Newhouse: Recent Snake River Dam Study A Waste Of Washington Taxpayer Dollars

In the budget passed by lawmakers in Olympia this session, $750,000 was set aside to study the impact to eastern Washington if the four Snake River dams are breached.  Representative Dan Newhouse said any such study is a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Newhouse said the dams are federal property, and any changes to the operation of those dams, or potential remove, would come from Congress.  On top of that, Newhouse noted the federal government is currently conducting an Environmental Impact Survey, which is expected to wrap up in the next two years.

“The state is actually wasting money, in an efforts that’s already being done by the federal government in an area where the state does not have jurisdiction.  So, that was the feeling that myself and Cathy McMorris Rodgers expressed in a letter recently, but the state went forward with the funding of the study, but again I think the tax payer dollars could have been put to much better use.”

Newhouse said breaching the Snake River, or Columbia River, dams would hurt the inland Northwest in multiple ways, not only for the Ag community, but transportation, electricity generation, tourism, flood control and much more.  He noted the state’s push looks to ignore all of the efforts and the money that has been spent in successful mitigation of salmon recovery and fish passage through the dams.

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