Gorton Threatens To Block Removal Of Elwha River Dam

WASHINGTON - The decadelong quest to tear down two salmon-killing dams on the Olympic Peninsula has suffered a setback with Sen. Slade Gorton introducing legislation that could prevent the project from ever happening.

Though $86 million already has been appropriated to tear down the first of two dams on the Elwha River near Port Angeles, Gorton yesterday said he would block the money from being released unless Congress and the White House agree to revisions in the Endangered Species Act as it relates to salmon-recovery efforts on the Columbia and Snake rivers.

The cost of buying and tearing down both Elwha dams is estimated at $113 million, the National Park Service says. Gorton's proposal also would require that the government wait 12 years after tearing down the lower dam before considering removal of the upper one.

The White House immediately denounced Gorton's proposal, calling it an underhanded attempt by one senator to stop a project that has the support of nearly everyone on and around the Olympic Peninsula.

"This legislation not only dooms salmon on the Columbia and Snake rivers, but it unnecessarily polarizes the historic effort to restore the Elwha River," said Katie McGinty, President Clinton's top adviser on environmental matters.

"It's a real setback for salmon, and it seems to substitute politics for good science."

Gorton said he actually was endorsing the Elwha dam-removal project, but he made clear he doesn't like it. If a dam on the Olympic Peninsula must come down, the Washington Republican said, he wants to use the occasion to protect the existing network of dams, irrigation canals and barge highways on the Columbia River from overzealous government agencies.

"I'm not going to spend all that money on a very dubious experiment unless the people of the Pacific Northwest are protected in one of the most fundamental bases for their economy, their transportation and their recreation," Gorton said.

Gorton's proposal, formally introduced yesterday, would bar the government from altering dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers to help salmon unless approval is granted by Congress.

It would prevent federal agencies from studying some ways to help preserve salmon. It also would circumvent the legal power of the endangered-species law by prohibiting federal courts from having any effect on the operation of hydroelectric dams in the entire Columbia River basin.

Gorton said Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt once remarked that he wanted to tear down the Elwha dams but not any dams on the Columbia system, so Gorton decided to write a law to hold him to it.

Gorton said he hopes his bill will pass Congress and be signed by Clinton, though sources in Congress and the White House said there is virtually no chance that will happen. Gorton also implied he is willing to negotiate.

Last year Congress approved a special, one-time-only expenditure of $700 million for key environmental projects around the country, including the purchase of a redwood forest in California and the proposed New World Mine near Yellowstone National Park in Montana.

In February, the White House earmarked $86 million of the money for the Elwha dams, and all that is required now is approval by Gorton and House Interior Appropriations Chairman Ralph Regula, R-Ohio. The signatures of both Gorton, chairman of the Senate Interior Appropriations Committee, and Regula are required before the money can be spent. Barring political pressure, Gorton, if he chooses, could steer the money elsewhere.

Environmentalists who helped to negotiate the agreement to tear down the Elwha dams say Gorton is taking the unusual position of holding hostage money earmarked for his own state.

"It's really quite unbelievable," said Shawn Cantrell of the Seattle office of Friends of the Earth. "The money is right there - it only needs his signature. Now it could all slip away. If the senior senator from Washington is not sure the $86 million should go to his state, I'm sure others in Congress would be more than happy to send it to their states."

The National Park Service estimates removing the lower Elwha dam and the upper Glines Canyon dam, both built in the early 1900s without fish ladders, would open up 60 miles of pristine stream beds that would eventually support more than 400,000 wild spawning salmon. Currently, only about 3,000 salmon spawn in the river.

When the idea of tearing down dams was first proposed in the late 1980s, many people on the Olympic Peninsula opposed it. Since then, concern about declining salmon runs and the age of the dams has increased.

Now the project is supported by the Port Angeles mayor and City Council; a local 13-member citizens advisory panel convened to study the dams; the owner of the dams, the James River Corp.; the congressman from the district, Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton; the congressman from the neighboring district, Rep. Rick White, R-Bainbridge Island; and the state's other senator, Democrat Patty Murray.

Danny Westneat's phone-message number is 206-464-2772. His e-mail address is: dwestneat@seattletimes.com