SEATTLE -- Rallies are taking place across the Northwest to support salmon, which face dire conditions in the Columbia River Basin.

Saturday, the Rally for the River is calling for action from Congress to save endangered fish species in the region, including removing four lower Snake River dams that impede salmon migration and heat up the river.

Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director of Columbia Riverkeeper, said his group recently captured video of the sockeye salmon struggling in the warm waters of the Columbia.

"The heartbreaking video of the sockeye covered in lesions and fungus should sound an alarm," VandenHeuvel asserted. "We need action now from the Northwest delegation."

Water temperatures above 68 degrees can be lethal for salmon, and the Columbia already has been above 70 degrees this year. VandenHeuvel pointed out high temperatures stress salmon metabolism and leave them more susceptible to predation and disease.

He predicted the situation will only get worse unless leaders act to remove the Snake River dams.

Betsy Emery, advocacy and campaign manager for the Association of Northwest Steelheaders, said anglers contribute $5 billion per year to the Pacific Northwest's economy, but she fears salmon in the basin are at a tipping point.

"A lot of us who spend time on the river and spend time thinking about these fisheries are really nervous," Emery remarked. "Could this be that catastrophic event that starts pushing some of these runs that we love so much from a fishing perspective into a space where they might not be strong enough to fish?"

VandenHeuvel added people are becoming inspired to take action.

"More and more people are getting involved and recognizing how serious and urgent this issue is," VandenHeuvel contended. "For salmon, for the orcas that depend on them, for the people of the Pacific Northwest."

Rallies are planned for Boise, Corvallis, Eugene, Portland, Seattle and Spokane on Saturday.

Funding in Washington state's budget is pushing efforts forward to remove four lower Snake River dams in order to save salmon.

Lawmakers committed more than $7 million to begin the transition planning process for the four dams in southeast Washington. The dams have been a site of contention because of their effects on the dwindling population of salmon.

Tanya Riordan, policy and advocacy director for Save Our Wild Salmon, said past studies and reports have called for dam removal, and the federal government sees the new funding efforts as proof the state is ready to take action.

"Although the decision to remove the dams will be made by the federal government -- they're federal dams -- these measures do ensure that Washington state will be prepared to effectively replace the transportation, energy and irrigation infrastructure," Riordan explained.

Last year, Gov. Jay Inslee and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., released a report on replacement of the four dams' services, including barging, hydropower and irrigation provided to nearby agriculture. Riordan believes the new funding measure follows through on their promise. Inslee signed the budget this week.

Erin Farris-Olsen, regional executive director for the National Wildlife Federation, said salmon are resilient and have come back to the Snake River, albeit in smaller numbers. She stressed quick action is necessary to save them.

"We're moving at the pace of our own readiness as humans more so than we're thinking about the ticking of the clock in terms of salmon extinction," Farris-Olsen contended.

Riordan noted more than $26 billion have been spent on mitigation efforts to recover salmon and keep the dams in place, but they have not worked, and she added there are a number of advantages to transitioning away from them.

"We upgrade and modernize our energy system and transportation and irrigation and the state is benefited and communities will be benefited significantly through this process," Riordan asserted. "We'll save salmon, and we will uphold our treaty responsibilities to tribal nations."

Four dams on the lower Snake River have been the sites of contention in the Northwest, and a recent report of an oil spill at one of the dams could be adding fuel to the fire.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported 300 to 600 gallons of oil leaked from the Little Goose Dam between August and October.

Mitch Cutter, salmon and steelhead associate for the Idaho Conservation League, said there have been similar incidences in recent years of leakage from the lower Snake dams.

"We're seeing the results of these dams being old, frankly," Cutter asserted. "They were started to be constructed in the '60s through the '70s, and I think we're seeing the result of infrastructure starting to outlive its useful life."

There has been a growing chorus of calls to breach the dams to allow for greater passage of endangered salmon and steelhead species in the region. However, there are also opponents of the plan. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., recently said there is "no clean-energy future" for the Northwest without these dams.

Cutter is skeptical of Newhouse's analysis, arguing the cost of keeping the dams has become too high to make financial sense anymore.

"They don't provide valuable services to the Northwest system or to the western energy grid," Cutter contended. "They can be easily replaced with other resources that cannot just replace everything these dams do. They would actually improve on the services they provide to the region."

Cutter also stressed it is important to keep iconic species such as salmon and steelhead front and center when discussing this issue.

"There are real solutions for how to replace everything these dams provide, but there's no replacement for wild salmon and steelhead in Idaho or in the Snake River," Cutter added.

An announcement from Washington state leaders on the future of the lower Snake River dams contained both good and bad news for groups defending native salmon.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., have released recommendations that say the state and federal governments should implement plans to make replacing four dams on the lower Snake River possible, but that breaching the dams isn't an option right now. In a news release, Inslee said letting salmon become extinct also is not an option.

Lucy Larkin, a member of the Snake River Savers steering committee, emphasized that point.

"It's exactly not an option, because extinction of salmon and orca, and other iconic species in the Pacific Northwest, is literally unacceptable," she said. "And it's definitely our mission that we're not going to permit the state of Washington to lose its salmon."

Larkin said her group was disheartened that the Washington leaders didn't release a plan for breaching the dams, but believes momentum is on their side.

According to the Nez Perce Tribe, chinook salmon in the Snake River have reached "quasi-extinction."

U.S. Reps. Dan Newhouse and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, both R-Wash., said the report proves the dams shouldn't be breached, because there's no plan for replacing the energy the dams provide.

However, the report noted that the benefits from the dams can be replaced. Citing Inslee, Larkin said distilling this conversation into an argument between the two sides will leave us with the status quo.

"We can have both abundant salmon and a reliable energy system," she said. "Arguing for one or the other is kind of like an oversimplified binary choice, and it is definitely one that we don't accept."

Larkin said federal agencies will have to make investments to ensure the replacement of the dams' services.

"That does include advocating for federal dollars coming to the states from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act," she said.

Inslee and Murray's findings estimated that dam breaching and replacement would cost between $10 billion and $31 billion.