Maybe this is a better way to talk about the salmon. Waste. Billions of dollars for a smokescreen that will actually make the problem worse.
"The final Columbia and Snake River salmon recovery plan released today is little more than a $6 billion slap in the face to taxpayers and ignores years of scientific research on the most cost effective ways to protect these fish.
"Not only does the plan fall short in protecting salmon, it actually increases the threat of extinction for these species. Among the many failures of the plan is that it ignores the impact of the existing federal hydropower system completely, which causes more than 85% of the fish mortality. Instead of even considering the option of removing the four Lower Snake River dams, the new plan pushes the fish further down the road to extinction, while we waste about half a billion dollars a year on ridiculous, bizarre technofixes. These are just more of the same-old multi-million dollar failures like gold-plating of dams with removable weirs and the loading salmon onto barges and trucks to be shipped downstream around the dams.
http://www.taxpayer.net/TCS/PressReleases/2004/11-30SalmonRecoveryPlan.htm