Here are factual points to use to build your own message, not necessarily in order of importance. Please pick one or two points to keep your message to decision makers short, so it will be heard.

 

Southern Resident Killer Whales (Southern Resident Orcas)

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• There are less than 80 Southern Resident Killer Whales alive today. They are the only fish eating orcas in the lower 48 states. They are critically endangered. For more than two decades deaths have exceeded successful births. Few females are successfully reproducing calves. Without reproducing females, the orcas cannot survive.

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• The reproductive success of Southern Resident Killer Whales is dependent on the abundance of chinook salmon. Approximately two-thirds of pregnancies in Southern Resident Killer Whales fail. Only 50% of calves born alive survive more than two years. This high failure rate is directly linked to the scarcity of their prey.

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Snake River Salmon and Steelhead

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• Within the United States, the Snake/Columbia Basin river system once produced the most salmon on the West Coast, and perhaps the world. The Snake River historically spawned about half the salmon in the Basin. It is a critically important source of prey for the endangered orcas.

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• NOAA Fisheries has underscored the importance of the Snake/Columbia watershed to the orcas, stating that, “[p]erhaps the single greatest change in food availability for resident killer whales since the late 1800s has been the decline of salmon from the Columbia River basin.” NOAA, 2008 Recovery Plan for Southern Resident Killer Whales, p. II-82.

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• In the Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead runs can survive passing four dams and their warm water/predator filled reservoirs. In contrast, they cannot survive passing eight dams and their warm water/predator filled reservoirs. Built last and situated poorly, the four lower Snake River dams are the problem.

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• The four lower Snake River dams and reservoirs are death traps for migrating juvenile and adult salmon.

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• Time is running out. A 2021 Nez Perce study revealed that 77% of Snake River spring/summer chinook salmon will be quasi-extinct (presumed to have little chance of recovery) by the mid-2020’s. That is now. These are the fish that sustained the Southern Resident Killer Whales for many thousands of years. The whales and fish are out of time.

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• Salmon and steelhead are keystone species, essential for a healthy Pacific Northwest environment. From insects to grizzly bears to humans to Southern Resident Killer Whales, more than 130 species depend on the marine nutrients that wild salmon and steelhead provide in their migration home.

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Dam Breaching on the Lower Snake River

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• Lower Snake River dam breaching, along with other region-wide actions, must begin immediately. “Inaction will result in the catastrophic loss of the majority of Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead stocks.” We are already years late. NOAA Fisheries, Draft—Rebuilding Interior Columbia Basin Salmon and Steelhead, July 11, 2022, p. 18.

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• Together the Snake and Columbia Rivers once produced more Chinook salmon than any other river system in the world. Hence, after the dams are breached, these rivers have a tremendous potential to do so again.

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• Breaching the lower Snake River dams is the single measure most likely to recover abundant salmon and steelhead in time to enable the endangered Southern Resident orcas to survive.

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• Breaching the four lower Snake River dams would open the gateway to 5500 miles of intact, high elevation cold water salmon spawning and rearing streams that are the most resistant to global warming in the lower 48 states. 

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• Breaching the lower Snake River dams now would recover Snake River salmon and steelhead, uphold indigenous people’s rights and culture, help the Southern Resident Killer Whales avoid extinction, and end decades old litigation that is wasting taxpayers’ money.

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• Breaching the dams would restore 140 miles of riparian areas and large expanses of currently degraded forests, which would reestablish vast carbon sinks needed to reduce the impacts of climate change.

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Dam Generated Electricity

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• The energy the lower Snake River dams generate has declined by 29% over the past five years. The dams produce about only 3% of the Pacific Northwest region’s energy, and most of that energy is produced during the spring runoff when energy in the Pacific Northwest is abundant and least needed. It often is sold for less than its cost of production, at ratepayer’s expense.

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• Contrary to popular belief, the electricity generated by the Snake River Dams is no longer cheap. Bonneville Power Administration’s 2026-2028 wholesale price for electricity for Pacific Northwest public utility districts is $40/Megawatt hour. Many Power Purchase Agreements in the West provide power at around $24/Megawatt hour.

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• The Snake River dams do not produce clean or green energy. That is disinformation.  The dam reservoirs emit more than 80,000 tons of CO2 equivalent methane gas, while the dam turbines frequently spill oil and other fish-killing pollutants into the river. Worse yet, the dams are destroying an ecosystem the size of Oregon and driving wild salmon, steelhead and Southern Resident orcas to extinction. There’s little clean or green about this.

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• Cleaner, greener solar and wind energy with battery storage can replace the energy produced by the dams, if the energy needs to be replaced.