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Teton Dam's Side Benefits%Stressed by Rep. McClureRep. James McClure told some 200 delegates to the annual liaho reclamation association convention here this moriv Lng Indirect benefits should te given more consideration In evaluations of reclamation projects like the controversial Teton Ltom.111 agree that the Indirect costs of such projects should be taken Into account, but I am convinced that the indirect benefits will outweigh them In most cases/' McClure said.Protests from conservation groups delayed the opening of bids on the Teton project, and the groups have since challenged It in the courts*McClure, a member of the Reclamation Association, said Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton viewed the Teton project as a national environmental issue, not just another little project in Idaho.”Speaking on reclamation questions as seen from Washington, D.C., McClure said many people from the east do not understand that the economy of states like Idaho depends on changing the environment*“Many of these people seem to think that if a beaver builds a dam, it's natural, but If man builds a dam, it’s unnatural/1 McClure said*They don’t realize that the pioneers settled this country bychanging the environment and making It a better place to live; man has been doing this since he left the cave,” ho said*McClure said 50,000 acres had been added to Idaho’s farm land each year for the last 20 years,“This is the bedrock from which all other economic activity here Ms come,” he said.McClure also blasted what he called hastily conceived efforts to remove phosphates from detergents and lead additives from gasolines, and to do away with DDT,We have to look deeper than just doing away with these things/1 lie said. He cited the construction of better sewage treatment plants as a better solution to the phosphate problem.John Woodward, director of the Columbia Basin region of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the EPA Is faced with a tremendous backlog of reviewing projects built before the Environmental Protection Act was passed.He said another $6 billion in reclamation and other projects approved before the act was passed will have to be re-exam Ined before they are constructed. The act requires an environmental impact study be* fore constructed projects such as dams and highways may be undertaken.A lot of people talk about wild-eyed conservationists, but there are a lot pf -well-informed and well-respected people who are very concerned about our future/1 Woodward said.He died a recent study which concluded Die world’s oceans have a life expenlancy of 50 years if pollution continues at its present rate. Woodward noted that a World Energy Conference in Detroll, Mich., and a World Environmental Conference in Spokane, Wash,, have been scheduled for 1974 to deal with problems such as these.The environmental issue isn't going to just go away, so we had all better face up to it, Woodward said.David Crandall* director of Region Four, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, laid the convention an estimated half millionacre feet ilroin the Bear River are available lor development.He said applications totaling several times this amount have been filed by Irrigation, Industrial, and hydroelectric interests, but several problems must be settled before (lie water can be put to use.The river crosscs the borders of tliroe slates five times before it empties into the Great Salt lake, Cvandal I said an agreement w’oukl have to be reached on how the states would share In the costs and benefits of any projects undertaken.Speaking lo the convention this afternuon were Robert O'Connor, vice president of Idaho Power Co,; Rep, Vernon Ravens-croft, D . Tuttle, and Lloyd Haighl, vice president of J. R. Simplot Co.ORITIIA DIPCApproval of Grant Means New ElectionIt looks like another sewer and care of just a little over half water bond election for Chub- of the project,” he estimated back next year, according to of the federal aid.Mayor John O. Cotant, Cotant said special meetingsMayor Cotant said a $1 mil-, for the sewer and water bond lion federal loan and $500,000 project would be scheduled af-federal grant to the city for ter Jan. l, sewer and water system im- I think we have a real good proveinents announced Friday chance, he said of the upcom-is money HUD has been holding ing bond election, far this year, ,Tlie federal aid was announc- Chubbuck made an uns access-
Newspaper Details
Idaho State Journal
Pocatello, Idaho, US
Mon, Dec 06, 1971
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
New M.
NM, USA 25 Nov 2019
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