Subject: hyperbolic nonsense for the greedheads: a reponse to mr. rockwell
Date: Feb 21 08:13:03 1999
From: Dale Goble - gobled at uidaho.edu




dennis rockwell posted some of the nonsense that is becoming increasingly
common on the question of breaching the four lower snake river dams to
facilitate the recovery of the upper basin salmon runs. although he was
(understandably) more than a little vague he made two assertions:

1. removing the dams would destroy irrigated agriculture on the
columbia plateau and the whole region would dry up and blow away. the
problem with his argument is that it has no basis in reality: the four
lower snake river dams are not designed to produce irrigation and there
are no irrigation diversions from the dams. the columbia basin project
which irrigates the area around othello draws its water from grand coulee
dam. any impact on irrigation thus would result from a lowering of the
level of the water in what are now a series of slackwater reservoirs.
this might increase the height of pumping requirements.

2. the amount of habitat present in the basin is greater now than in
the past because of the habitat management areas that the corps has
constructed to compensate for the habitat that was destroyed when the dams
flooded the existing riparian habitat. two points to note:
a. the amount of habitat remains constant since all land is
habitat for something. the primary change in the columbia plateau has
been a change from sagebrush/bunchgrass steppe habitat to monoculture
agriculture habitat. the result is that the previous steppe species --
sharp-tailed grouse, sage thrashers, sage sparrows, pymny rabbits, etc. --
have been replaced with other species -- starlings and house sparrows, for
example.
b. there was a lot of riparian habitat in the region prior to
its inundation behind the dams. the creation of reservoirs drowned a
flood plain that was far richer than the current, rather sterile
reservoirs might lead the unobservant to believe. thus it is far from
clear that we now have more riparian-type habitat than existed prior to
the construction of the four lower snake river dams.

the debate on breaching the dams is not aided by vituperative rhetoric
such as calling those favoring removal salmon worshippers anymore than it
is advanced by calling those opposed to removal greedheads. the recent
anti-dam rallies have replaced facts with fear. Mr. Rockwell sadly
contributes to the degradation of discussion with his hyperbolic nonsense.

the issues are subject to reasonable disagreement:

*** without a removal of the dams, the probability of restoring the
upper basin salmon runs is essentially nil.
*** removing the dams will result in a loss of approximately 5% of
the region's hydroelectric capacity
*** removing the dams will result in the loss of slackwater shipping
from the ports between lewiston and wallula which will mean increased
transportation costs for shipper currently served by those ports as well
as increased air pollution from the transportation that replaces barges.

there are real costs and real benefits. unfortunately, many of the people
who benefit most directly from the current subsidies that the dams
represent have been unwilling to base their arguments on the loss of those
benefits and have instead turned to fear.

dale goble
moscow