounds. It would would go toward replacing electricity also spend billions smoothing over the generated by the dams. Still more money effects of dam removal on electricity genwould enlist agricultural entities to improve eration, inland shipping, and other things watersheds and cut agricultural nutrients supported by the dams. Hailed by some as that end up in waterways, send funds to di22
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rectly affected communities like Lewiston/ Clarkston and the Tri-Cities area, and pay to rehabilitate or pivot away from affected industries. These line items are the products of long conversations that Simpson has had with people for whom the downstream consequences of dam removal could be dire. “That’s how we came up with the Columbia Basin Initiative. And that’s why, frankly, it costs $33 billion: because those dams do have a value,” Simpson says. There are many incentives for stakeholders to buy into Simpson’s plan, but perhaps the most significant is a 35-year litigation moratorium. In 2031, when the last of the four dams would be breached, current litigation over migrating fish under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and the Clean Water Act (CWA) would be halted or stayed. In addition, $500 million would go toward liability protection for irrigation districts, energy interests, and other entities that own dams. It would effectively end decades of lawsuits against those groups over salmon.
