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Show We Need More Peanuts, Pygmies And Beaver Dams Many people, no doubt, think that the Hell's Canyon controversy has ended. This controversy, it will be remembered, re-membered, was over whether the federal government should construct a high dam on the Snake River, using the money of all the people for the purpose, or whether ( the job should be accomplished through a three-dam project pro-ject proposed by a self-supporting, local taxpaying utility company. After exhaustive hearings, the Federal Power Commission Com-mission approved the three-dam project, pointing out that it would produce almost as much power as the federal high dam and at a much lower cost. This EPC decision was upheld in the courts, including the Supreme Court. A till to authorize the federal dam died in Congress. And the first of the three dams is now well along toward completion. com-pletion. , However, this hasn't deterred the socialistic element, ni is still out to take over Hell's Canyon by hook or crook. iAnd one of its weapons is ridicule. A public power association has termed the dam now under construction - named Brownlee - as "peanuts". And a U. S. Senator has applied the terms "beaver dams" and "pigmy dams" to the whole project. The facts have been briefly set down by the Albany, Oregon, Democrat-Herald. Brownlee dam will be 395 feet high, 3,120 feet long and 1,720 feet through at the base. It will be the second highest rock-fill dam in the world and one of the 15 highest in this country. It will create a . . tswx . - ( i no a T - , . n :1s.. i.otU,lAA-aeit; larve witu an nua ui ouun. extending 57y2 miles upstream. It is a multipurpose dam, designed to control floods as well as to produce power, and will cost well over $60 million. The cost of the whole three-dam project is estimated at $154 million, and it will pay total taxes of about $10 million a year. The country could surely use more of these private enterprise "peanuts", "pygmies" and "beaver dams", instead in-stead of tax-boosting political playthings. |