[Vision2020] Big Oil Megaloads Tread on Idaho Values

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (Match 21, 2011) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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HIS VIEW: Big Oil megaloads tread on Idaho values

March 21, 2011

The Clearwater and Lochsa river valleys in the month of February offer a
stark and beautiful mix of steep canyon walls laced with snow, ice and
dense stands of pine. It's a place of unparalleled beauty.

This past February, I watched as the first of potentially hundreds of
megaloads lumbered west through this picturesque place, tearing down tree
limbs and prying rocks from cliffs. The sight of these huge hunks of steel
working through such a pristine place reinforced in me the need to protect
Idaho's special places. It made me think about what's worth protecting.

In addition to their beauty, the Lochsa and Clearwater rivers provide
habitat for a variety of songbirds and waterfowl. Their waters give life
to elk, otters and bears, not to mention wild salmon, steelhead and native
trout.

The Clearwater and Lochsa corridor is also a special outdoor playground.
It is a destination for whitewater rafters and kayakers who travel to
Idaho from around the world to challenge the Lochsa's wild rapids. It is a
paradise for hikers, hunters, fishers, cyclists and campers who enjoy the
abundant wildlife, peaceful campgrounds and forested countryside.

Along with other special Idaho places like Hells Canyon, the Sawtooth
Mountains, Owyhee Canyonlands and Frank Church-River of No Return
Wilderness Area, the Clearwater and Lochsa wild and scenic river corridor
is among Idaho's most precious places.

Among the first rivers protected under the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act in
1968, they have national significance, too. Championed by the late Idaho
Sen. Frank Church, the Middle Fork of the Clearwater and Lochsa - along
with the Selway River - were protected for our children's children because
of their unique scenic, recreational, cultural and historic values.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Forest Service - the agency charged with
protecting these special rivers - has stood on the sidelines while Gov.
C.L. "Butch" Otter and the Idaho Transportation Department gave away our
wild and scenic values to oil giant ExxonMobil.

That's why Idaho Rivers United filed suit against the agency last week in
Boise's U.S. District Court. We are challenging the Forest Service to
defend our rivers and oppose ExxonMobil's plan to transport hundreds of
megaloads up U.S. Highway 12 and through the Clearwater and Lochsa river
corridor.

The Exxon megaloads are not typical, oversized, over-weight commercial
truck loads that ply our highways every day. We don't have a problem with
those. But pushed and pulled by two tractors each, Exxon's megaloads of
mining equipment are extreme - up to 24-feet wide, 200-feet long and three
stories tall. They'll weigh up to 600,000 pounds each.

Built in Korea and bound for the tar sands mines in Canada, ExxonMobil
wants to move their equipment using rolling roadblocks that will tie up
both lanes of the winding, narrow highway. That will delay traffic and
block roadside turnouts in ways that will keep recreators from reaching
the river, trailheads and favorite fishing holes.

If they don't do anything else, the loads will turn the attention of
National Forest visitors away from the God-given beauty, color and energy
of this inspiring wild and scenic river corridor toward the massive hunks
of lifeless steel creeping up the highway or parked along the river's
edge.

Allowing the State to permit movement of these monstrous industrial
contraptions through the Clearwater/Lochsa river corridor is an affront to
all Idahoans who love this place. It's a blow to the memory of Sen.
Church, and all the work he did to protect the rivers.

This egregious violation of our nation's first wild and scenic rivers is
akin to building a seven-story hotel on the shores of Redfish Lake - or
placing a McDonald's float-through at Velvet Falls Rapid on the Middle
Fork Salmon.

The megaloads have no place in the Clearwater and Lochsa corridor. They
don't fit, and we hope the Forest Service will see that before our trial
begins.

Kevin Lewis is conservation policy director of Idaho Rivers United, a
statewide, nonprofit river conservation group.

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Kevin Lewis

http://www.dnews.com/images/8678656.jpg

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"This is the 'Mouse that Roared,' 'David and Goliath' and 'Avatar' all
rolled into one.  We must remember that the thousands of citizens involved
in this effort to protect their personal and family safety, their
businesses and their lifestyles are confronting some of the largest
international corporations in the world."

- Linwood Laughy