Page 34: of Marine News Magazine (September 2022)

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Feature

Inland Waterways

It’s the dams that make this possible, Rich reminded the

Board. “This is working now – in 2022,” he emphasized.

Business perspectives

Heather Stebbings is Executive Director of the Paci? c

Northwest Waterways Association. The PNWA, estab- lished in 1934, with 150 members, is a collaboration of ports, businesses and public agencies.

Stebbings and her team are closely watching the dam issues. Major concerns include: • That White House documents are tilted in favor of established interests, including the Nez Perce and State of Oregon, who have long supported dam removal.

• Giving too much weight to the notion that salmon mortality in the ocean results from hydro system impacts. “This is unproven,” Stebbings says, citing research show- ing that salmon returns are similar in dammed and un- dammed rivers. She notes research that the Paci? c itself

Peter Schrappen, CAE, is the largest driver of salmonid mortality, not the dams.

AWO

VP for The American Waterways

She said that the four Lower Snake River dams “provide greater than 97% successful ? sh passage for juvenile salm-

Operators Paci? c Region, based in Seattle.

USACE Northwest Division

USACE 34 | MN September 2022