Spokane Falls Trout Unlimited Conservation Chair, Harvey Morrison wrote the following opinion which was published on the Spokesman Review on November 19, 2016.
For over 20 years, I have been active in the salmon and dam debate and have heard every rational and irrational justification to remove or keep the dams.
For the fifth time, the agencies have a U.S. District Court order to study the actions, cost and benefits of management options. Those agencies are conducting workshops and taking public testimony on the content and scope for the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), due in 2020.
Scientists and public opinion call for removal of the four lower Snake River dams.
The EIS will not facilitate this necessity. It will take broad regional and national support to bring dam removal to reality.
This EIS must respond to the court’s order to be transparent, independently verifiable and thorough in the evaluation of all options. It must be based on the best available science regarding the life cycle needs of salmon, climate variables and the energy and grid needs of the 21st century.
As citizens we must demand that this EIS produces results that will convince our elected leaders to do the right thing for future generations of people, salmon, orcas and all that is connected to the web of the river’s ecology.
Harvey Morrison
Spokane