Our View: Discussing new Teton Dam is unwise, insensitive

Larry Craig carved out a 28-year congressional niche by staunchly defending Idaho's loggers, miners, ranchers and farmers.

While sitting on the influential Senate Appropriations Committee, Craig has never been bashful about using the budget process to serve industries' needs. Idaho's congressional delegation allowed the senior senator to assume a lead role on resource issues.

Craig's going-away present to Idaho is completely in character: $3 million to study dam proposals coveted by irrigators. It is not surprising, yet disappointing, that Craig would attach his political legacy to one tragically failed project: the Teton Dam east of Rexburg.

It is unwise and insensitive to discuss rebuilding the Teton Dam. In June 1976, while the reservoir was being filled, the earthen dam failed. The ensuing flood killed 11 people, caused $1 billion in damage - and leaves deep political rifts, three decades later.

The feds have said they can rebuild the dam safely. Some irrigators have long pushed for the additional water storage. State officials want to study a range of possible dam sites - not just the original location - and quantify how much water could be stored in the Teton basin. "It would be premature to take that option off the table," said David Tuthill, director of the Idaho Department of Water Resources.

On the other side of the debate are national and regional environmental groups and some local residents who vividly remember the 1976 flood.

No disrespect to the environmentalists, but the local residents are more persuasive to us. These aren't a bunch of "NIMBYs," the Not In My Backyard types who invariably grouse about any local project. These are people who lost property or loved ones to the first Teton Dam. Their painful experience gives them a better sense of history than Craig displays.

Not that Craig is acting alone. In March, the Legislature voted to put $400,000 into studying Teton Dam - an ill-advised decision, and not merely because state tax collections were beginning to tank at the time.

The national recession - and the debate over deficit spending on public works projects to create jobs - may give new life to any number of dam projects. Gov. Butch Otter's staff is collecting a list of Idaho infrastructure projects that could benefit from an infusion of federal dollars; not surprisingly, a big item is a $300 million expansion of Minidoka Dam near Rupert. (The 2008 Legislature also kicked $1.4 million into studying this project.)

With plenty of other projects in the hopper, it's time to stop chasing good money after bad on Teton Dam.

This, however, will be a task for the next Congress, and for a new-look Idaho congressional delegation.

Craig tucked the $3 million for dam studies into a large public lands bill that the Senate won't consider before January, after Craig leaves office. With Craig's retirement, we hope Idaho's delegation takes a more measured approach to environmental issues - and here's a fine place to start.

"Our View" is the editorial position of the Idaho Statesman. It is an unsigned opinion expressing the consensus of the Statesman's editorial board. To comment on an editorial or suggest a topic, e-mail editorial@idahostatesman.com.