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An agency-by-agency accounting of the public funding behind at least eight Washington state and federal studies, analyses, reviews and stakeholder-engagement efforts related to potential breaching of the four lower Snake River dams and replacement of the services they provide.
Washington state and federal agencies have authorized or dedicated more than $15.1 million across at least eight publicly funded studies, analyses, reviews and stakeholder-engagement efforts related to potential breaching of the four lower Snake River dams, including work examining how electricity, transportation, irrigation, water supply and recreation could be replaced.
The projects are spread across multiple agencies, legislative budget cycles and subject areas. Viewed separately, no single appropriation approaches $15 million. Viewed together, they show the cumulative scale of public planning for a future without the dams.
This accounting was compiled from Washington state budgets, federal and state agency records, contracts, project webpages and responses from agency officials. Links throughout this guide lead to the underlying budgets, agency records, reports and other primary-source material where available.
How the total was calculated
The tally distinguishes between funding authorized, appropriated or dedicated and money confirmed to have actually been spent.
Where an agency could provide spending figures, those figures are included. Where the exact expenditure was unavailable, the amount authorized or dedicated is used and identified as such.
One known lapse is subtracted separately: $300,000 in Washington State Department of Transportation funding expired before it was used.
Two unresolved federal amounts are excluded from the core total entirely:
- A $750,000 Army Corps of Engineers transportation contribution that WSDOT says was canceled.
- The unknown portion of a separate $600,000 Army Corps recreation contribution that was spent before the Corps withdrew from that project.
Using only identifiable funding, the total is:
More than $15.1 million authorized or dedicated.
After subtracting the $300,000 WSDOT lapse:
More than $14.8 million remains documented.
More than $11.1 million of the original total came from Washington state accounts. After the lapse, the state-funded share exceeds $10.8 million.
1. Washington stakeholder engagement — $750,000
The first effort in this accounting dates to Washington’s 2019-21 operating budget, when lawmakers provided $750,000 for a lower Snake River stakeholder-engagement process.
The funding paid for a third-party process involving local, state, tribal and federal leaders and stakeholders to address issues associated with possible breaching or removal of the four dams.
Amount counted: $750,000
2. Inslee-Murray benefit-replacement process — $375,000
Three years later, Washington appropriated another $375,000 for the process that produced the 2022 Inslee-Murray Lower Snake River Dams Benefit Replacement Report.
That process examined the services provided by the dams and what would be necessary to replace them.
The report concluded that breaching should not move forward until the dams' energy and other benefits are replaced or mitigated.
Amount counted: $375,000
3. PNNL energy-replacement work — $2 million
In 2023, Washington lawmakers appropriated $2 million, divided between fiscal years 2024 and 2025, for an energy-replacement analysis.
The Department of Commerce awarded the work to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which launched the Pacific Northwest Regional Energy Planning Project, or PREPP.
The project was intended to examine how the region could replace the dams’ energy services under a breaching scenario.
After the federal government withdrew support for the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, however, PNNL could not obtain U.S. Department of Energy approval to model that scenario.
Instead, the laboratory published an analysis documenting the dams’ historical contribution to the regional power grid.
Commerce said it could not provide a final figure showing how much of the $2 million appropriation had been contracted, obligated or spent while a new procurement was underway. For that reason, this accounting uses the amount lawmakers appropriated rather than representing all $2 million as confirmed expenditures.
Amount counted: $2 million authorized
4. New Commerce energy-replacement study — $800,000
In 2026, lawmakers replaced an earlier $500,000 General Fund provision with $800,000 from Washington’s Climate Commitment Account.
The money is specifically provided for Commerce to hire a new contractor to complete a lower Snake River energy-replacement analysis.
According to Commerce, the study will examine the power generation, transmission, energy storage, energy savings and grid-support services that would be required if the dams no longer operated.
The final report is expected to be submitted to the governor and Legislature by June 30, 2027.
The earlier PNNL project and the new Commerce contract are counted separately because they involve different contractors and different work products. PNNL ultimately documented what the dams have historically contributed to the grid. The new contractor is being asked to examine what would be necessary to replace those services.
Amount counted: $800,000
State policy, engagement and energy subtotal: $3.925 million
Together, these first four efforts account for $3.925 million in state-authorized funding.
5. WSDOT transportation study — $5 million authorized
Transportation represents the largest single share of Washington’s spending.
The Legislature authorized $5 million for the Washington State Department of Transportation to examine how freight now transported by barge would shift to highways, local roads and rail if navigation on the lower Snake River ended.
WSDOT study lead Jim Mahugh said $4 million was set aside for the agency’s contract with Jacobs Engineering. The remaining $1 million covered WSDOT staff work, other agency expenses and contingencies.
That distinction explains why the agency’s public project webpage lists a $4 million study budget even though the Legislature authorized $5 million.
Mahugh said approximately $4.2 million had been spent by June 2026 — $3.6 million by Jacobs and $600,000 by WSDOT.
Another $300,000 went unused before the 2023-25 budget period ended and lapsed. That left $4.7 million available for the study, with approximately $500,000 remaining to finish the work at the time WSDOT provided the figures.
Amount authorized: $5 million
Amount after lapse: $4.7 million
Reported spent by June 2026: approximately $4.2 million
6. Joint Transportation Committee independent review — $750,000
The Legislature separately funded an independent review of the transportation work.
Lawmakers provided $500,000 during the 2023-25 budget cycle and another $250,000 for 2025-27.
Joint Transportation Committee project manager Dave Catterson said the original $500,000 was fully spent through a Washington State University contract.
The additional $250,000 was committed under a second WSU contract. About $125,001 had been paid on that contract when JTC provided its response, leaving approximately $125,000 remaining.
Amount authorized: $750,000
Reported spent by July 2026: approximately $625,000
Washington transportation subtotal: $5.75 million authorized
Together, the WSDOT transportation study and JTC independent review received $5.75 million in state authorization.
After subtracting the WSDOT lapse, the two efforts had $5.45 million in available funding.
Approximately $4.8 million had been spent by July 2026.
Unresolved federal transportation funding: excluded
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced a separate $750,000 federal contribution in 2024 to expand the transportation analysis into Idaho and Oregon.
WSDOT said the partnership was canceled in September 2025 and that the federal money was never under state control.
As of Aug. 12, 2026, the Army Corps’ public webpage continued to describe the partnership as active.
Because the Corps did not confirm whether any of the $750,000 was obligated or spent, none of that money is included in the $15.1 million core total.
7. Recreation and fishing work — $950,000 in Washington funding
Washington provided $600,000 in 2024 for the Recreation and Conservation Office to study recreation along the lower Snake River.
The project documented how people use the river corridor today, considered recreation along a potential free-flowing river and examined what facilities might be required if the dams were breached.
RCO policy specialist Ben Donatelle said the full $600,000 was spent by Sept. 30, 2025. None lapsed or reverted.
State lawmakers then provided an additional $350,000 in 2026 from the Natural Climate Solutions Account through the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Donatelle said the $350,000 is entirely additional funding. The department is preparing a request for proposals to complete fishing and nonfishing recreation analyses, with a report due to the Legislature by June 30, 2027.
Donatelle said the recreation and fishing analyses are parts of one coordinated project, so they are counted as one effort in the overall tally.
Washington funding counted: $950,000
Unresolved federal recreation spending: excluded
The original recreation project carried a combined state-federal budget of approximately $1.2 million: $600,000 from Washington and $600,000 from the Army Corps.
Donatelle said the Corps spent an undetermined portion of its funding before canceling the agreement and withdrawing from the project effective Sept. 30, 2025.
Because the precise federal expenditure could not be confirmed, the federal recreation spending is excluded from the core total.
The Army Corps had not responded as of Aug. 12, 2026, to questions seeking clarification about both the transportation and recreation funding.
8. Water-supply replacement work — more than $4.5 million
Washington appropriated $500,000 — $250,000 in each of fiscal years 2024 and 2025 — for the Department of Ecology to examine how irrigation, municipal and industrial water supplies could be delivered if the dams were breached and reservoir levels fell.
According to the Department of Ecology, the federal government later dedicated more than $4 million to a broader joint study led by the Bureau of Reclamation.
After the federal contract was terminated in February 2025, Ecology hired another consultant to complete the work using remaining state funding.
State funding: $500,000
Federal funding dedicated: more than $4 million
Amount counted: more than $4.5 million
The complete accounting
The identifiable public funding is:
- Four state policy, engagement and energy efforts: $3.925 million
- WSDOT transportation study and JTC independent review: $5.75 million authorized; $5.45 million after the WSDOT lapse
- Washington recreation funding: $950,000
- State and federal water-supply work: more than $4.5 million
Total authorized or dedicated: more than $15.1 million
Total after the known $300,000 WSDOT lapse: more than $14.8 million
Those figures do not include the Army Corps’ unresolved $750,000 transportation contribution or the unknown portion of its $600,000 recreation contribution spent before the Corps withdrew.
The tally also should not be interpreted to mean that every dollar included has already been spent. It represents public funding authorized, appropriated or dedicated across multiple years and identifies actual expenditures when agencies were able to provide them.
The energy context
This spending is occurring as the Pacific Northwest faces increasingly serious concerns about the adequacy of its future electricity supply.
In the power industry, resource adequacy refers to having enough dependable electricity available when consumers need it most, particularly during periods of extreme heat or cold.
A 2026 analysis by Energy and Environmental Economics projected that growing electricity demand and power plant retirements could leave the Northwest approximately 9 gigawatts short of dependable capacity by 2030 and 14 to 18 gigawatts short by 2035.
For perspective, 14 to 18 gigawatts is roughly equivalent to the generating capacity of 12 to 15 plants the size of Columbia Generating Station, Washington’s only commercial nuclear power plant.
The analysis found that the greatest risk would occur during prolonged winter cold snaps, when demand is high and hydropower output may be constrained. It also concluded the Northwest will need additional transmission to move new power to the places where demand is growing.
The four lower Snake River dams — Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite — are federally owned and operated and form part of the federal Columbia River power system. In addition to electricity, they support commercial navigation, irrigation and other water uses and recreation.
The question raised by the cumulative spending is not whether those consequences deserve analysis. It is how much analysis is enough, what questions remain unresolved and what new information each additional study is intended to provide.