Northwest Wheat Growers Send Letter To Simpson To Correct Facts About Snake River Dams

The four wheat grower associations across the Northwest recently sent a letter to Idaho Representative Mike Simpson, challenging him on the usage of the lower Snake River dams as well as other statistics. Simpson when presenting his case of why the dams should be removed, he claims those dams are not as vital to the Northwest farming community as they once were.

“He also had made a statement that we are not shipping as much wheat down the river as we normally have, which is very untrue," noted Michelle Hennings, Executive Director of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers. "We are actually at a high that we haven’t seen for a while.”

Simpson’s plan calls for spending $33 billion to breach the four dams, but Hennings says that prices tag is not nearly enough to remove the dams or to redo the current infrastructure system.

“We would prefer to see more money going into the fish ladders and different ways that we’re already starting to make progress on and keep our dams for our energy and our river usage allowing us to get our commodities down the river into market.”

The letter added by working together, we can make real and lasting progress toward increasing salmon numbers without endangering livelihoods, jobs, and a Northwest economy that is so dependent on the world class crops we grow to feed a hungry nation and the world. Click Here to read that letter signed by the Presidents of the Associations in Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Montana.

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