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(4) According to the Army Corps of Engineers the 
survival rate per dam on the Columbia and Snake River 
is averaging 91 to 98 percent for juvenile fish passage. 
(5) The survival rate on the Columbia and Snake 
River is between 98 and 99 percent for adult passage. 
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS THAT BREACHING THE DAMS 
WILL NOT GUARANTEE RECOVERY OF SALM-
ON AND STEELHEAD. 
It is the sense of Congress that breaching the dams 
will not guarantee recovery of salmon and steelhead for 
the following reasons: 
(1) The Bonneville Power Administration has deter-
mined that the cost to replace the power and capacity ben-
efits of the Lower Snake River dams is between 
$400,000,000 to $550,000,000 per year. 
(2) The Independent Economic Analysis Board 
(IEAB) issued analysis of the recent ‘‘Revenue Stream’’ 
report in February 2007 and determined: ‘‘We note that 
if the Corps replacement power costs (which the IEAB 
considers to be the more credible numbers) were inserted 
into the Revenue Stream report in place of the power costs 
estimated by Save Our Wild Salmon (SOS)—this change 
alone would be enough to reverse their results. It would 
be cheaper for the region to keep the dams’’. 
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(3) Salmon runs between 2001 and 2004 were some 
of the highest in history, with the dams in place. 
(4) Salmon returns in 2000 were about 400,000, and 
in 2004 returns were more than double that amount at 
846,000. 
(5) Historically and currently 90 to 95 percent of the 
juvenile salmon that reach the ocean die in the ocean eaten 
by predators or failing to find food. 
(6) The conditions in the ocean that the juvenile fish 
encounter have a huge effect on their success. 
(7) Conditions can be right in fresh water, sending 
healthy juvenile fish down the river and assuring their safe 
passage, but, if ocean conditions are poor, the returns are 
poor, but if conditions are right in fresh water and ocean 
conditions are good, returns will improve. 
(8) Some of the best returns ever counted at Bonne-
ville Dam, which began counting fish in 1938, were re-
corded in the past few years. 
SEC. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS WITH RESPECT TO THE ENVI-
RONMENTAL IMPACT OF REMOVING THE 
DAMS. 
It is the sense of Congress that the environmental 
impact of removing the dams will be extremely damaging 
for the following reasons: 
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(1) Breaching the four Lower Snake River Dams 
would allow the annual sediment load of 3,000,000 to 
4,000,000 cubic yards to be carried downstream to Lake 
Wallula, where the majority of incoming sediment would 
likely be deposited. 
(2) The Corps of Engineers Lower Snake EIS/Feasi-
bility Study indicated breaching would result in the release 
of 75,000,000 cubic yards of silt, expose fish to increased 
toxins and higher turbidity levels and have an effect on 
fish. 
(3) The Corps of Engineers estimates that the flood 
control provided by the dams on the Columbia and Snake 
River systems prevented $4,600,000,000 in damages from 
potential floods in 1996 and 1997. 
(4) Water collected in the Columbia and Snake River 
system irrigates half the productive farmland in Oregon, 
Washington, and Idaho. 
(5) If the dams were breached the area would incur 
a yearly net loss of $13,900,000 to $16,900,000 of agri-
culture goods. 
SEC. 6. SENSE OF CONGRESS WITH RESPECT TO RENEW-
ABLE FREE ENERGY, GLOBAL WARMING DE-
BATE, AND BACKUP ENERGY TO CALIFORNIA. 
It is the sense of Congress that the dams on the Co-
lumbia and Snake rivers provide renewable pollution free 
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energy to the Pacific Northwest and also helps backup 
California’s power grid for the following reasons: 
(1) The Pacific Northwest is uniquely positioned be-
cause more than 60 percent of its electricity is hydro-
electric power generated by dams on the Columbia and 
Snake River System and generation of that electricity does 
not create any air or water pollution and is vital for cre-
ating and maintaining jobs. 
(2) Replacing the dams would require building or 
buying energy generated from coal or natural gas plants, 
which are far more expensive and produce ‘‘green house 
gases’’ which some feel contribute to global warming. 
(3) When California reaches its peak power needs 
(primarily in the summer), the Pacific Northwest is, his-
torically, in a time of lower power demand (its higher de-
mand is in the winter) and the Federal hydropower system 
is positioned to provide California with the excess power 
from the Pacific Northwest, so taking out the hydropower 
dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers could have a det-
rimental effect on Southern California’s supply of elec-
tricity. 
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