[Jake Neiffer]

It's a good question, but I stumbled across something that said those 4 Snake River Dams provide no flood protection.  The others IDK, and imagine the ones on the Columbia are a likely a different story entirely.

[Snowbrushy]

Congress would probably have to sign-off on the dam removal. Congress would first ask the Department of Defense for an opinion. They in turn would ask the US Navy about dam removal. I wonder what the Navy would say?

[NacMacFeegle]

[Jake Neiffer]

Nac- I hear what you're saying, but my birthplace is Heppner.  Maybe that’s why I’m somewhat fond of dams.

[Snowbrushy]

What he said. "Mud Mountain Dam impounds the White River for flood control."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_Mountain_Dam

[treeswarper]

I had not heard of the Heppner Flood.  Wow.

I thought it was exciting sometimes living near Douglas Cr.

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What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities

[Randito]

Elwha river sans dams flooding

[spamfoote]

It would probably be cheaper to simply build a giant fish ladder/river on the existing dams face than to remove those large dams.

Either way, it would be an immense amount of money.

[altasnob]

US: Snake River dams will not be removed to save salmon

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/snake-river-dams-will-not-be-removed-to-save-salmon-federal-government-decides/

Final Environmental Impact Statement can be found here:

https://www.nwd.usace.army.mil/CRSO/Final-EIS/#top

[gb]

[thunderhead]

Trump - irrational and emotional - was the best chance the dam removal clowns ever were going to have.

The environmental benefit from the dams(mainly clean hydropower) dwarfs utterly the environmental benefit from a few extra salmon.  Biden will presumably be too sane to remove the dams.

[Ski]

[thunderhead]

By comparison to the vast emissionless hydropower that comes from the river, those salmon are inconsiquentially small.

The columbia/snake basin provides an average of about 7 gigawatts of power, enough to power about 7 million americans, nonstop, without emitting any co2 or pollutants.

A little research shows the pre-dam columbia river system could produce about 10 million pounds of salmon per year sustainably.... a tiny and irrelevant value compared with the electricity.

So "a few" is valid, in comparison with the vastly more important clean hydropower of the river.

If you want the salmon back, the dams will be replaced by combined cycle natural gas plants, and our carbon dioxide emissions will skyrocket.

[Ski]

The wild runs of anadromous salmonids in the Columbia / Snake watershed fed thousands of native Americans.
The only reason that the hydroelectric dams were built with systems which didn't allow for the migration of the salmon was stupidity.
They were poorly designed, without any thought given to the resource.

Norway made the same mistake, and that's why the "Aquaculture" industry was created, which is decimating wild fish food stocks from the world's oceans, and (currently) fouling the waters of Puget Sound here.

A consequence of the lack of salmon (not necessarily in the Columbia / Snake system, but in rivers feeding into Puget Sound) is that the local Orca Whale population is becoming extinct.

Poor planning and lack of foresight isn't a valid excuse.

The amount of power generated isn't a valid reason to kill off virtually all the native runs of salmon and steelhead that once populated those rivers.

But hey, if you're only worried about MONEY, why should you care about fish?

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"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. 
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."

[Brian R]

"This conversation brought to you by huge, power-hungry server farms!"

But Ski is right, there is no free lunch when it comes to generating electricity. The price here in the PNW has been much higher than we used to believe.