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You point out a couple issues here. Many places where it make sense to 
put dams, are in areas where they could be prone to earthquake. That's 
true in the West and also true in the East (Arkansas Dome and New Madrid 
faults). The massive TVA network of dams in built in the areas 
associated with these faults. However, in general I expect we will see a 
recurrence in dam building in the future. Given the risk associated with 
nuclear waste, the risk of an unstable oil supply - the risk from a dam 
going from an earthquake is probably a good option.

This will all sort out in the future. As far as being promised a bridge 
and then not getting it - we horsemen are a minority to begin with. 
Second we make ourselves a smaller minority because often times we are 
our own worst advisory in that we are not united. All horsemen need to 
work together not just endurance riders. Without trails to ride, there 
would not be people wanting horses to ride trails upon. That would 
impact breeders, feed companies and horsemen from other disciplines ( a 
lot of horses breed for other disciplines end up as trail horses). Until 
horsemen unite it's all too easy for public officials to ignore our 
desires.

I would not get too concerned that a few million bucks for a restoration 
project will be washed away if it is decided a dam is needed. The Corp 
in Engineers decided for flood control the Kissimmee river (which feeds 
the Everglades) needed to have a channel in the 40's. At that time the 
Kissimmee was a mile wide and maybe 3 feed deep. They dug it out like a 
trench - the dug canals to remove the flood water. They literally 
drained the swamp and made more farm land and more land for development.

Today the Corp has spent already 2 billion dollars to restore the 
Kissimmee to its original bed. Florida recently bought thousands of 
acres of farm land from US Sugar so the Kissimmee can again flood. That 
cost FL about 1.5 billion. They aren't finished yet.

The real issue gets down to politicians that make the final decisions 
aren't all they good at looking past the end of their nose and of course 
we all end up paying for it in one form or another.

Truman

Ranelle Rubin wrote:
> Truman,
>
> I certainly agree with most, if not all you have said. We need more 
> water kept upstream, and more hydro-electric power. Is the Auburn Dam 
> Site the place for it, I dont' know. What I do know about the Auburn 
> Dam is this:
>
> 1.The reason the original dam construction was halted was due to a 
> fault that was discovered. It was this fault that was deemed too 
> dangerous to build upon/store water upon in the event of an earthquake.
>
> 2. The Bureau of Reclammation just invested many millions of dollars 
> to restore the river to it's original path, and at the same time put 
> in a recreational "rapids" simulation for the rafters and kayakers to 
> use.
>
> My biggest beef (and believe me it is a thorn in my side) is that when 
> the money was funded for this restoration/rapid simulation project, it 
> included a bridge for safe equestrian crossing of the river. Surprise! 
> They ran out of money. A few years ago there was a public meeting that 
> many of the endurance riders in the area attended. There were over 100 
> riders there, standing room only. They had all these fancy drawings 
> (wish they would have saved the money used on those) with different 
> options for the type of bridge to be put there. Of course it was all a 
> farce. They never intended to do ANYTHING. Now, a trail that has been 
> used for many, many years, is closed. Wendel Robie used that trail. 
> Hal Hall showed it to me 20 years ago. We can go only so close to the 
> river before we run into closed signs, and we can no longer do a 
> favorite loop that went through Cool.
>
> We can still ride to Cool, crossing No Hands Bridge, but have to turn 
> around and retrace our steps instead of a very nice loop.
>
>
>
> /Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway. ~ John Wayne/
>
> Ranelle Rubin, Business Consultant
> http://www.rrubinconsulting.com
> Independent Dynamite Distributor
> raneller@xxxxxxx


--

“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a 
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also 
into you.”  Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil


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