"The basis would completely change if it all went to rail," Berg said. Right now, Tri-Cities Grain in Pasco, Washington, is offering producers as much as 60 cents over the CME price. Removing the four dams affects agriculture, transportation and industry, the power generation of four dams that combined can generate as much as 3,000 megawatts of clean, low-emission energy, the recovery of salmon runs in the river into Idaho and treaties with tribes that promised protected access to fishing rights.įor farmers and the 13 grain elevators along the Snake River, the dams support about 60% of all wheat exports out of the PNW area, or roughly 100 million bushels (mb) annually.īerg pointed out the grain elevators along the dams provide an average of 40 cents per bushel positive basis over the futures wheat price. Advocates on both sides of the arguments talked about the ongoing conflicts over protecting the dams versus spurring salmon recovery in the region. This past week, DTN toured the lower Snake River locks and dams - Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Monumental - as well as some grain elevators that rely on the dams for navigation. "Coming from around here, you just get a little numb to it because you have heard about taking the dams out your whole life," said Berg, a farmer in southeast Washington state and immediate past president of the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG).īerg farms along the Columbia River, just south of the confluence of the Columbia and Snake rivers at the Tri-Cities (Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Washington).ĭebate over removing the four dams is intensifying in the Pacific Northwest among farmers, grain companies, and regional economic development leaders as President Joe Biden and his administration have increasingly spotlighted support for removing the dams to help wild chinook salmon recovery in the region, a priority for Native American Tribes and conservationists. (DTN) - Nicole Berg has heard the debate about removing four dams on the lower Snake River essentially since they were completed in the mid-1970s. The debate over removing the four dams is one of the biggest controversies in the region. There are 13 grain elevators along the lower Snake River in southeast Washington state that ship roughly 100 million bushels of wheat annually to primarily Pacific Northwest export terminals. A barge is loaded with wheat on April 18 at Columbia Grain's Snake River terminal called Central Ferry in southeastern Washington state between the last two dams on the lower Snake River - the Little Goose Dam and the Lower Granite Dam.
0 kommentar(er)
