Dye: Seattle Should Address Their Problems Before Trying To Remove Snake River Dams

The Inland Northwest farming community spent much of 2019 hot under the collar, primarily because of Governor Jay Inslee’s decision to allocate $750,000 in state funds to a study looking at the economic impact of removing the lower Snake River dams.  State Representative Mary Dye said this is just the latest effort in decades of attempts by extreme environmentalists to disrupt the Inland Northwest way of list.

The Pomeroy Republican said this recent push to remove the dams is not about helping salmon or the environment, but rather removing the dams just to remove the dams.  Dye says while most of the I-5 corridor may be against you, she asked local farmers to not give up the fight.

“It’s been something that’s been long term goal of the extreme wing of the environmental activists, and the science doesn’t bear out their claims that these four dams are causing the environmental harm that they claim.”

Dye added the lower Snake River dams not only make it possible to feed the world, but also provide the city of Seattle and surrounding communities with clean, green energy.  She added if the environment was truly the issue, Seattle has enough to accomplish in their own backyard.

“Getting their storm water problems fixed, getting their fish blocking culverts fixed, getting WestPoint sewage plant from spilling billions of gallons of raw sewage into the Puget Sound dealing with their storm water runoff from all of those paved surfaces that they have in that city.  Getting their problems fixed up.  They have a lot of work to do before they start poking their fingers at us.”

Dye noted the dams are federal property, so any decision to breach the Snake River four would need to come from Congress.

If you have a story idea for the Washington Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekradio.com