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Oregon Territory

March 2, 2007 — Dams

part one part two

download links: part one | part two

As you come up the Columbia River from the ocean, the first dam you'll reach is the Bonneville dam about forty miles upriver from Portland.

The next dam is The Dalles dam, which was completed fifty years ago this month, flooding Celilo Falls. The falls were a tremendously productive salmon fishing spot for Northwest indians for centuries.

The dams continue as you head up river, and there are more dams on tributaries like the Snake River. The dams harness the power of these rivers and convert it to electricity, they also allow barges to haul wheat and other agricultural products from eastern Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and they provide flood control—but they also have taken their toll on salmon.

This week, we're talking about all these dams and examining the costs, benefits, and future of hydroelectric power and the dams that produce this power.

Host: Christy George

Guest: Nicole Cordan, policy and legal director, Save our Wild Salmon; Michael Garrity, associate director of Columbia Basin programs for American Rivers; Witt Anderson, chief of planning, environmental resources, and fish policy and support division of the Northwestern Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and Steve Wright, administrator, Bonneville Power Administration

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