SELECTED PRIVATE AND PUBLIC GRAIN TRANSPORTATION IMPACTS FROM BREACHING THE SNAKE RIVER DAMS IN EASTERN WASHINGTON

Conflicts arise among competing interests for the natural resources of the Snake River. Dams on the river provide flood control, water for crop irrigation, hydroelectric power, and infrastructure for barge transport for grain exports. The dams also reduce production of juvenile salmon, putting environmentalists and the fishing industry in conflict with the wheat producers. Several proposals have been made to restore fish stocks to their pre-1952 levels. One of these involves breaching the four Snake River dams. One of the impacts of breaching the dams, examined in this study, would restrict river barge transport to ports located below the Tri-Cities (Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick). The purpose of this article is to identify the impacts to grain transportation costs, which arise from the policy choice of breaching the Snake River dams above the Tri-Cities in eastern Washington State, and to demonstrate the use of an integrated Geographical Information System (GIS) and Generalized Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) optimization model in the decision making process regarding the costs to grain shippers and other social costs from altering the current river management policies. In two alternative scenarios, rail volume was constrained, and rail and barge rates were raised by 10%. The results indicated that shipper costs would increase from 49.6 cents per bushel in the base scenario to 54.5 cents and 55.89 cents for scenarios two and three, respectively. Private costs for road repairs also increase. The model is valuable for multimodal decisions.

• Record URL:
  https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000544443
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/10461469
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Forum

  One Farragut Square South, Suite 500
  Washington, DC  United States  20006-4003
• Authors:
  • Jessup, E L
  • Casavant, K L
  • Farrell, T C
• Publication Date: 2001

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 109-121
• Serial:
  • Journal of the Transportation Research Forum
  • Volume: 40
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Forum
  • ISSN: 1046-1469
  • Serial URL: https://trforum.org/journal-of-the-trf/
• Publication flags:

  Open Access (libre)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Barges; Costs; Dams; Environmental impacts; Fishes; Fishing; Freight transportation; Geographic information systems; Grain; Mathematical models; Railroad transportation; River regulation; Salmon
• Uncontrolled Terms: Multimodal decisions
• Geographic Terms: Kennewick (Washington); Pasco (Washington); Richland (Washington); Snake River; Washington (State)
• Subject Areas: Environment; Finance; Freight Transportation; Marine Transportation; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00813956
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 17 2001 12:00AM