Courts and Commissions: Fish or foul
Hydropower is under attack everywhere you look. It started back in the sixties during the battle over Arizona's Glen Canyon Dam. That case purportedly ended in a compromise with the Sierra Club to save the Grand Canyon from hydro development. But once built, the dam played havoc with Colorado River levels, disrupting rafting trips for Grand Canyon tourists. Even Barry Goldwater was later heard to rue the Glen Canyon project. Marc Reisner's 1986 book, Cadillac Desert, galvanized the antihydro faction. A few years later, calls arose for the City of San Francisco to dismantle its O'Shaughnessy Dam across the Hetch Hetchy Valley in the Sierra Nevada, just 15 miles north of famed Yosemite. That move failed. (Maybe San Francisco's oddball reputation had something to do with the result). But now we hear of plans underway to tear down dams on the Elwah River in Washington State's Olympic National Park, to reclaim lost salmon spawning grounds and return the parks to its natural state. This time the dam busters may win. These events are not unconnected. Strung together, they reveal a change in the popular opinion of how rivers, streams, and coastlines contribute to our economic well-being, and how the federal government should manage those economic resources. Federal hydropower control was born to govern our navigable waterways. It grew up as a tool to speed electrification and develop mining and logging. But forces today are seeking to make federal hydropower law more sympathetic to wildlife preservation. They argue that wildlife represents a national economic resource - no less so than timber, minerals, and shipping. This view is winning support from those in high positions, including the Chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Elizabeth Moler.
- OSTI ID:
- 5068715
- Journal Information:
- Fortnightly; (United States), Vol. 131:19
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANTS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
US FERC
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
ANADROMOUS FISHES
LEGAL ASPECTS
RECREATIONAL AREAS
ANIMALS
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
FISHES
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
POWER PLANTS
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS
VERTEBRATES
130400* - Hydro Energy- Legislation & Regulations
130600 - Hydro Energy- Environmental Aspects