WSU Economists Working With Stakeholders To Review Snake River Breaching Analysis

Scientists with Washington State University’s Freight Policy Transportation Institute are reaching out to regional stakeholders as part of a newly launched independent review of a state-contacted analysis of transport impacts from potential breaching of the four lower Snake Rivers dams.  The review calls for WSU to work with representatives from agriculture, tourism, ports as well as other industries that would be impacted by a breach of those dams.  Eric Jessup, research professor and director of the Institute said the Columbia and Snake River system affects many different parts of the Pacific Northwest.

“The average consumers don't really understand the complexity of how that river system touches a lot of people's lives.  But certainly if you're talking about our Ag interest for grain farmers here in the Pacific Northwest, they utilized that river to access export markets. And yes, for navigation its they use it not just for obtaining markets for delivering export commodities, but also for access to things like fuel and fertilizer for products coming up the river.”

Jessup’s team will review a $4 million, two-year study of transportation needs, options and impacts from the shifting of barged goods and passengers to truck and rail.  That analysis is currently being conducted by private firms and was commissioned by the Washington state Department of Transportation.

“Investments, infrastructure investments, would be necessary to accommodate that happening should it ever happen, and of course, in some respects they they're being asked to do something that of course, none of the businesses that rely upon that system have ever been asked to do. And so, there's a high degree of uncertainty about how markets would react.  And so trying to identify where infrastructure investments need to occur, and I'm talking about maybe highway investments, rail investments, port investments, potentially even private facility investments that's all conditional upon how they model that system.”

Jessup noted this work is expected to conclude in June 2025.

Catch the podcast of our conversation with Eric Jessup below:

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