The Corps had proposed two more projects for Carbon County to go with the Beltzville project and the Francis E. Walter Dam. A dam was planned for Strohl’s Valley Road (I have copies of the plan) along with an even bigger project that would have flooded all of Little Gap. (Goodbye Blue Mountain Ski Resort.)
Three events helped to curb the power of the Corps in its dam building mode.
The first was the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado. This was actually a Bureau of Land Management project (another federal agency that should be disbanded), but it became a national issue. While the dam was eventually built, flooding beautiful portions of the Colorado River canyon, the fight galvanized environmentalists.
The second major setback for the Corps was Tocks Island on the Delaware. The project was stopped at the last minute, after the land had already been condemned. Today this project has become the Delaware River National Recreation Area, but the Delaware River still flows free.
The third blow to dam building came from President Jimmy Carter, who killed, if I remember correctly, 17 major dam projects. Luckily, his successor Ronald Reagan, while certainly not an environmentalist, was a cheapskate who opposed dam projects for fiscal reasons.
Nonetheless, the Army Corps is still doing bad things for the environment. It is now proposing to build a dam in Montana on the Missouri River. The dam will wreak havoc on the pallid sturgeon, a fish that can grow to six feet and weigh up to sixty pounds. This fish is on the endangered species list.
The pallid sturgeon was around when dinosaurs walked the earth. And now, thanks to the Corps, its days may be numbered.
Here are two links. The first if from the Cato Institute, a right-wing organization that published an excellent analysis of the Corps. Go to <http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/usace>. The second is from the New York Times detailing the issue with the pallid sturgeon. It includes a picture of the fish. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/03/opinion/an-ancient-fish-is-running-out-of-time.html?_r=0>.
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