SENATE RESOLUTION

                         1999-8626

By Senators Hale, Snyder, Deccio, McDonald, Sellar, T. Sheldon, Honeyford, Horn, McCaslin, Swecker, Benton, Sheahan, Zarelli, Oke, Johnson, Hochstatter, Morton, Rasmussen, Loveland, Rossi, Long and Haugen

     WHEREAS, The Columbia and Snake River system, located in the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, is an essential transportation link for United States exports, transporting forty-three percent of all United States wheat exports in 1997; and

     WHEREAS, Producers who ship their products on the Columbia and Snake River system save approximately thirty-eight million dollars per year over land-based transportation, a savings that keeps United States exports competitive on world markets; and

     WHEREAS, The Columbia and Snake River system allows large volumes of freight to be moved with negligible impact on air quality, and replacing this transportation capacity would require use of one hundred twenty thousand rail cars or seven hundred thousand trucks; and

     WHEREAS, Approximately seventy-five percent of the Pacific Northwest's electricity is provided by Columbia and Snake River system dams, which generate renewable energy without creating any air or water pollution; and

     WHEREAS, Replacing the power currently generated by the dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers would result in significant increases in costs to consumers and could cause significant harm to the economy of the Pacific Northwest; and

     WHEREAS, The United States Army Corps of Engineers estimates that the flood control provided by the dams on the Columbia and Snake River system prevented four billion six hundred million dollars in damages in 1996 and 1997;

     WHEREAS, Water collected in the Columbia and Snake River system irrigates half the productive farmland in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the Senate of the State of Washington recognize that the dams on the Columbia and Snake River system provide tremendous economic and environmental benefits to the state of Washington and the United States; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Senate recognize and honor the people whose livelihoods depend on the dams on the Columbia and Snake River system.

I, Tony M. Cook, Secretary of the Senate,

do hereby certify that this is a true and

correct copy of Senate Resolution 1999-8626,

adopted by the Senate February 17, 1999.

TONY M. COOK

Secretary of the Senate