Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden and Inslee administrations have been colluding secretly with extremist environmental groups and four tribal governments on plans to breach dams on the Snake and Columbia Rivers.
A “confidential mediation document — not for distribution” on their dam-breaching efforts was leaked to Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and then to the media Wednesday, Nov. 29.
The document outlines a proposed agreement between representatives of the six agencies in their efforts expected to be presented in federal court Dec. 15 in connection with a lawsuit designed to require dam breaching.
The activist groups are being represented by the Earthjustice.
The agreement calls for Lower Snake River Restoration using vague langue on restoring salmon and steelhead runs and completing the “actions and investments necessary to secure continuity of services associated with Lower Snake River restoration prior to LRS dam breaching.”
Under the secret agreement, the federal Department of Energy, USDA and other agencies would provide funds to tribes to create and manage new power generation systems, effectively handing over control of up to 3,000 MW of power generation to tribal managers.
“This new, clean tribally-sponsored energy will be planned as “replacement” power for the lower Snake River dams if Congress authorizes the breath of those dams.”
The plan also calls for upgrading railroads, roads and other transportation necessities should the dams be breached, and barging opportunities diminish.
While the plan calls for breaching the Lower Snake River dams first, it also calls for restoration of salmon and steelhead runs on the Upper Columbia River, above Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee Dams.
The leaked document comes after a recent Government Accountability Office finding that salmon declination in Puget Sound is due primarily to pollution there, and not dams on the Columbia or Snake rivers.
In that finding, the GAO determined Washington state, Puget Sound counties and cities, and federal agencies failed to address decades-long problems with toxic runoff from city streets into the sound. That failure has led to the decline in the salmon population there, directly affecting the orca population.
See full coverage of the leaked documents in the upcoming Dec. 7 edition of the Whitman County Gazette.
Roger Harnack is the owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers from Washington state to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
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