BPA Funded Study States Salmon/Steelhead Recovery ‘Only Likely’ If Dams Breached
Photo: Cameron Karsten
2021 CSS Comparative Survival Study adds insult to injury
By Daniel Ritz, IWF Staff
The annual Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) Comparative Survival Study (CSS) is a management-oriented, large-scale monitoring study of spring/summer/fall Chinook salmon, steelhead, and sockeye salmon. It concludes, “CSS analyses have shown that dramatic increases in SARs are only likely if the lower Snake River dams are breached and spill is maximized at the lower Columbia River dams.”
Let that sink in: BPA - the agency responsible for selling dam power, counting fish, and funding their recovery efforts - funded an over 800 page study that concluded the dams must be breached to save Idaho’s fish.
The Comparative Survival Study of PIT-tagged Spring/Summer/Fall Chinook, Summer Steelhead, and Sockeye 2021 Annual Report is a long-term study within the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program (NPCC FWP) and is funded by the BPA (BPA Contract #19960200 Contract #78040 REL 33).
Smolt to Adult Return ratios (SARs) must be at 4% for healthy and harvestable runs of fish. 2% is necessary to sustain populations at current levels and anything under 2% is trending towards extinction. Idaho’s salmon and steelhead SARs currently sit at 0.7% and 1.5% (2010-’19 avg) respectively, ensuring extinction.
While the study is quick to point out that both freshwater and ocean factors are important for explaining the patterns of variation in steelhead and spring Chinook salmon SARs in the Columbia River Basin, the studies conclusions are, all pun intended, damning.
The study also shares how water transit times experienced by the Snake River populations have not improved since 1994. In fact, the report explains how “recent operational decisions have in fact resulted in increased water transit times compared to what could be achieved…” (Page V, 2021_CSS_Annual_Report)
It appears the dam operators themselves acknowledge that they should be breached for fish to recover, defeating ideas that fish and dams can coexist.
Unfortunately, though, the potential extinction of Idaho’s fish are only one of three current crises for taxpayers and ratepayers.
River shipping is down nearly 80%, now heavily subsidized perpetually and ever-increasing by taxpayers.
If you are a BPA customer, 30 percent (and growing) of your power bill pays for failed fish recovery efforts, and the agency's debt, which has surpassed $15 billion and is irreversible according to its own strategic plan. Former BPA Administrator Elliott Mainzer called their situation a 'bloodbath'.
"The time for demonstrating our capability to get this situation under control and to stabilize is now," Mainzer himself said in an interview with E & E News.
That interview was back in 2019.
The 2021 CSS study, funded by BPA itself, clearly indicates the time is now and the scientifically agreed upon way to get the situation under control is to remove the lower snake river dams.