We have the power to stop dam removal

Dear Editor,

Regarding the letter published in the Sept. 25 Daily News article, “Guarino to take dam removal letter to Portland”:

This a very good letter, but what good is it going to do? After reading it I see nothing in there that gives Siskiyou County any leverage to change anything in the AIP (Agreement in Principle) or get any concessions that the county wanted in regard to current studies being done. This trip in my estimation is a waste of taxpayers’ money that could be better utilized by a postage stamp. For the sake of the people of Siskiyou County, I hope I am wrong.

But the reason I take this position is from first-hand knowledge and because our Siskiyou County government has had available to them a legal process that would have saved a lot of time and money, without any lawsuits, since this dam removal process started!

They have been shown more than once by a retired Justice Department attorney, Mr. Fred Kelly Grant, president of the Stewards Of the Range how to proceed and be successful in keeping the dams, using this process. To the supervisors’ credit, they took the first two steps in the process, but then for some unexplained reason they took another direction and deviated from the remainder of the established successful requirements needed to keep the dams. As a result of not following through in the right way, we are on the threshold of losing the dams.

For those of you not familiar with the process I speak of, it was used by five small-town mayors to stop the federal government, the largest state transportation agency in the country and a third party, International Spanish Corporation, from building the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) highway through the state of Texas.

Now this power and authority is still available to Siskiyou County and it is time to stop following the advice of others and follow that of the one person who has a proven record of success.