Inslee & Murray Drafting New Approach To Breaching Lower Snake River Dams

[hatrack]

Gov. Jay Inslee and Sen. Patty Murray are exploring options to breach the lower Snake River dams and replace the benefits they provide, Inslee told a virtual gathering of Washington environmentalists this week.

Reaction was predictably mixed, with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., calling the plan to assess removing the dams “a political stunt.” Inslee said that he had not decided that the dams should be breached or removed, but “it seems highly unlikely this new process could conclude in a way that recommends the lower Snake dams remain in place,” Northwest RiverPartners said in a statement Friday.

“TRIDEC is proud of the great work that has been done to ensure that these dams provide excellent fish passage, and we continue to believe that salmon and dams can coexist,” said David Reeploeg, Tri-City Development Council vice president for federal programs. But Inslee’s plan was praised by groups that want to see the dams gone, including Trout Unlimited.

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Inslee offered no details, but the approach he outlined seems similar to that taken by Rep. Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican who turned up the heat on the region’s long-simmering “salmon wars” when he unveiled a proposal in February to breach the dams and invest $33.5 billion to replace their benefits and reshape the economies of Lewiston and the Tri-Cities. Simpson sought to include his proposal in the infrastructure package the Senate approved in August, but that effort fell flat amid strong opposition from his fellow Northwest Republicans and a lukewarm reception from most of the region’s Democrats, including Inslee and Murray.

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https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article255030822.html

[captain queeg]

1. We've been studying the idea of dam removal for at least 30 years