I am an English Channel swimmer who trains in the Snake River at Wawaii near where I live. For a good part of the last two summers, toxic blue algae blooms, a result of the increasingly high water temperature caused by the lower Snake River dams, have kept me from training. The blooms appear in the stillest parts of the river and if consumed cause severe liver damage to human beings and kill dogs.
I am therefore deeply encouraged by the decision of a U.S. District judge last month that required federal dam operators to take emergency measures to protect our Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead as well as citizens who use the Snake for recreation. The preliminary injunction requires increased spill over eight federal dams in the spring and summer.
This increase in water going over the tops of dams is critical to out-migrating juvenile salmon, enabling them to get past the dams without going through a gauntlet of lethal turbines and lowering the water temperature to prevent toxic blue algae blooms. Without this policy change, Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead, particularly those that return to the Snake River to spawn, are in dire straits.
Ultimately, all of the lower Snake River dams need to be removed to prevent the growing threat of extinction to many iconic fish species and to promote a healthy river for all. For now, I’m celebrating the court decision that takes the first steps of providing much-needed relief for an unhealthy river.
Amy G. Mazur
Moscow
