Critics are slamming the federal government’s draft environmental impact statement (EIS) that rejects the notion of removing four hydroelectric dams from a network of 14 dams and reservoirs in the Columbia River basin as a way to protect endangered salmon and orca whales.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration—the three entities responsible for overseeing the operations and maintenance of the network of massive dams in the Pacific Northwest United States—released their preferred plan, along with the other alternatives, on Feb. 28. The plans ranged from doing nothing and simply following the existing fish operations plan developed by the Corps in 2016, to removing four dams along the Snake River, where salmon populations have dwindled.