Continue to barge salmon around the dams. Improve barging by diverting an additional million acre-feet of water from irrigation in Idaho into the river to increase flows. This is vital to many regional industries such as irrigation for farms and important for anyone who turns on a light. Hundreds of thousands of people fish, boat and water ski on the reservoirs behind the dams each year. Brownlee Reservoir alone accounts for 880,000 angler-hours a year, the most of any water in the state.
Stockholders benefit from profits from the sale of power generated at the dams.
More than 1 million salmon once spawned in the Snake River Basin above Hells Canyon. Dams cut off and destroyed much habitat for chinook and steelhead that once spawned up to Shoshone Falls. Endgangered snails need cold flowing water to survive. Spawning habitat for trout is covered by dam backwaters. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a five-person agency, will decide whether to issue new licensies for the 11 dams for the next 15 years.