WASHINGTON ASSOCIATION OF WHEAT GROWERS AND WASHINGTON STATE POTATO COMMISSION HOST ANNUAL CONGRESSIONAL DAM TOUR

The Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) and Washington State Potato Commission (WSPC) jointly hosted numerous congressional staff, from Senator Mike Crapo's (R-ID) office to the House Agriculture Committee and more, for a tour of the Lower Granite Dam on August 18, 2026. The tour gives staff a firsthand look at Lower Granite Dam and the infrastructure at the center of one of the Northwest’s most consequential policy debates.

The day began with a panel on Marine Highway 84 featuring representatives from Tidewater, American Cruise Lines, and the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association (PNWA). The panel highlighted that the Columbia-Snake River System is not an abstract line on a map; it is a working transportation corridor that connects inland agriculture with ports, customers, and international markets.

According to the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG), more than 60% of Washington wheat exports move through the river system, which supports nearly 15,000 wheat-related jobs. WAWG has consistently argued that operating dams and healthy salmon populations can coexist, and that decisions of this magnitude must be driven by sound science, not political convenience.

Participants then traveled by boat through the navigation lock at Lower Granite Dam before touring the facility. Seeing the lock operate gave congressional staff a better understanding of how this system connects farms and rural communities to downstream ports and global markets.

At the dam, Clark Mather, executive director of Northwest RiverPartners, presented long-term data on salmon and steelhead returns. According to Northwest RiverPartners, total adult salmon and steelhead returns above Lower Granite Dam are roughly four times higher than when the dam began operating in 1975. Adult returns above Bonneville Dam have also tripled since 1938.

That progress did not happen by accident. Billions of dollars have been invested in habitat restoration, hatchery improvements, fish-passage upgrades and partnerships with states and tribal nations. Northwest RiverPartners reports that juvenile salmon and steelhead survival at many dams is now at or above 96%, supported by fish ladders, turbine bypass systems, and other modern passage technologies.

Mather also emphasized a fact too often lost in this debate: salmon face threats throughout their lifecycle. Warming oceans, changing marine conditions, predation and habitat challenges cannot be solved by focusing on the dams alone. If the goal is stronger salmon returns, policy must address the entire system instead of pursuing one politically convenient answer.

Neil Maunu, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, provided an update on the legal standing of the dams and the litigation surrounding their operation. In February 2026, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction requiring increased spill and lower reservoir elevations. WAWG has warned that these operational changes could create risks for infrastructure, navigation, and public safety without sufficient evidence that they will produce the promised benefits for salmon and steelhead.

Maunu also reviewed the federal process that preceded the current litigation. The Pacific Northwest Waterways Association notes that the 2020 Columbia River System Operations Environmental Impact Statement took nearly four years to complete and considered approximately 59,000 public comments. Federal agencies ultimately rejected breaching and selected an alternative that retained the four lower Snake River dams because of their importance to hydropower and navigation.

PNWA and its Inland Ports and Navigation Group continue to document how changes to spill and reservoir levels could affect vessel operators, irrigators, and other river users. They have also stressed the obvious but frequently ignored reality that barge transportation cannot simply be replaced overnight. Doing so would require major investments in rail, roads, trucks, and other infrastructure. Someone would have to pay for it.

George Walker, a potato grower with AgriNorthwest, brought the conversation directly back to the farm. He explained how heavily his operation depends on the Snake River system and why the dams cannot be treated as isolated pieces of infrastructure.

Potato growers depend on reliable irrigation and affordable electricity to pump water, operate storage facilities, and preserve crop quality. The river system also helps move fertilizer, fuel, grain, and other agricultural products efficiently. Remove or undermine one part of that system, and the costs do not disappear. They are passed directly to growers, rural communities and ultimately consumers.

That matters when growers are already paying more for seed, fertilizer, crop-protection products, fuel, equipment, and labor. Agriculture cannot absorb an endless series of cost increases simply because policymakers refuse to account for the full consequences of their decisions.

The tour concluded at the Port of Lewiston, where congressional staff saw how the farthest inland seaport on the West Coast connects the region’s farms and businesses with domestic and international markets. The lower Snake River dams support transportation, irrigation, affordable energy, salmon-recovery investments, and rural economic activity. Those benefits are interconnected, and they cannot be separated for the sake of making the policy debate easier.

Protecting salmon and maintaining a productive river system are not mutually exclusive goals. We can support both, but only if decisions are guided by science, measured against real-world consequences, and grounded in the practical needs of the people who depend on the river.