Boat and tackle manufacturers, guides, hotels, grocery stores, gas stations and other locally-based businesses are supported by fishing. This and other significant maintenance costs will be saved. A restored river with healthy salmon runs will contribute to the quality of life we enjoy in the Northwest and which brings businesses to the region 6. The four dams provide relatively little benefit compared to their financial costs and their effects on salmon runs. These dams were not designed for flood control, so there will be no increase in the risk of floods.
Irrigation can continue by extending pipes to the new river level.
The four dams provide only a small amount of the region's power. Since 1979, the Northwest has saved, through energy conservation, an amount of electricity equal to that produced by the four Lower Snake dams and could double that. A seaport on the Rocky Mountains of Idaho that benefits barge shippers. The best alternative is to ship goods via truck and rail, as they were before the last dam was built in 1975. A 1998 economic analysis by the Northwest Power Planning Council found that making the changes to the four Lower Snake dams and John Day dam is affordable.