Aug. 21, 2025 at 3:31 pm
The Bonneville Power Administration’s leadership and investment in salmon recovery have helped the Columbia Basin achieve important gains, despite significant environmental pressures, writes the author.
By Kurt Miller
Special to The Seattle Times
A recent Seattle Times op-ed (“BPA plan puts progress on clean energy and salmon recovery at risk,” Aug. 7) misrepresents the Bonneville Power Administration’s contribution to salmon recovery, suggesting that BPA’s proposal to move away from a decades-old goal of 5 million returning salmon signals a lack of commitment.
The opposite is true.
No other energy provider in the nation has invested more in restoring fish runs. Since the mid-1980s, BPA’s ratepayers have funded over $8 billion in habitat restoration, fish passage improvements, hatcheries and research — an unmatched commitment to the environment and the region’s communities. Much of this investment has gone directly to tribally led restoration and enhancement projects, providing long-term funding while creating stable jobs and economic opportunities in Northwest tribal communities.
Most recently, BPA committed $200 million over 20 years to help fund the study of the reintroduction of salmon above Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams. This important work, led by the Upper Columbia United Tribes, represents the type of partnership that the region should look toward — one that helps salmon without harming critical hydropower production.
When the Northwest Power and Conservation Council set its goal of 5 million returning adult salmon and steelhead in the late 1980s, it wasn’t based on rigorous ecosystem modeling, climate science or feasibility analysis. It was essentially an aspirational doubling of returns at the time; easy to remember, but never intended as a realistic, science-based benchmark.
In 2025, continuing to use that figure as the main yardstick ignores the realities fish face today: warming temperatures, changing ocean conditions, shrinking estuaries, and surging populations of marine predators, like seals and sea lions. The council’s recovery targets must be updated to reflect current conditions — not those of 40 years ago. BPA is right to push for metrics rooted in science and adapted to modern environmental challenges so that we can develop a realistic path forward.
Critics often downplay the fact that salmon returns in the
Columbia Basin have tripled since the first federal dam was built, arguing it
“doesn’t tell the whole story.” While no single statistic can paint an entire
picture, the comparison speaks volumes: In other major West Coast rivers
without large-scale hydropower — such as Alaska’s Yukon or British Columbia’s
Fraser — salmon runs have plummeted over the past 50 years. Against that
backdrop of decline, the Columbia Basin’s improved returns are not just a
statistic, they’re a significant achievement born of decades of targeted
investment and innovation. That’s not the record of an agency walking away from
its responsibility — it’s the record of one carrying it out with persistence
and scale.
Hydroelectric dams do more than provide revenue for salmon enhancement projects — they are a foundation of the Northwest’s energy security. They generate flexible, carbon-free electricity that keeps the lights on when wind and solar can’t. In terms of reliability, it takes roughly 5 megawatts of wind, solar and batteries to replace one megawatt of hydropower capacity, which means that existing hydropower projects are the most cost-effective sources of energy we have by far.
In Washington, where over one-third of residents rely on some form of government assistance to make ends meet, losing hydropower capacity would mean steeper electric bills and greater blackout risks. As U.S. Sen. Patty Murray concluded in 2022, the region’s dams are irreplaceable, given current technologies, for keeping energy reliable, clean and affordable.
The Northwest Power Act rightly directs BPA to protect fish while maintaining an adequate, efficient, economical and reliable power supply. Achieving that balance requires recovery goals grounded in science, responsive to changing conditions, and focused on strategies with the highest biological payoff.
BPA’s leadership and investment in salmon recovery have helped the Columbia Basin achieve important gains, despite significant environmental pressures. With realistic, science-based goals, the region can build on this progress while continuing to address the work that remains.
Kurt Miller: is the CEO & Executive Director of the
Northwest Public Power Association, representing over 150 not-for-profit
electric utilities across 10 Western states and British Columbia.
