Central Utah Project, Bonneville Unit correspondence, 1978

Page 60

721 2 Ave. Salt Lake City, Utah 84103 June 20, 1978 Friends, Professors, Citizens Concerned with the Central Utah Project Development - I spent last week in Washington lobbying Congressmen to support the Jacobs Amendment to cut funds for the CUP when the House Public Works Appropriations Bill was presented. The Edgar Amendment considered 8 new starts in water projects. The Jacobs Amendment included the CUP, the O'Neill Dam^in Nebraska on the Niobrara River to convert a valuable wild river and wildlife area into producing corn, and the Russell Dam on the Savannah River in South Carolina where more jobs would be provided and far more houses insulated without the project than with! (Economics of the Project"-proposed for power development) In two strategy sessions with Indiana's Congressman Jacobs, I helped provide information on natural resource values such as the Uinta Mt. trout streams and Utah Lake's unique aquatic and avian character. Brent Blackwelder, Environmental Policy Center (who funded my presence in Washington) provided information on CUP development costs. The strategy of the lobbying of uncommitted Congressmen was to develop sufficient strength in the House to prevent the House overriding a veteof water nrojects expected by the President in August after the Senate makes its decision. We lost!. The pork barrell trade-offs continue - as usual, in spite of the scare that Referendum 13 in California contributed about public dissatisfaction with federal spending. i/ sJU** ^n "t*ie fl°or9 Cunn McKay gave an impassioned speech in defense fy^r^i of the vital need of the CUP for Utah's well being and with a ftjt^jX k**' denunciation of some assistant county attorney back in Salt Lake ar> (JM**** City saying that water was wasted in the State! (He named Kinghorn Y^***'. , as the culprit!) Dan Marriott likewise gave a ringing defense (j^Jit^f vr*™^ 0 f the need for the CUP - but his statement adhered closer to yL^uryvrfor, */*T the reality of life in Utah. No deliberate misrepresentations. u /^j- While the Environmental Policy Center has been working to stop the CUP, I gathered in my lobbying that there is really little understanding of $£ the complexity and diversity of projects and goals in the CUP. I took my Bonneville Unit chart7*" around and found it was the only way to make issues clear. I gather in discussion with Washington Environmental Groups as well as with Department of Interior neople - that President Carter will support stopping certain water storage projects if he can get the political support to do so. Therefore, it is my intention now to carry on with these objectives - and with your help: