Stand with us and support removing the four lower Snake River dams to save the Southern Resident Orcas (aka Southern Resident Killer Whales) from being dammed to extinction.  

Please sign this petition, and also send a message to the President at the White House. Ask that he issue an Executive Order to immediately breach the four fish-killing lower Snake River dams to recover Snake River wild chinook that have sustained the fish-eating Southern Resident Orcas for hundreds of thousands of years. The President has that power.

For current news on the Southern Residents' plight, skip to the petition update section below the comments.

The Petition:

The less than 75 remaining critically endangered salmon-eating Southern Resident Orcas are starving and dying. An effective breeding population of less than 30 is all that is left. These orcas are nearing the point of no recovery.

Why are the Southern Residents starving?

More than 50% of their winter diet comes from salmon produced in the Columbia Basin, half of which were once produced in the Snake River System. Four fish-killing dams on the lower Snake River have decimated the wild salmon and steelhead runs.

How is dam breaching possible?

Since 2002, the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the lower Snake River has designated dam breaching as the best solution to recover Snake River wild salmon. 

The Army Corps of Engineers can implement breaching the dams now by using the existing 2002 EIS's "Breach Alternative Four."

The Impact and Benefits of Breaching:

• If the lower Snake River dams were breached, it would double or triple salmon survival rates, restoring millions of fish to the Columbia Basin.

• Give the orcas a fighting chance to recover by increasing their food supply.

• Breaching costs the state nothing. The first two dams can be breached for about the cost of the 2020 CRSO EIS, an estimated $80 million. Breaching could take as little as 5 years to complete. It would cost less to save the salmon than to kill them.

• The four lower Snake River dams in Eastern Washington do not provide flood control and produce mostly low value surplus electricity.

• Savings from breaching these dams can be applied to more efficient dams and/or projects.

• NOTHING else, not more spill across the dams, not more hatchery fish, not less boat traffic, not more studies, not a new EIS can improve conditions in time to save wild salmon or Southern Resident Orcas.

Congressional Legislation or new appropriations are not needed to start breaching the Snake River dams this year!  The President can issue an executive order to breach.

Senators Murray and Cantwell and Governor Ferguson — Please take action today and urge the President to begin breaching the dams this year.

Thank you to the hundreds of thousands who have petitioned for immediate dam breaching, for those of you who want more information on how to save the salmon and orcas, visit DamTRUTH.