Over 300 national and grassroots organizations from across America today endorsed the retirement of the four federal dams on the Lower Snake River in eastern Washington State. The four small dams are a leading threat to Snake River salmon runs and have cost the federal government hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

It is time for taxpayers to cut our losses and remove these dams. For the past 20 years, federal agencies have spent billions of dollars in attempts to save the fish. Incredibly, their primary scheme has been to take the fish out of the water, load them on trucks or barges, and drive them 350 miles down the highway, past the dams, to the mouth of the ocean.

 

But the fish are still dying.

 

The list of endorsers advocate a variety of policies, but all agree on the need to remove the four dams. Partial removal of the dams-removal of the dirt portion which attaches the concrete structure to the river bank-would restore salmon runs by allowing Snake River salmon to swim freely around the dams.

 

On the other hand, the potential costs of keeping the dams in place are enormous.

 

Federal taxpayers could be liable for more than 12 billion dollars–an estimated value of the land ceded to the U.S. in treaties signed with 14 sovereign Indian Nations last century in exchange for a promise that the salmon would always remain.

 

Currently, all Snake River salmon and steelhead runs are either extinct or on the endangered species list. Scientists largely blame the Lower Snake River dams for decimated runs, saying they cause more than 80% of all human-caused salmon mortality.

 

Restoring salmon is not only a special concern for the people of the Pacific Northwest, but an issue of significant national importance. The list of endorsers for dam removal includes businesses, prominent individuals, Native American tribes, and organizations representing conservationists, recreationists, recreational fishermen, commercial fishermen, taxpayers and other interests. Organizations from 47 states, Australia and Japan are included in the list.

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Joining TCS in the effort to compile the endorsement list were Save Our Wild Salmon, American Rivers, Trout Unlimited, National Wildlife Federation, Idaho Rivers United and Idaho Wildlife Federation.

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