The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

Messy And unpRedictABLe 291
lies in Congress to pony up nearly $30 million within two years to purchase
two dams on the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula. Otherwise,
a plan to demolish the dams would be scrapped, reopening the
debate over whether they should be relicensed. “The status quo is hurting
everyone,” Gorton insisted. 13
Two years earlier, Gorton had supported an Elwha ecosystem and
fisheries restoration act signed by President Bush. The lower dam was
“older, out-moded and leaky,” Gorton conceded. Now the comprehensive
study the act mandated had determined that both dams should be
removed. He was shocked by the estimated cost—$200 million, maybe
more. The federal government ought to buy the dams, install fish passageways
and relicense them for another 20 years, he argued. Unquestioned
was the fact that the Elwha’s wild Chinook salmon were once the
largest on the Olympic Peninsula, sometimes reaching 100 pounds.
The dams, one completed in 1914, the other in 1927, all but rendered the
runs extinct. The anadromous fish no longer had access to more than
180 miles of fresh-water spawning habitat. Hatcheries had been substituted
for fish ladders in direct violation of laws enacted in 1890 by Washington’s
first legislature. 14
While the Daishowa America Company paper mill, the second-largest
employer in the Port Angeles area, derived 40 percent of its electrical
power from the dams and appreciated Gorton’s support, it was worried
about being thrown back into the regulatory grist mill. So was the Lower
Elwha Klallam Tribe. But Gorton said removing the dams would set a
terrible precedent. “Why is the Pacific Northwest going to reduce the
amount of power available when we’re running out of power? . . . My plan
is more likely to preserve jobs and save fish because I do not think the
Congress of the United States, at a time of rapidly declining money, is
going to come up with $200 million to take out these dams and restore
that area.” 15
Gorton was thwarted for the time being. The Sierra Club celebrated by
dropping his Environmental Batting Average to zero. “As a pitcher for the
Senators,” his specialty was curveballs, the club said in a mailer designed
like a baseball card. 16
in Light of his pRevious pooR showings in primaries and despite a
low turnout, Gorton was genuinely overwhelmed by the outcome on September
20, 1994. He had an impressive outright majority—53 percent—
against 14 other candidates. He was the leading vote-getter in all 39 counties,
outpolling all the other candidates combined in 32. Sims edged