File under “Yeah, THIS Is Gonna Fly”: Oregon Senate Republicans want to sell Oregon water to “water-poor” out-of-state customers.
Oregonian blogger Jeff Mapes reported yesterday that the Republicans unveiled this bright idea in their legislative agenda, published earlier this week.
“Northwesterners have always had a healthy fear of their abundant rivers being sucked dry in a Los Angeles-style water raid (anyone seen [the movie] Chinatown recently?), so the issue usually only comes up when politicians are fighting some outsider expressing interest in the region’s water,” Mapes writes.
“But state Sen. David Nelson, R-Pendleton, who convinced the Senate R caucus to take up this idea, insists that times have changed and that Oregon could be a Saudi Arabia of water. ‘We wouldn’t allow them to take it,’ he says of other regions. ‘We would sell it to them.’ And he adds that it could make the kind of profits that will help support a level of state services that the taxpayers aren’t willing to fund.”
Any water-sale deal would have to be cleared by a host of state and federal agencies, and of course environmental and conservation groups would fight it to the death.
Still, Nelson thinks it’s a promising idea, Mapes writes:
“Nelson said he thinks Oregon still has plenty of water downstream from the Columbia River dams that could be sent – likely by tanker – to out-of-state and even foreign users facing increasingly severe shortages. An international market is being developed, he said, and Oregon ought to get into it.
“‘I look at it as a vital commodity just being flushed down into the ocean,’ Nelson said, ‘and we’re not getting any use of it.'”
The Eye strongly suspects Nelson’s harebrained idea will get flushed as soon as the legislature convenes – if not sooner.
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 6, 2008.
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It’s not being flushed anywhere..the oceans need that water to. Once we start giving them our water..it will never end …. we will have to supply it from now on. Not to mention, it will not help them deal with water conservation issues that they need to..like swimming pool use and lawns..if you are in a dry climate, you have to use water wisely.. and it seems to me it is not so far… it’s the same as the oil issue. Now that prices are up, all of a sudden people want products that conserve and use less, our product demand changes..for the better.
If your area doesn’t have enough water to support the population then perhaps caps on how many can live in an area is the answer not hey let’s raid the neighbors for what they have. This will only cause problems and like No said “when it starts it never ends”
But, ahhh… we already are. ‘Yawl familiar with the brand Earth2O, from up around the corner in Culver…?
Wars will be fought, blood spilt.
True, we already are selling Oregon’s water. I didn’t hear a big “Heck NO” when the H2O brand came on the market, so why the big fuss about it now???? Also true, once we start, we won’t be able to start because it becomes “our obligation to society”. I don’t mind the idea of helping during times of extreme trouble and duress, but not on a permanent basis. This kind of reminds me of the health plan…. “Let’s make all the working Oregonians pay for the health plans of those who DON’T want to work” Makes a lot of sense to me. We should just give away our water for free just like everything else……