2909 17-Mile Drive © 2000 by Leo Poppoff

Pebble Beach, CA 93953

\(831\) 375-3302

June 29, 2000

Basin Watch

by

Leo Poppoff

ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS ELSEWHERE

As some of you might have noticed, I've been on vacation. I spent most
of that time visiting my son in Oregon and enjoying scenic spots along
the Columbia River Gorge and the Oregon coast. Like the proverbial bus
driver who drives while on holiday, I scanned the Oregon newspapers for
news about their environmental problems.

Sometimes, I think we get caught up in our local environmental issues so
tightly we forget that other folks have their own environmental issues.
They, too, think their problems are unique and deserve national
attention -- and federal money. They're also competing with us for those
funds.

One of the really hot issues in Oregon is the interaction of dams and
salmon. The Columbia River and its tributary, the Snake River, are
intensively dammed. Construction of dams and hydroelectric plants
started with the Franklin Roosevelt administration and continued for
several decades. Those hydroelectric plants were valuable to the
Northwest because they provided abundant, cheap power. They fueled the
expansion of industry and jobs during the Great Depression and helped
the defense industry during World War II.

The dams also enhanced shipping along the Columbia River because they
flooded rapids and falls. Still, Native Americans who fish along the
Columbia failed to appreciate the progress. Their favorite fishing sites
were at those falls and rapids, where they had built dangerous looking,
rickety fishing platforms. As the dams went up, one by one, fishing
sites were inundated.

Salmon couldn't jump over dams on their way upstream to spawn, so fish
ladders were installed. Barges were also pressed into action, conveying
spawning salmon upstream and juvenile salmon downstream. Fish hatcheries
were built to mitigate for lost spawning grounds.

Yet, wild salmon, as we've all read in the papers, have been
disappearing. And Native Americans, with fishing rights on the river,
aren't the only unhappy souls. Commercial ocean fishermen are angry
because their livelihood is disappearing along with the salmon.

Hatchery-spawned salmon were blamed. It was alleged that they were
inferior and weakening the salmon population. Fishery experts proposed
to kill all hatchery fish, leaving the river to native salmon. Opponents
of this idea point out that if hatchery fish could survive three or four
years in the ocean and fight their way back upstream, they could hardly
be called inferior.

Dams were named as co-conspirators. They obstruct the river. In
addition, it's alleged that water flows, impeded by dams, slow down and
warm up. And salmon like cold water. Young salmon, flowing out to sea
along with the river, pour over dam spillways. Water rushing over a
spillway is turbulent and entrains a bunch of air. So, the nitrogen
content of the water is enhanced. It's also alleged that the juvenile
fish get the bends, which is deadly, from the elevated nitrogen levels.

So, the proposed solution is to remove the dams. Several dams on the
Snake River have been targeted. Yet, these dams have made the Snake
River navigable and they supply a good chunk of hydroelectric power for
the region. So, naturally, the idea has aroused, and incited,
opposition.

The opposition argues that Snake River water has always been warmer than
the Columbia River, which is fed by glaciers, such as the Columbia Ice
Fields. They also point out that before dams were built, ancestors of
those salmon were swept through turbulent rapids and falls that must
have entrained at least as much nitrogen.

In addition to the economic impacts of losing relatively cheap
electricity and barge traffic, opponents point out that the
environmental benefits might be illusory. There's already a shortage of
electricity as "rolling brownouts" during the last hot spell
demonstrate. Power lost by removing the Snake River dams must be made up
by constructing fossil fuel plants. And that would impact air quality.
Railroads are already at capacity, so loss of barge traffic would mean
more trucks, with added air pollution and highway congestion.

I don't know how they're going to balance alleged environmental benefits
against alleged environmental and economic impacts, but I suspect the
fight has barely started. The lesson is that after development occurs it
isn't easy to restore things back to the way they once were. We're
learning that the hard way, here in the Tahoe Basin.

During one of those vacation weeks, I enjoyed volunteering at the U.S.
Open at Pebble Beach. When it was over, I learned that a local
environmental group is suing the Pebble Beach Company because they had
not done an environmental assessment of the impact of that event. Should
all large events do environmental studies first? That's something to
think about.

Well, that's my "what I did on my vacation" essay. It's time to get back
to Tahoe topics.