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Show m mwp The National Enterprise, August 31, 1977 Three weeks ago I discussed in this space the actions of the Salt Lake County Attorney Paul Van Dam with respect to the Central Utah Project. I pointed out he wras acting outside the legal scope of a county attorney, and dealing with matters far beond his responsibilities. Additional evidence has now come to light which clearly demonstrates that he has bigger fish to fry than Salt Lake Countys water supplies: he is trying to sink the whole CUP. o CL C (0 - UJ I- 5 D CO For instance, on July 6, 1977, Van Dam's assistant, Gerald Kinghorn, wrote letters, on county stationery, to Kathy Fletcher, White House environmental advisor and bete noire of the CUP, and to Brent Blackwelder, of the Environmental Policy Center, a Washington-base- d coordinating office for such environmental groups as the Friends of the Earth and the Natural Resources Defense Council. To both letters Kinghorn attached copies of the first interim report of the county attorney on county water problems. Kinghorn then pointed out that our study is officially limited to water supplies for Salt Lake County and as a result, some facts which emerged from our research will not appear in the enclosed report. . .1 mention our limitations on the scope of our reporting only to explain why this letter contains separate, but hopefully valuable in- formation. o o other words, the official report is limited, but unofficially, the attorney's office will undertake to supply information that may be valuable. And in this context, what can valuable mean? Only that it is detrimental to the project. The letters go on to report information which Kinghorn and Van Dam regaid as damaging to the project as a whole, but In which is irrelevant to the study they have themselves undertaken. Significantly, Kinghorn sent no copy of this correspondence to the county commission, and the commissioners are apparently unaware of this extracurricular activity. For her part, Fletcher sent the letter on to the incoming assistant secretary of the Interior for Land and Water, Guy Martin, with a note to the effect that this appears to be interesting new information on the Central Utah Project which you may want to review'. " What is abundantly clear from this correspondence is that the Salt Lake county attorney and his assistant are using an unasked-fo- r review of Salt Lake County's water problems, which they are not competent to carry out, as a device for generating adverse information on the entire Central Utah Project. Commissioner Bill Dunn has been quoted as saying that the county commission supports the project, and he thinks the county attorney does too. The letters quoted above make a mockery of such a statement. The fact is that the county attorney is violently opposed to the project, and is using his official position, the time of county employees, and the money of county taxpayers, to collaborate with sworn enemies of the project. The Environmental Policy Center can do nothing to help Salt Lake County with its wrater needs, and the attorney can have no legitimate motive in corresponding officially with the center. His real motive can only be a desire to make political points at the expense of other elected officials of the county, and the people of the state. As I said three weeks ago. the county commission needs to reassert its control over its attorney, who has legal obligations which he is neglecting while he pursues the Central Utah Project, against the best interests of Salt Lake County. me wtrmui pimmyr toot&s' oply tunes tw SHltf AMP ItmiCAL evf- t- Bur ivevnoM- - 2 UU HO CCMT but on mfc 'WORP.' feet, RXVt on SHU W AMP SHIM6,7H5 HPfiS- r AMP THE MORE ME i - I J pout exsr. MV Hi Hi reeso). Hi Pragmatic Dogmatics Canal comments by Kent Shearer The national debate over the propriety of the Panama Canal treaties is under way, even before the final texts have been drafted. Nowhere is the discussion more intense than in Bens Continental Bank coffee shop, second South and Main, Salt Lake City. There gathers a crew of lawyers, accountants, advertising agents, stock manipulators, and other questionable characters of if of uncertain wisdom. great imagination Each has become an instant expert on isthmus affairs. We should abandon the Canal Zone, proclaims an attorney, but only if we apply federal strip mining regulations, and restore the area to its previous state of nature. The sole teller. "No,. rejoins a bank the canal way we should give the Panamanians is if they agree to accept New York City too. "I think the treaties are in deep trouble, The gay community is adds an accountant. against them, because theyve learned that Panama has cracked down on United Fruit. Hell, weve got more right to that ground than we have to Duschesne County, interjects an advertising executive. We at least paid Panama for it, which is more than we did with the Utes. The best solution, counters a stockbroker, is to have a public offering of canal company stock. I know that the thing loses money, but thats beside the point. All of this talk has convinced people that its worth something, and thats what you need to make the offering fly. A secretary chimes in, Actually, the Panamanians should be grateful to us, she says. If it werent for us, they would still be corner of Columbia. living in a malaria-ridde- n Weve been very good to them. Maybe they would understand that if we would take their children into our homes and educate them like we do with the Navajos. Then, a neatly dressed young man stands. Most of you seem to want to retain the canal, he says. There is a general murmur of assent. he continues, because Im on Senator Orrin G. Hatchs staff. There is some concern back in Washington about Americas will to fight to keep the canal. The Senator has asked me to circulate a petition to be signed by volunteers for an American Canal ExpeditionYoull even get a campaign ary Force. Good, ribbon! Suddenly, the coffee shop falls silent. The solitary person to sign the petition is the stockbroker, and he puts down his neighbors name. |