Since the last of four federal dams was completed on the Snake in the 1970s, an artificial economy has grown up based on turning the river into a canal linking Lewiston, Idaho with the Pacific Ocean. Their situation deserves sympathy and understanding. After all, they weren't the congressmen and lobbyists who foisted these dams on the Northwest and the nation. Perhaps like many in our region, they believed the party line at the time that we could have it all, healthy salmon runs, cheap power, cheap barge transportation, cheap water. Someone's going to be the winner and someone's going to be the loser when river waters are parceled out.
Most politicians have a strong stake in keeping things the way they are.
They are going to fight dam breaching every step of the way, despite strong scientific evidence that salmon species that once inhabited thousands of square miles of watershed will die out unless serious steps are taken. What's often forgotten in this debate is that the dams will costs hundreds of millions of dollars to preserve and maintain in coming years. Each job generated by a dam costs a lot of money. We replaced a natural system that produced a good living from salmon for thousands of people over thousands of years with one that requires constant and expensive tinkering and maintenance. The descendants of the people who first relied on salmon have more political and legal power now than at any time in the last 200 years.