Politicians in Idaho are talking about doing away
with four Snake River dams (HCN, 9/1/97). Robert Huntley,
Democratic candidate for governor, called the lower dams
“impediments to prosperity,” reports the Idaho Statesman, while a
Republican running against Rep. Helen Chenoweth in the primary said
his party had to protect endangered species. “Letting species go
extinct, especially a nice one like the salmon, is wrong,” said Jim
Pratt. He lost to Chenoweth.
If El Niûo had
delivered, the Colorado River might have roared through the Grand
Canyon this spring – a repeat of an experiment at the Glen Canyon
Dam two years ago (HCN, 4/15/96). “The plan is to try again,” Dave
Haskell told the Salt Lake Tribune. Haskell, who directs the Grand
Canyon National Park’s Science Center, added, “For now we are
restricted to releases only during high-water years, and this did
not turn out to be one of those years.”
Even
jet-skiers get cold feet. Some warned Canyonlands National Park
rangers last month that they planned to jet-ski down the Green
River and into the park to protest a new rule prohibiting personal
watercraft. But 24 jet-skiers turned back at the border, telling
rangers they’d decided not to make a big deal of their
disagreement.
Four logging protesters arrested
last fall at Idaho’s Cove-Mallard roadless area (HCN, 9/2/96) were
each sentenced to 60 days in jail and fined $500 last month.
Another protester who pled guilty got a 14-day sentence. In the
last seven years, more than 200 activists have been arrested in the
Nez Perce National Forest.
Last month the EPA
granted the $1.8 billion Waste Isolation Pilot Plant a license to
store nuclear waste in vaults a half-mile underground near
Carlsbad, N.M. (HCN, 3/2/98). Protests and red tape have stalled
the site’s opening since 1979, when Congress authorized the
underground waste dump – the world’s first. The Southwest Research
and Information Center said it will sue the EPA and Department of
Energy to stop it again. A spokesperson for New Mexico Rep. Joe
Skeen, a Republican, told the Albuquerque Tribune, “It’s a done
deal. Roll the trucks.”
The Rocky Mountain Oil
and Gas Association is suing Montana’s Lewis and Clark National
Forest to overturn its ban on new oil and gas leasing along
Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front (HCN, 10/13/97). The industry group
claims the public had too much influence on forest supervisor
Gloria Flora’s decision last
fall.
* Dustin Solberg and
Taffeta Elliot
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The Wayward West.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
