Not since the federal government proposed to build a plutonium refinery in eastern Idaho in the late 1980s have so many folks turned out to listen and voice their opinions at a public hearing here. More than 550 people attended a public hearing Wednesday evening on federal efforts to recover endangered Snake River salmon and steelhead. People started lining up well before 5 p.m. to sign up to speak. Most of those who spoke early in the evening urged federal officials to breach four federal dams on the lower Snake River to help recover the fish. A panel of federal officials were in town to hear comments on a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers environmental study on passage improvements for salmon in the lower Snake River in southeastern Washington.
Some people suspect their comments mean little.
Federal officials will compile comments only on the adequacy of the studies, on anything they may have overlooked. They won't consider whether people are simply for or against a particular option. But the decision on the fate of the four dams rests with Congress. And congressional aides report the results of the hearings to the Idaho delegation members, who will consider the number of comments on both sides along with other factors, said Charles Barnes, aide for U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho. In those treaties, the tribe gave up a portion of their lands in exchange for the rights to fish for salmon.