One environmentalist called it “a case of
schizophrenia’: Oregon officials recently extended Boeing
Aviation’s permit to divert water from the Columbia River even
though the state has spent more than $1 billion augmenting the
river’s flow to restore salmon.
Environmentalists
hadn’t paid much attention to Boeing’s permits in the past because
the aerospace firm never seemed serious about using the water. The
permit allows diversion of twice the quantity consumed annually by
the city of Portland. But when Boeing subleased the water to a
commercial grower of potatoes and onions, three groups filed a
lawsuit.
Martha Pagels of the state Water
Resources Department says that the diversions are planned for a
part of the river not critical for salmon recovery. But a regional
director of the Bureau of Reclamation, John Keyes, says that
further diversions will disrupt plans for salmon recovery required
by the Endangered Species Act. Keyes says the Boeing contract
“could essentially nullify Reclamation’s efforts.”
*Bill Taylor
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Contradictions on the Columbia.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
