Several federal agencies, the state, public utility districts, cities, counties, and private businesses own and operate dams. About 60 percent of Washington's dams are privately owned; 9 percent are federal dams; and the remainder are owned and managed by the state or local governments.

Many of us have been fortunate to live in a state with cheap, abundant, non-polluting hydroelectric power. Dams used for irrigation have also created economic opportunity for farm communities, especially in the dry areas of Eastern Washington. Dams have helped make our state what it is today.

What we now know about the effect of dams-both large and small, hydropower and irrigation-is this:

• Dams that don't have fish ladders block salmon from migrating upstream to spawn. Many older fish ladders don't work very well and need to be replaced with newer, more fish-friendly designs.
  
  
• Dams also impede young fish as they migrate downstream on their way out to sea. The lakes behind dams slow the fish down, because they reduce the velocity of the river's current. This can be critical to fish that have evolved to transform themselves for life in saltwater at a particular time or stage of development. Slower migration to the sea also exposes young salmon to more predators.
  
  
• By slowing down water and creating large lakes, dams can also cause the water temperature in the river to rise, which can be fatal to fish.
  
  
• The way dams are managed sometimes creates conditions where there isn't enough water in the river to support fish, and, at other times, so much water is released at such high velocity that it sweeps fish out of the river before they are ready.
  
  
• Pumps and turbines in dams often suck up fish and kill them, and fish that go over the dam spillway often get gas bubble disease from the extreme turbulence of the water.

There are several regulatory strategies for making dams more fish-friendly. Non-federal dams are licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and license renewals can require changes to make dams more fish-friendly. The Clean Water Act requires that federal standards for water quality be met-and those standards include keeping the water cold. And of course, the Endangered Species Act requires mitigation of dams' ill effects on salmon. But these regulatory approaches can be extremely time-consuming. Most dams are licensed for a period of 30 to 50 years, so waiting for licenses to come up for renewal in order to make fish-friendly improvements doesn't always make sense. Moreover, the re-licensing process can take from 10 to 24 years.

Collaborative, cooperative efforts to improve dams are essential. These efforts also take time and patience, but they pay off much faster than regulation or litigation. There are several early examples of what can be achieved when people decide to work together for fish:

The Cowlitz River was once home of the most abundant salmon and steelhead runs in the Pacific Northwest, but it has been severely degraded by the construction and operation of three hydropower dams.

A dozen state and federal agencies, conservation groups, the Yakama Nation and the City of Tacoma have negotiated a comprehensive mitigation plan to restore wild salmon to this watershed. The plan includes improved fish passage, an improved instream flow regime so that there is the right amount of water when and where fish need it, funding of habitat restoration, and changes in hatchery practices along the river. Broad local support and involvement will be important as the plan is implemented.

In September 1999, the Yakama Nation, PacificCorps, and environmental groups reached an agreement to remove Condit Dam on the White Salmon River. This alternative was the most cost-effective choice for PacificCorps, and a victory for migrating salmon.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt hailed this negotiation and said that this outcome "could not have been achieved without a remarkable partnership involving the Yakama Nation, PacificCorps, state and federal agencies, American Rivers and the Columbia Inter-Tribal Fish Commission."

An agreement to remove this obsolete and unused dam in Mason County was reached by its owner Simpson Timber, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Removal of this structure will open up 14 miles of ideal spawning and rearing habitat.

In the 1960s, Duncan Creek Dam was built with no fish passage. Years later, a culvert was added for fish, but it was so small few fish could find it. The number of chum salmon returning upstream to spawn dropped to one or two fish every few years.

Sixty Skamania County landowners are working with the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board to enlarge and improve fish passage. The landowners each contributed $3,500 to get this project started; additional funding was provided by the Governor's Salmon Recovery Office, the Salmon Recovery Funding Board, the Department of Natural Resources, the Bradley Fund, the Sand County Foundation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

The Elwha River was once home to one of the most impressive runs of chinook salmon-salmon that often reached 100 pounds. Although most of the Elwha River is inside the Olympic National Park where it has remained in pristine condition, over 80 years ago the river was completely blocked by two hydroelectric dams.

After many years of debates and studies, the U. S. Congress made a decision in 1992 to remove the dams. Now plans are underway to do this, but scientists must first figure out how to deal with the 70-plus years worth of sediment that have built up behind the dams.

When these two dams are removed, one of Washington's most productive and pristine river systems will once again be available to wild salmon.

Hanford Reach: Protecting the Best

Sometimes, the best way to protect and restore salmon is to make sure we don't do any more damage to important areas. The Hanford Reach of the Columbia River is one of those places. Calling the area a "snapshot of an earlier time," Governor Locke praised the executive order signed by President Clinton this year establishing the 51-mile Hanford Reach as a national monument. The order protects approximately 195,000 acres and the last remaining free flowing section of the river above Bonneville Dam for future generations.

The Four Governors' Agreement

The governors of Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon signed an agreement in July 2000 that establishes priorities for restoring salmon in the Columbia River Basin. This agreement acknowledges that controversy over the Snake River dams should not distract from the many other salmon restoration and protection priorities in the Columbia system, and commits the four states to cooperative efforts. The governors wrote, "Regardless of the ultimate fate of the dams, the region must be prepared in the near term to recover salmon and meet its larger fish and wildlife restoration obligations by acting now in areas of agreement without resort to breaching the four dams on the lower Snake River."