No water

[Idahotim]

Interesting. So the experts in the field I’ve heard from are liars? Who handles oversight of the dams in

Here’s a podcast from this week about the dams and the salmon. Being from TVA country, I had questions about the dams and their usefulness.


Oh, and the money generated by that fishery is a hell of a lot bigger than helping a few guides and the Indians.

The fish hatchery and the Indians kill more fish than they produce. That's a fact. Just a few years ago the Hatchery got caught spending money on there over head, biologists huge wage increases, no money being spent on maintenance and up keep or replacement of worn out machinery . Know under the Govt plan the fish and wild life are being taken out and it turns over to the Indians. This will be interesting. Because when the chief says take a day off who going to feed the fish,when some one dies and they all go to funeral who takes care of fish. When knowbody watches the airreators and it kills 200,000 and they flush them at night so the public doesn't know about it. Only tell tale sighn is in morning with all the seagulls around and eagles. Do more reasurch because someone feeding you some good (pa outy)

 

[BigSkyDuk]

Some of that is correct. They are old, but they still produce lots of power,at least two of them do the other two yes should of been replaced long ago but by having the dams in place they hold just enough water back to allow movement of commerce to go down river by barge with wheat,timber,paper products etc. Take out the dams and you will see higher energy costs,business close because of higher transportation costs of fuel to truck,loss of jobs because of the business closing, the list goes on. I agree with you on the waste of government spending, and miss management as we all see it, but remove the Dams is not the answer. The government don't tell you everything. They don't tell you that to start a wind turbine that it takes a generator that runs off diesel to start it up. They don't tell you that to make a solar panel it takes lots and lots of machines to excavate the earth running off diesel. It kills me all the libs think that it just magical appears. Dams and necular energy are the most sustainable power we have that is echo friendly. And before somebody says what about a necular wast or spill. Necular energy has become so much more advanced sense the 60s here in the US . Small necular energy plants that power 50,000 homes is where its at verses 3 mile island of the 70s.

Yes, without those dams and others in the system the Port of Lewiston would not be functional. In 2021 more than 587,000 tons of wheat were shipped out of the Port of Lewiston alone. I couldn't find the stats for the Port of Clarkson on the WA side.

 

[OneShotBandit]

Instead pushing EV's maybe "we" need to push desalinating sea water more effective/cheaper?

 

[full choke]

Your understanding is wrong. The four lower Snake River dams impound a total capacity of over 1.6 million acre-feet of water and have installed generation capacity of 3,155 megawatts. By themselves they can generate enough power for King County. On a bigger scale, the Columbia Basin project--which includes the dams in question--helped turn a desert into some of the most productive crop land in the world.

This.

 

[Dirk Van Schmaldlerson]

Your understanding is wrong. The four lower Snake River dams impound a total capacity of over 1.6 million acre-feet of water and have installed generation capacity of 3,155 megawatts. By themselves they can generate enough power for King County. On a bigger scale, the Columbia Basin project--which includes the dams in question--helped turn a desert into some of the most productive crop land in the world.

And there in lies a part of our problem.

 

[OneShotBandit]

The fish hatchery and the Indians kill more fish than they produce. That's a fact. Just a few years ago the Hatchery got caught spending money on there over head, biologists huge wage increases, no money being spent on maintenance and up keep or replacement of worn out machinery . Know under the Biden plan the fish and wild life are being taken out and it turns over to the Indians. This will be interesting. Because when the chief says take a day off who going to feed the fish,when some one dies and they all go to funeral who takes care of fish. When knowbody watches the airreators and it kills 200,000 and they flush them at night so the public doesn't know about it. Only tell tale sighn is in morning with all the seagulls around and eagles. Do more reasurch because someone feeding you some good (pa outy)

Why do the Native Americans still get to use gill nets? Have they not heard of grocery stores? I'm serious as this subject really bothers me, honestly not being a racist (because I ain't white) just asking.

 

[bill cooksey]

Interesting, I don’t work on western stuff and don’t pretend to be an expert. What do y’all think of the Simpson Plan? My understanding is it addresses water storage, power and shipping. Has one of our local experts here read it?

 

[HaydenHunter]

It’s my understanding the four dams there which they wish to breach provide no flood control, negligible water storage and generation so minimal it is laughable, a drop in the bucket and already slated to be replaced even if the dams remain. They epitomize government spending, mismanagement and waste at it’s best.

In other words, they epitomize the Biden approach to infrastructure.

Lots of shipping thanks to those dams, mainly grain from the Palouse. Barge traffic can make it all the way up to Lewiston/ Clarkston.

 

[BigSkyDuk]

Interesting, I don’t work on western stuff and don’t pretend to be an expert. What do y’all think of the Simpson Plan? My understanding is it addresses water storage, power and shipping. Has one of our local experts here read it?

It addresses power by providing funding for BPA to pursue projects that are probably not economically feasible, at the scale required, to replace the generating capacity of the dams. The caveat being that the dams can't be breached until that new generation is in place, which may as well be a backdoor to preventing breach at all for the foreseeable future. As for transportation, because you can't barge up and down a free-flowing Snake River it becomes intermodal; i.e. trucks and trains from the Tri-Cities onward, with resulting increases in cost.

It's a solution in search of a problem--well, kind of. It's a purported solution to the problems salmon face without considering that it might well not be the solution they need, or even if it is part of the puzzle it might not be enough. And at very great cost to not only the people who live and work in this area, power their homes and businesses with relatively inexpensive hyrdo power, but to the entire country.

Why do the Native Americans still get to use gill nets? Have they not heard of grocery stores? I'm serious as this subject really bothers me, honestly not being a racist (because I ain't white) just asking.

Treaty rights.

 

[BigSkyDuk]

And there in lies a part of our problem.

By that logic we should plow under all the farms in the midwest and tear down the levees on the Mississippi; after all, they enable people to live in places where they otherwise wouldn't be able to live, at least in current numbers. Free flowing waters from the Columbia Basin are on a fast track to the Pacific Ocean where they do nobody any good at all. What level of resource capture and use should we engage in?