Words from Webster - Seems insane

Pioneer Press

Fort Jones , CA

530-468-5355

mailto:pioneerp@sisqtel.net

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Page E 31 

Let me just nail down this one concept for you and be the first to make this statement: three dams along the Klamath River - Iron Gate and both Copco dams - are going to come down.

Only the timing and the details are now in limbo.

How can I make such an outrageous assumption?

It's my job to watch the intimate processes around us and bring you what is, I believe, careful analysis of scenarios so that you can think through the possibilities in advance.

That is why our readers are so intensely loyal - they know in advance the game that others try to hide from them.

If you are a new reader of the Pioneer Press, welcome to the only newspaper from Sacramento to Portland with the guts and grit to tell it like it is.

Do I know for an absolute fact that the dams are coming down? No, I do not.

I do know, however, that the process is moving strongly in that direction and the inertia of the force is great enough to blow over that which stands in its way.

My take on what possibly is the thrust of the negotiation process is that the Klamath farmers, Tribes and environmental organizations are all on the same page - in favor of removing the lower three Klamath River dams.

The Klamath Basin farmers are not on the same page as the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors, who have come out strongly against dam removal. This split between these two parties - who historically would be on the same page - seems to go back to the moment in time when Siskiyou County officials appeared before a public utilities commission and testified against the Klamath farmers a few years back.

Although the Siskiyou County supervisors and county council are a formidable force - they are no match, in all due respect, to the powerhouse of the Klamath farmers hooked arm-in-arm with tribes and environmentalists on this particular issue.

The supes, at this juncture, should recognize the force they are up against and begin the process to figure out how to protect the county's pocketbook with regard to the property tax from the land which is underneath the current bodies of water at Iron Gate and Copco, and ensure that they have help in the future with putting the pieces back together during the major floods that will wipe out communities when the dams are removed.

-Daniel Webster, Editor and Publisher

(Permission to post from the publisher.)