Political Quotes

“dam removal as a serious option for salmon recovery on the Snake River died last week. It was killed by the National Marine Fisheries Service, the arm of the Clinton administration assigned to save those endangered salmon. Why and how? Three runs of salmon on the upper Snake River were listed as endangered in 1991 and 1992. On April 14, NMFS announced its determination that only 19 percent of salmon smolts barged around the dams, die. In fact, we now know that downriver survival rates are at least as high as they were in the 1960's before the Snake River dams were built! As a result, NMFS now believes that the chance of recovery for the endangered runs is only 64 percent if all four Snake River dams are removed, as against 53 percent by continuing to transport smolts around the dams. The difference is barely statistically significant. We can assume that NMFS science is the best available. That science is a vital component of public policy, but only one component of good public policy and not absolutely determinative to the exclusion of all other concerns. So against the modest 11-percent improvement in survival chances for these populations of salmon from dam removal, we must weigh the immense costs of removal.…”