News Release

September 19, 2011

Contact:   John Osborn, MD, Sierra Club Columbia River Future Project, john@waterplanet.ws

Conservationists ask Salazar to oppose new dams as environmentally damaging, costly to taxpayers

Political leaders trumpet dam removal on Olympic Peninsula, next day consider new dam proposals for Yakima River

SPOKANE --   Sierra Club today called upon Secretary Kenneth Salazar of the U.S. Department of the Interior to support conservation and improved efficiencies in water use in the Yakima River Basin.  Sierra Club re-stated its opposition to new dams in the basin as environmentally destructive and expensive for taxpayers.   These recommendations came at the end of Secretary Salazar’s two-day visit to Washington state to commemorate the removal of the Elwha Rivers dams and to hear proposals for new dams in central Washington.

“Flooding 1,500 acres of ancient forest at Bumping Lake and destroying rare shrub-steppe habitat is not in the interest of the U.S. taxpayer,” said John Osborn, coordinator of Sierra Club’s Columbia River Future Project.  “The solution to the Yakima Basin’s water conflicts lies with water conservation, and re-operations at existing dams, including fish passage, to maximize storage potential and habitat for endangered species.”

Secretary Salazar visited the Olympic Peninsula on Saturday and on Sunday morning joined Governor Gregoire, Senator Cantwell, Rep. Hastings, and other dignitaries to meet with the Yakima basin Water Enhancement Project advisory group about its Integrated Water Resources Management Plan. 

While attendees at the Sunday morning meeting expressed surprise over the consensus support for the Integrated Water Plan, no one mentioned that the plan is opposed by most environmental groups in Washington State because of its emphasis on flooding important habitat. Congress last considered a till to expand Bumping Lake in 1988, but it never passed.  In the summer of 1988 then-Secretary of Interior Don Hodel also visited the Yakima Basin, and met with environmental groups opposed to more dams. “The Republican Secretary of Interior was willing to meet with all sides 23 years ago,” said Osborn.

“We will continue to advocate for common sense solutions that promote the public interest in water and don’t gouge the public purse,” said Osborn. 

Excluding dam proposals, the Integrated Water Plan contains a number of ideas that promote sustainable principles, including pumping “dead” storage at Kachess Lake, an existing reservoir in the upper Yakima and changing operations of the Kittitas Reclamation District’s canal to re-water tributaries for habitat.  

“Rep. Hastings, as a Tea Party Republican and chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, understands fully the need for fiscal accountability regarding new water projects nationwide as well as in his congressional district,” added Osborn.

Links:

Sierra Club:  Yakima River future