For years, the Interior Department resisted proposals to raise the height of its towering Shasta Dam in Northern California. The department’s own scientists and researchers concluded that doing so would endanger rare plants and animals in the area, as well as the bald eagle, and devastate the West Coast’s salmon industry downstream.It's not as old-school as taking bags of cash, but it's the next best thing.
But the project is going forward now, in a big win for a powerful consortium of California farmers that stands to profit substantially by gaining access to more irrigation water from a higher dam and has been trying to get the project approved for more than a decade.
For much of the past decade, the chief lobbyist for the group was David Bernhardt. Today, Mr. Bernhardt is the Interior Secretary.
Care to guess who Bernhardt will be working for once both he and Trump are gone?
Another result of the extension is that an entire creek will be submerged by the higher waters. Last I heard that part was being legislated heavily.
ReplyDeletew3ski
I haven't been south of Klamath Falls since 1988, so I could be a little hazy, but what with the ongoing droughts and decreased winter snowpacks, I don't think Shasta Dam has been topped in twenty years. The only benefit from this is to the building contractors, and the concrete and steel providers.
ReplyDelete