NPR: Growth Management Act, public power

ANNOUNCER
A Catron County-style ordinance in Chelan County could have negative effects on the ecology of the five valleys within. Yet there is serious support for such an ordinance. Diane De Rooy explains why.

DIANE
Most supporters of the proposed Chelan County “Wise Use” ordinance are senior citizens. They are farmers, hunters, landowners and pioneers.

Curt Epperson, an attorney from Manson, claims the feds have declared war on Chelan County. Epperson has assembled an extensive clipping file of outrageous government boondoggles. He uses these examples to show that the government is corrupt and must be replaced by right thinkers.

Perhaps most inflammatory to old farmers and grangers in Chelan County has been the recent argument between hydroelectric projects and free salmon runs. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has stated that there are too many dams, and that he’d like to tear one of the big ones out.

Them’s fighting words in Chelan County, where the Grange Movement of the 1930s brought public power to the state and progress to farming.

Even though the Wise Use ordinance cannot succeed as written, it is the only weapon supporters feel they have right now to fight a government they believe is out of control.

For Northwest Public Radio, I’m Diane De Rooy.