Such a change would increase the system’s reliability and cost ratepayers little to nothing.

A recent report released by the NW Energy Coalition, with support from NRDC, found that a mixed portfolio of solar, wind, energy efficiency, demand-response, and storage can replace the power the four Snake River dams contribute to the Northwest. In response, wildlife advocates are renewing calls to restore the lower Snake River by breaching the four dams. In Washington State, only 73 Southern Resident orcas remain, due in part to the lack of Chinook salmon, their main prey. The dwindling number of salmon is having ripple effects across the food chain. Thirteen populations are listed under the Endangered Species Act, and all four salmon and steelhead populations in the Snake River Basin are at risk of extinction, according to NOAA Fisheries. Its work is increasingly urgent: From populations numbering 130,000 fish in the 1950s, wild Snake River spring Chinook salmon dropped to approximately 5, 800 in 2017. Nevertheless, Jones acknowledges the steep toll the dams have taken on salmon and is part of a bipartisan, multi-stakeholder coalition searching for fresh ideas to help save them-while supporting farmers, too. “We don’t have the infrastructure to start using rail again, we can’t afford to pay another 50 cents a bushel to ship our grain.” “When the dams went in, we closed down the rail lines, and, in doing so, barging was the only way to get our grain to market,” Jones says. In fact, according to the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, it would require 35 train cars or 134 trucks to move the volume of wheat carried on a single barge. Transporting crops via rail or truck, which Jones relies on to get canola, mustard, and cattle to market, are more expensive and less efficient than barge, he argues. But outnumbering all other cargo is the soft white wheat grown by farmers from 11 states.įourth-generation farmer Bryan Jones is one of those who depends on the Snake River barges to transport wheat from his farm near Colfax, Washington, to a shipping port in Portland, Oregon. Soybeans, wood products, mineral bulks, and automobiles also travel the river by barge.

Four dams-the Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower Monumental and Ice Harbor-erected between 19, ease the way for massive barges bound for ports on the West Coast, and ultimately, markets in Asia. Each year, millions of tons of grain make their way along what was once one of our wildest river systems, the Columbia-Snake River.

Lot limit fishing