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<br />.. ~ <br /> <br />." <br /> <br />Excerpts by NWRA from a National Wildlife Federation paper distributed <br />the same day as ACTION ALERT (q.v. in WERX letter of Dec. 14 1972) <br /> <br />National Wildlife Federation <br /> <br />BUILD THE DAMS, DAMN THE ENVIRONMENT <br /> <br />BY <br /> <br />KENNETH R. HAMPTON <br />Conservation Liaison <br />National Wildlife Federation <br /> <br />December 12, 1972 <br /> <br />A conservationist's critical look at <br />national water resource planning and policy. <br /> <br />Why is it that. despite the mounting evidence of the myriad resource values and public <br />interest in clear r.:!tural streams and river areas, ~ape of our Nation's watercourses bv the <br />dam builders. the stream channelizers, the phreato hyte (stream bank Towth removers. the <br />weiland drainers, the land reclaimers, the water po uters, the land developers, el al continues <br />at a furious pace? <br /> <br />Is' it because We are. running short of agricultural land and need more to fecd a growing <br />population? Hardly-we already have far more farm land available then we need. Approxi- <br />mately 60 million acres of farm lands were purposely laken out of agricultural production this <br />year undcr the feder.l set-aside programs at a cost to the taxp.yers of .bout 54-billion. <br /> <br />Is il because, as an .ffluent n.tion, we .re bccoming indifferent and callous towards special <br />interests exploiting the enyi[Qnm~nt for private profit? Not likely-th~h~ is every rC3Sl.>n to <br />believe that over Ihe past decade Ih~ public has become far mOle JW:JfC of the environment <br />and much morc sensitive to the dJng~rs associJted with upsettillg the fine balance bclWi:Cn <br />man and nature. <br /> <br />However. there is a more basic philosophioal reason. inherent to our bureauc!3tic ,ystem. <br />which accounts for our inabilitv to curb the tide of projects. Bocause of their assigned <br />missions and responsibilities, fedl cal agencies are operational in nature. Feder~1 waeer resource <br />agencies are assiEned development tasks by their respective Congressional committees. If an <br />age~cy fails to ocrform satisfactofl)v the roles it is assiened bv its Con2TessionJI commirtee. <br />eventually it perishes. h is thus not surprising to find that the implementing regulations <br />prepared and promulgated by th., Executivo Branch are couched in language that weights the <br />decision-making process in favor of the water resource developers_ <br /> <br />~~. .? <br />~ <br /> <br />If an agency cannot justify its existence without further jl'"perilin~ our limited natural re- <br />sources. that agency has outlived its usefulness and should be disestablished. It is uncon- <br />scionable for the Chief Executivc 10 permit such an agency to continue to operate using <br />r;uidelines that are weighted heavily against protection of environmental values. <br /> <br />4 <br />