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Dams are More Valuable Than Some Want to Believe by Louis G. Valiante Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, July 1, 2012

Mr. Burkholder, the dams provide safety and cheap power to a lot more than removing them would do. Maybe you were not around when the earthen dam at the headwaters of the Snake River broke and caused major concern at Ontario, Ore. I was on the river at Central Ferry when the radio announced the break. There are several dams between there and where I was fishing that slowed and controlled the excess flow. This is fact. That's safety.

The dams create a lake and allow farmers to use this water to produce your food. Not all farmers are near a river, so wells have to be drilled. Where do you think this water comes from? From the aquifer. What do you suppose fills this aquifer? Seepage from the rivers and "lakes" made behind these dams.

Are you willing to starve for the next few years?

If you are not catching fish, maybe you need lessons. Fact is there are more fish through these dams now than in the past.

Now as to needs, there is power to feed, cook, bathe, wash your car, play in, lawn watering. If we rely on you we would remove the dams, and wind power and solar power would supply our homes and factories. Well in the winter when we need heat, and we have fog and no wind, what are you going to do to survive?

Better look for some candles and a fireplace. You have never been in a brownout. Just to satisfy you and Judge Redden? No thanks!

A major trouble, minorities like you are ruling the world and have no long-term vision.

You remove the dams and you will be responsible for the decline in the economy. Just think of how many people will be without work. There are more people relying on this power than you can imagine. You would not be very popular. Not with me.

If the wind is not blowing and the fog has settled in then the solar cells are not producing power and neither will the wind generators. How will this make the economy better and richer? Have you really thought this through?

No power, no work - this enriches the economy? These electric cars, where do they get their power from? The dams provide power consistently, regardless of the weather.

Ask the people living along the Mississippi River. No dams equal floods.