Barging fish?
Several recent letters to the editor have extolled the virtues of barging juvenile salmon and steelhead from Lower Granite Dam to speed their trip to the ocean and bypass the remaining dams.
The writers have provided extensive data to illustrate their point and to prove that no need exists to spill water at the lower Snake River dams nor to consider removal of the dams to increase fish survival.
The writers have failed to answer a rather basic question.
Why did the Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power and the Bureau of Reclamation reject barging and choose to recommend increased, modified spill as their preferred alternative in their own plan for Columbia River System Operations?
Their evaluation of increased barging as an alternative stated, “In general, alternative 2 (barging) is LESS effective than the other alternatives in meeting the Improve Juvenile Salmon, Improve Adult Salmon and Improve Resident Fish objectives.”
They went on to state that the model predicted a 30% relative reduction in smolt-to-adult survival of Snake River spring chinook and steelhead.
If the Corps, BPA and the Bureau of Reclamation, agencies that benefit financially when water is not spilled, but instead run through turbines, did not think barging of juvenile fish would work, why should we?
Keith E. Carlson
Lewiston
