Seventy percent of the best remaining habitat in this whole river basin is dealing with those four dams. The Army Corps of Engineers says breaching the four dams would be a nine-year project. Punching holes in the dams would cost the Northwest 4 percent of its electricity. The region would also lose water for irrigation and navigation. The Clinton administration's new salmon plan would leave the dams in place while boosting river flow to help the salmon on their journey.
Conservationists think the plan is all wet.
It's not as though we haven't tried.