by Ron Arnold
Two weeks ago, outgoing Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar named the White River -- which cuts 722 miles
through its 17.8 million-acre watershed, crossing 60 counties in
Arkansas and Missouri -- as the second National Blueway.
What exactly, we should ask, is a National
Blueway? In short, it's the focus of the biggest federal land grab in
American history.
Physically, a National Blueway is an entire
watershed, including its municipal, county and tribal governments,
private property, businesses and everything else within the ridge line
of the watershed. Consider the first Blueway, the 410-mile Connecticut
River, along with its 7.2 million-acre watershed, which stretches into
Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. It wouldn't take
too many grabs like that for the federal government to control all the
water in the nation.
Politically, a Blueway is a watershed that
falls under a new bureaucracy, an intra-agency National Blueways
Committee. The designation was created by Secretarial Order 3321 of May
24, 2012, signed by Salazar. The order says, "The National Blueways
System will provide a new national emphasis on the unique value and
significance of a 'headwaters to mouth' approach to river management and
create a mechanism to encourage stakeholders to integrate their land
and water stewardship efforts by adopting a watershed approach."
Salazar's vague "watershed approach" subverts
the power of local governments, which now use various individually
tailored "watershed management" techniques for their local water supply,
water quality, drainage, stormwater runoff and water rights. Where did
those go in Salazar's ghastly green goo?
The idea of using "network management" to cope
with multifaceted water issues through a powerful master unit was first
promoted in Europe by the World Water Council, a consortium founded in
1996 and based in Marseille, France. WWC members include the World Bank,
the United Nations and major European corporations. The founders were
well aware that "the implementation of any common vision presents a new
role for NGOs because of their unique capabilities in local community
coordination, thus making them a valuable partner in network
governance," according to British environmental governance professor
James Evans.
Which brings up the question of why Salazar created Blueways in the first place.
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
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1 comment:
What a crying shame.
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