In California, relatively few dams have come down. One example is Battle Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River near Redding. The biggest fight nationally concerns a string of four dams on the Snake River, which flows into the Columbia River in Washington state. A consortium of fishing groups, Native-American tribes and environmentalists are pushing the federal operators to acknowledge that decimated fish runs can only be restored by demolition of the dams built in the 1960s. These structures typify the general debate.
Turbines crank out enough power to light Seattle.
Grain from eastern Washington is barged downriver at low cost through locks in the dams. The economic life of the region is linked to dams. But the barriers are fish-killers. Salmon struggle to find fish ladders designed to lead migrations around the dams. Water temperatures rise in the stopped-up lakes, killing young smolts.