Endangered Species

Despite federal and regional outlays of more than $1.3 billion to improve salmon runs in the Columbia River Basin, certain salmon stocks--especially those that spawn far upstream in the Snake River and its tributaries--have reached critically low levels. As a result, the Snake River sockeye salmon was designated an endangered species in 1991, while the Snake River fall chinook and spring/summer chinook were listed as threatened species the following year. In looking into the potential economic costs and effectiveness of efforts to protect these salmon stocks, GAO found that a preliminary estimate of lost jobs due to salmon protection will be unavailable until mid-1993 at the earliest. However, preliminary estimates of the value of goods and services foregone--a measure of net economic costs--suggest that the economic costs of salmon protection may range from $2 million to as high as $211 million annually. According to the more than 300 agencies and organizations GAO contacted, no studies address how effective any of the proposed protection measures may be in increasing the number of adult salmon returning to spawn. Past evaluation of measures to maintain and improve salmon runs either did not address the issue or were inconclusive.

GAO found that: (1) the potential direct net economic costs of undertaking selected salmon-protection measures could range from $2 million to $211 million annually; (2) measures to improve the survival rate of juvenile salmon included drawing down reservoir levels or increasing water spillage over certain dams and augmenting the existing flows in order to reduce the number of juvenile salmon killed; (3) reduced hydroelectric power generation at Columbia River Basin dams, along with dam modifications, accounted for the major share of the estimated costs for wildlife conservation; (4) dam modifications will cost considerably more than estimated; (5) the Bonneville Power Administration estimated that the direct net economic costs in hydroelectric power to draw down four reservoirs will range from $47 million to $122 million annually; (6) the net direct economic costs represent the dollar value of goods and services spent in sectors directly affected by the protection measures; (7) information on the estimated costs of protecting salmon through measures other than changing streamflows was unavailable; and (8) there were no scientific estimates of the degree of success the streamflow measures will have.