A new study says the benefits of removing four dams on the lower Snake River outweighs the costs.
The study by Seattle-based companies ECONorthwest and Vulcan looked at what life would be like breaching Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite dams.
Costs include making it more expensive for grain growers to get their crops to market and the loss of power generated at the dams.
However, the study says the benefits of reducing the extinction risk for Snake River salmon and steelhead, combined with increases in river-based recreation over reservoir recreation, plus the jolt of spending and jobs that would accompany the work to physically remove the dams, would exceed costs by $8.6 billion.
Should the dams be breached, the Bonneville Power Administration, which markets electricity generated at federal dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers, would lose revenue, but the agency would also experience lower costs to maintain the dams and reductions in costs associated with mitigating for the harm the dams cause to fish. (Lewiston Tribune)
