[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
dam-l The times, they are a... (fwd)
Forwarded message:
> From alms@folly.org Sun Jul 19 16:01:52 1998
> X-Sender: alms@shell2.shore.net (Unverified)
> Date: Sun, 19 Jul 1998 15:36:16 -0500
> Subject: The times, they are a...
>
> Let's hope it really is a trend...
>
> -Andrew
>
> ---
>
>
> July 15, 1998
>
> Heralding a New Era, Babbitt Chips Away at Harmful River Dams
>
> By TIMOTHY EGAN
>
>
> RICHVALE, Calif. -- Standing amidst one of the most elaborately engineered
> hydraulic systems in the world, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt took a
> sledge hammer to a dam in California's Central Valley on Tuesday, heralding
> the start of what he said would be an era when many of the nation's 75,000
> dams would be judged by whether they did more harm than good.
>
> The surprise was that those who cheered the dismantling of the half-century
> old McPherrin Dam in 100-degree heat included some of the most
> battle-scarred veterans of California's waters wars -- the ranchers,
> irrigators and urban water managers who have gained the most from a century
> of federal dam subsidies.
>
> "That's one small blow for salmon," said Babbitt, with evident glee, as he
> chipped away at the dam on Butte Creek, a major tributary of the Sacramento
> River that used to have one of the biggest salmon runs in the state. "Dams
> are not like the pyramids of Egypt that stand for eternity. They are
> instruments that should be judged by the health of the rivers to which they
> belong."
>
> Babbitt's words were in stark contrast to the heyday of dam-building, when
> Westerners gathered under a hot sun to cheer politicians breaking ground
> for big, concrete breaches on the major rivers.
>
> "This could not have happened 10, 20 or 30 years ago," said Timothy Quinn,
> deputy general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern
> California, which pulls water from every part of this state to satisfy the
> greater Los Angeles area. "The water wars have given away to something
> entirely new."
>
> The dam dismantling was the latest of Babbitt's recharged environmental
> initiatives, coming at a time when he is viewed as treading water in
> Washington because he is under investigation by an independent counsel. The
> prosecutor is examining whether campaign contributions to the Democratic
> Party influenced Interior Department decisions with Indian tribes competing
> over the awarding of a casino. Babbitt says he has done nothing wrong.
>
> On Wednesday, Babbitt will chink away at the first dam scheduled for
> demolition in order to help endangered species in the Pacific Northwest, a
> small dam in Medford, Ore.
>
> And he has been courting support from Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., who
> controls Interior Department spending in the Senate, to tear down the Elwha
> Dam outside Olympic National Park in Washington state.
>
> In the next five years, up to 250 older dams will come up for licensing
> renewal. Many of the most environmentally destructive ones will not be
> renewed, Babbitt said.
>
> Until a few years ago, dam removal proposals were considered radical, with
> no chance of succeeding. Dams were built and subsidized by the federal
> government, regardless of environmental costs.
>
> Now, with the threat that court rulings on behalf of endangered fish could
> shut down some dams, many of the beneficiaries of the water projects have
> come around to environmental restoration -- as long they can get their
> water from other sources.
>
> "It's certainly good for salmon," said Laverne McPherrin, the patriarch of
> a ranching family that grows rice on 1,700 acres here. The family, one of
> several ranching clans that have used most of the water backed up by the
> dam, is now getting its water from another diversion, one that is less
> lethal to salmon.
>
> "Is this a win-win? That depends," McPherrin said. "We'll see in a couple
> of years."
>
> More enthusiastic was Marc Reisner, the author of "Cadillac Desert," a
> seminal book on the environmental cost of Western water projects.
>
> "These are the good guys now," said Reisner, pointing to the managers of
> the Los Angeles water district. "Nobody's ox is getting gored. Everybody is
> benefiting."
>
> California Republicans were guardedly supportive of the ceremonial
> demolition Tuesday in the Central Valley, largely because no major water
> users were complaining.
>
> "Tearing down dams should be the rare exception, not the rule," said Rep.
> Walley Herger, R-Calif., a former rancher who represents this district
> north of Sacramento. "Secretary Babbitt should make no mistake. The West
> would never sit idly by while the extremists of the environmental community
> try to destroy these vital structures."
>
> Boxed in by Congress on a number of environmental issues, Babbitt says he
> has been using the inherent powers of the interior secretary, and laws
> passed in the 1970s and '80s but rarely used, to reorder how much of the
> natural world in the United States is governed.
>
> In recent months, he brought wolves back to the Southwest, announced a
> series of plans by private landowners to protect endangered species, and
> has steered water projects toward environmental restoration.
>
> "The focus of the environmental movement in the 20th century has been
> fencing off and preserving the back twenty," Babbitt said, in reference to
> establishment of national parks and wilderness preserves. "But the real
> action now is on landscapes and watersheds. It is about restoration writ
> large."
>
> The political gains of such a strategy were evident two years ago, he said,
> when concerns about Republican efforts to roll back environmental
> safeguards hurt several incumbent members of Congress.
>
> "Nineteen ninety-six was the year we successfully reassembled the Teddy
> Roosevelt coalition of hunters, anglers and outdoor lovers with other
> conservationists," Babbitt said. "What I've learned is that you can play
> defense in the Congress. But the offensive game, and all the fun, is
> outside of Congress."
>
> --
> Andrew Shalit In our darkness,
> mailto:alms@folly.org there is not a place for beauty.
> http://www.folly.org/~alms Every place is for beauty.
> -Rene Char
>
>