Dan Beard will be speaking in Silver City on Saturday, Nov. 21, 7 p.m. at the WNMU Global Resource Center, 1000 W. College Ave.
From www.deadbeatdams.com:
DANIEL P. BEARD, the author of Deadbeat Dams, has been a forceful advocate for water policy reform for nearly four decades. He has extensive experience working in the government and private sector. His positions include:
· Chief Administrative Officer, U.S. House of Representatives
· Commissioner, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
· Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior
· Staff Director, U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Natural Resources and the Subcommittee on Water and Power
· Assistant Director, Domestic Policy Staff, White House
· Chief of Staff, U.S. Senator Max Baucus
· Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President, National Audubon Society
· Senior Adviser, Booz Allen Hamilton
· Analyst in Environmental Policy, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress
Commentary: Beard’s statement on the Gila Diversion Project (www.deadbeatdams.com)
Some water projects are absurd and defy common sense. Take the Gila River Project in New Mexico, for example. You have uninformed local politicians running around trying to figure out how to build a billion dollar water project with $120 million slush fund.
It was an absurd idea cooked up by a few politicians in the 1950s to exact a price out of Arizona politicians over the debates to authorize the Central Arizona Project.
After 50 years of trying, we still don’t what will be built, where and whether it will work. To add insult to injury, it would destroy one of the last free-flowing streams in the Southwest, and would be an overall environmental disaster.
Our pathetic political leaders refuse to step up and pound a stake through the heart of this Zombie water project. They cower in the corner and pass the decision around like it was a hot potato.
They need to step up and make a decision to end this irrational and irresponsible proposal and save the taxpayers a billion dollars in the process. Write Secretary Jewell and Governor Martinez and urge them to kill this project.