NW Dams: Development with Negative Consequences for Minority Groups



The Grand Coulee today

Dams on rivers to generate hydroelectric power, especially in the Pacific Northwest, are superb examples of development as a double-edged sword. One key historical project (that continues to have social and environmental impacts today) is the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State. In general, the damming of the Columbia River was slow to start as the West coast first began development and the energy needs of cities like Portland or Seattle were still low. World War I and II truly fueled the need for massive energy projects in order to make aluminum to build airplanes. As cities grew in the area, energy needs continued to expand and damming of the river continued. In particular, the Grand Coulee demanded an extraordinary amount of labor and resources to complete, and is still in progress today.


Workers on the Grand Coulee Dam faced dangerous tasks as they attempted to tame the mightiest river in the Pacific NW with a massive structure - built with enough concrete to construct a highway from Seattle to New York.


The environmental justice (EJ) implications are numerous and widespread; including everything from laborers on the dam construction to native communities being impacted. Many workers died in the building of these projects, not to mention the less-than-ideal working conditions for minorities on any construction job. For Mexican-American farm workers, the impact came in a surprising way. As the dam freed up more land for agriculture, and more water for irrigation, farming expanded in Eastern Washington and many farm communities benefitted. However, the laborers did not share the same advantages brought to owners/families by new, electrified farms. More farming land meant more workers, and a higher demand for labor that was illegal, with therefore less stringent regulation on wages and working conditions. With new immigrants in the area, and a widely expanding farming community, I believe this enabled a vicious cycle of minority group exploitation.

What does the Columbia mean to you? For many farm workers and indigenous groups, damming it meant more negative consequences and did not feel the economic benefits of hydroelectric power.

Perhaps the most significant impact caused by dams in the Northwest is the negative repercussions for Native American communities who utilize place-based knowledge and local resources for survival. Dams changed the landscape, and most importantly, altered the Columbia’s flow and all of its connecting estuaries, rivers and streams. Salmon rely on these waters for travel and reproduction, and when the flow is altered or access blocked by dams, salmon populations suffer immensely. Not only a ‘keystone’ species in NW ecosystems (meaning that without the species, other organisms within the ecosystem would collapse), salmon also has played a historically significant role in indigenous communities. Now as a minority group, Native Americans in the Northwest are suffering further from deprivation of their most basic resource: fishing and self-sufficiency from the rivers. Native Americans have legal standing to protect salmon habitat, but saving salmon (through protection) also would mean limits on fishing in many cases. Dam development enabled urbanization in the Pacific Northwest, but truly has a backlash for Native communities that are immeasurable in the context of advantages brought for others in the community.



Salmon as a keystone species - often depicted as the 'key' stone in an arch.