[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 112 (Friday, August 1, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1592]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           AMERICA'S CULTURE

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                          HON. HELEN CHENOWETH

                                of idaho

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 31, 1997

  Mrs. CHENOWETH. Mr. Speaker, part of America's culture and heritage 
is due to the wise-use of its rivers and waterways. In the arid West, 
America has literally turned deserts into gardens. We barge our 
agricultural and manufactured products in an economically and 
environmentally benign manner for trade. We live, work and recreate in 
our rivers. Indeed, our rivers are the lifeblood of much America.
  I would like to bring to the attention of the Members an editorial by 
Bill Hall which appeared in the July 27, 1997 edition of the Lewiston 
Tribune. Mr. Hall articulates the concerns many of my constituents have 
about the plan of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Marine and 
Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service to breach the dams 
along the Snake and Columbia Rivers. These dams provide for the 
transportation, electricity generation, irrigation and recreation that 
many in the Pacific Northwest rely upon. Before these agencies take 
such drastic action, I ask the Members to consider Bill Hall's article.

         B.H.--Lewiston Should Share the Motel Jobs With Boise

                             (By Bill Hall)

       The Idaho Statesman of Boise has a point when it suggests 
     that breaching the dams that created the ports at Lewiston 
     and Clarkston could be offset by the return of a fish run so 
     robust it could really kick the economy into gear through 
     boosts in the tourist, fishing and boating industries.
       Indeed, the same is true of dams throughout Idaho and of 
     the effect their rupture or removal could have on the economy 
     of nearby communities.
       Lucky Peak Dam above Boise, for instance. That plugs what 
     was once a wild and natural stream and could become the same 
     again. Imagine what that could do for the Boise Valley 
     economy once recreation-starved Californians discovered that 
     you could fly into Boise Airport and, in less than an hour, 
     be enjoying some of the finest bait fishing in America.
       And among the richest salmon spawning streams in Idaho were 
     the Boise, the Payette, the Weiser and the Owyhee rivers. The 
     state, by removing dams, could have that resource back and 
     reap the profits of what plentiful fish would do for the 
     tourist industry of western Idaho.
       For that matter, what would it do to the economy of both 
     northern and southwestern Idaho if the three Idaho Power dams 
     in Hells Canyon could be removed altogether creating one 
     stupendous canyon instead of these dam-locked segments we now 
     have, these pitiful canyonettes?
       The Statesman may be on to something of general use when it 
     outlines the concept as it applies to Lewiston specifically: 
     ``A more natural river would give Lewiston the higher quality 
     of life it needs to attract new clean industry.''
       If that is true of Lewiston, it is also true of American 
     Falls Dam near Pocatello. That dam now produces power to 
     sustain polluting Pocatello factories. If you get rid of the 
     factories, you won't need the dam. That would give Pocatello 
     a chance at a new, clean more vigorous tourist industry.
       And what would Idaho need of industrial jobs if the demand 
     became heavy enough for motel maids and bait shop clerks?
       Indeed, the great Idaho desert with its purple sage, its 
     golden grasses, its delicate desert flowers and its natural 
     populations of coyote and rabbit and grasshopper is an easy 
     sell to a nation hungry for the original, natural places. It 
     may have seemed at the time to be a wise idea to let Micron 
     Technology encroach on the nearby edge of the noble desert 
     just for a few jobs in a dangerously volatile computer chip 
     industry. But on reflection, imagine how much kinder it would 
     be toward the environment to close that drab factory and its 
     few thousand jobs and reach instead for the greater wealth of 
     helping tourists revel in the desert sights, reaping the 
     rewards of a new clean industry.
       If the state would only have the foresight and the courage 
     to eliminate all these alleged improvements and revert to a 
     confident investment in its natural wonders, we could lavish 
     on all of Idaho the economic improvements that the Statesman 
     now so generously recommends for Lewiston alone.

     

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