This article in the Inlander features Pastor Liv Larson Andrews from Salem Lutheran Church in Spokane. A big shout out to Pastor Liv for engaging in a short DEIS process (read more here) during a public health crisis where in person public hearings could not be held.
By: Samantha Wohlfeil
When Liv Larson Andrews, pastor of Salem Lutheran church in Spokane, called into an Army Corps of Engineers public comment meeting on the last day of March, she hoped to share a unique perspective on the debate surrounding the four lower Snake River dams.
As instructed for the telephonic meeting — originally scheduled as one of six in-person opportunities to comment on a draft environmental impact study for the dams — Larson Andrews called in and waited her turn to speak, assuming she was in the queue of people waiting to talk.
For more than two hours that Tuesday night, she listened to other passionate commenters share their for-the-record thoughts about the dams. The study weighs multiple alternatives, including removing the four dams, keeping the dams as they are, and the Corps’ preferred alternative of keeping the dams while increasing spill over them to aid endangered salmon and other fish that have suffered since their installation.
But by about 8:50 pm, she heard someone thank everyone for their feedback and then the call ended.
“They said, ‘OK, we’ve heard from everyone,'” Larson Andrews says. “I’m not tech savvy, so I worried I hadn’t logged in properly. So it was just like, ‘Oh no! Shoot!'”
While she was happy to hear that many of the commenters who did speak on the call were in favor of the dams’ removal, she didn’t hear anyone share a faith perspective as she had planned to.