dampainter

Don't worry too much about the silt or mud! Remember what happen at Mt. Saint Helens? It left what you would consider to be an "ecological disaster" to the Toutle River and lower Cowlitz when it erupted, and look at it now!

That's even after the COE had to screw with it again, and put in a huge earthen filled retension dam to "STOP" the sediment from going into the Columbia. You would be surprised just how quickly old Mother Nature comes back once man quits screwing around with here.

The huge mud flats that were left along the banks of the Toutle are now prime land for massive groves of alder trees. And the same thing would also happen if many of the dams were now removed or breached and left to flush themselves.

Rather you like it or not, ALL DAMS will eventually be filled in by the built up of silting. Then what are your options going to be? Who do you think will be paying for any of the option that may be used? What would you do if the Grand Coulee Dam failed? All the dams downstream would most likely fall like dominos if the Grand was to fail. Then what?

As far as power goes, we are on the brink of developing new and better power sources such has hydrogen power. And all this has only been done in the past couple of decades. What do you think will be our power sources in the next 50 years or so?

Here's the bigger question that you need to answer; who's going to play to remove the dams once another source of power is developed or they get silted in? Do you think that a single dam has any legal obligation within its operating license for it's decommissioning or removal. . .Dream on if you do!

There are a lot more "hidden problems" with dams then most people will ever realize, and they are not all fish related problems either. If you think that I am wrong, just do a public record request on your most favorite dam and ask to see all the "Dam Safety Reports" (inspections) that they are mandated to do every 5 years or so?you will be shocked when you see what some of their ongoing problems really are, and how they have propose to either monitor or fix the problems.

I can tell you; that is a fact on Tacoma's Cowlitz River dams!

Cowlitzfisherman