Dam Design and Construction

Two reports released on Lower Snake River dam removals

Two reports released on Lower Snake River dam removals
(Ice Harbor is one of the four dams studied in the draft report)

The White House Council on Environmental Quality has announced two new reports resulting from a continued interagency initiative to restore salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia River Basin, while meeting state and federal clean energy goals.

The reports include:

  • A draft assessment of the state of the science and large-scale actions to make progress toward healthy and harvestable abundances of key fish stocks in the basin
  • An assessment of power production portfolios that could offset the potential loss of electric generation from four federal dams on the Lower Snake River, if Congress were to pursue a new long-term strategy for the management of the Columbia River hydropower system.

Background: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates four run-of-river dams and locks on the lower Snake River in Washington that together provide 1,000 average MW of capacity and up to 3,033 MW of capacity at their peak. The dams, constructed between 1955 and 1961, are Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite. Construction and operation of the dams altered the physical, chemical, hydrological and biological processes in the river, and all species of salmon that use the Snake River are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. With salmon being “central to culture and wellbeing in tribal nations throughout the Pacific Northwest,” there have been discussions about breaching the dams.

This draft report is intended to “provide a platform for public input through the remainder” of the “process to examine whether there are reasonable means for replacing the benefits provided by the four Lower Snake River Dams, sufficient that breaching of the dams could be part of a comprehensive salmon recovery strategy for the Pacific Northwest.”

“Business as usual will not restore the health and abundance of Pacific Northwest salmon. We need a durable, inclusive, and regionally-crafted long-term strategy for the management of the Columbia River Basin,” said CEQ Chair Brenda Mallory, who is coordinating a federal interagency effort to develop information and analyses in support of federal and regional decision-making in the Columbia River System. “These two reports add to the picture – that we are working alongside regional leaders to develop – of what it will take over the decades ahead to restore salmon populations, honor our commitments to Tribal Nations, deliver clean power, and meet the many needs of stakeholders across the region.”

Rebuilding Interior Columbia Basin Salmon and Steelhead was prepared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with input from and support of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS). The draft report includes input from scientists and fish managers from the Nez Perce Tribe and state of Oregon. The report will be transmitted to all state and tribal fish managers in the region for their review over the next 30 days. The draft report identifies actions with the highest potential to achieve the Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force’s midrange abundance goals. The actions identified include significant reductions in direct and indirect mortality from mainstem dams, including breaching one or more Lower Snake River dams; management of native and non-native predators; systematic and strategic tributary and estuarine habitat restoration and protection; fish passage and reintroduction into priority blocked areas; and focused hatchery and harvest reform.

While the administration has not endorsed the Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force’s goals or the particular actions identified in the draft report, it is carefully considering this information and ongoing regional efforts as it assesses long-term pathways for the Columbia River basin, according to the CEQ.

The study on potential power portfolios, which was commissioned by the Department of Energy’s Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and conducted by private consulting firm E3, presents power production scenarios and costs associated with replacing the electrical power from four federal dams on the Lower Snake River in the event Congress were to authorize such an action. The BPA Lower Snake River Dams Power Replacement Study is intended to inform ongoing regional conversations about long-term strategies for providing affordable and carbon-free electricity in the region. In two scenarios that assume that emerging energy technologies become commercially available, the study finds that replacing the energy and grid services provided by the dams is possible and predicts costs from $11 billion to $19 billion.

“We are at a crucial moment for salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin when we’re seeing the impacts of climate change on top of other stressors, and this draft report delivers our scientific assessment of what we must do to make progress towards rebuilding the ‘healthy and harvestable’ fish populations the Columbia Basin Partnership urgently called for,” said Janet Coit, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “The partnership set ambitious goals that would serve the tribes, states, and communities of the Columbia Basin, and urged us to pursue those necessarily ambitious steps to restore these vital species while we still can. Now we need feedback from our fishery co-managers in the region on what that will take.”