viewpoint
BY STAN TAYLOR
Water for Peace
Protecting a basic resource as a public trust
I
t may seem strange to link the words water
and peace together, but in reality they
are intimately linked. We live in a world
in crisis. Not just some time in the future,
but today. Water is an indicator of that
crisis at every level — global, national and
local. Global climate change, overuse and
pollution, have made water a scare resource.
Control of water has become a source of
confl ict and a source of power.
At the recent Public Interest Environmental
Law Conference, Vandana Shiva said that climate
change manifests itself in water disruption. The melting of the Arctic ice
cap and of glaciers around the word, the desertifi cation of vast tracks in
Sub-Saharan Africa and the southwestern U.S., and the acidifi cation of the
world’s oceans that is killing coral reefs and disrupting ocean food chains,
are clear indications she is right.
Over-use of water, based upon outdated models that privilege industrial
agriculture and resource extraction, has led to the extraction of water from
aquifers at rates which exceed their ability to replenish — causing massive
water shortages.
Studies show that every major waterway and most lakes in the U.S. are
polluted with mercury and that all fi sh in these waterways are contaminated.
This is just one indicator of the pollutants dumped into our rivers and lakes
that undermine the health of our ecosystem.
As water scarcity increases, extreme measures are taken that pit users
against one another. One example is the proposal to raise the height of the
Shasta Dam in northern California by 18 feet to store more water for use by
industrial agriculture in the central California valley and for suburban Los
Angeles. If this happens, the remaining sacred homelands of the Winnemem
Wintu tribe will be submerged, striking a severe blow to their culture and history.
The Winnemen Wintu, which means middle water people, are also seeking
to restore their sacred salmon to the Mcloud River. The Mcloud salmon were
made extinct when the current Shasta Dam was created. Before this extinction
occurred, salmon eggs from the Mcloud River were exported to New Zealand
and thrived in the Rakaia River. The Maori tribes of New Zealand have re-
gifted the salmon to the Winnemem and the salmon are being returned home.
The challenge is to rehabilitate the ecosystem so that the salmon may live.
Perhaps the most serious threat to water is privatization. Locally, as EW
reporter Camilla Mortensen has documented in her “Freshwater Fisticuffs”
series, we have private water developers seeking to gain water rights to
Willamette River water. Along the Columbia, Nestlé Group — a multinational
corporation — is seeking to gain rights to put in a water bottling plant at
Cascade Locks that would allow it to take water from Oxbow Springs. In
other states where Nestlé has located, water tables have dropped as Nestlé
turns local water into a bottled product sold globally. Communities lose
control of their local water.
Water is necessary for all life and for the Earth’s ecosystem. It seems
obvious that water must be a human and ecosystem right, protected as a
public trust for the benefi t of all.
On Friday, April 15, the Lane Peace Center is holding its annual peace
symposium on “Water for Life, Not for Profi t.” You are invited to attend.
Information about the symposium is available at: www.lanecc.edu/
peacecenter or by calling 463-5820.
letters
TEMPORARY TAX
I have nothing but gratitude for my
children’s education in the Eugene 4J
School District. I have experienced
dedicated hardworking teachers from the
elementary through the high school level.
These teachers have been stretched to
their capacity to make a difference in the
lives of countless children both during and
after school.
I am afraid that this might come to an
end if we don’t do something now. We have
asked too much from our teachers already.
We are at the bottom of the list on number
of school days per year in this country,
only beat by one other state. Class sizes
are already too large for teachers to attend
to students’ independent needs.
I support the temporary tax for schools.
This tax is intended to preserve school days
and class sizes. Some have said that it is
unfair that county residents will not have
to pay. I urge all non-city residents to join
me and many others in pledging to donate
the equivalent (or more) to the Eugene
Education Fund or the Bethel Education
Fund. Our children and the future of this
community need our help now.
Gwen Gwilym
Eugene
TAX US, PLEASE
Stan Taylor is chair of the Lane Peace Center. He teaches peace studies and environmental politics at Lane
Community College.
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TO THE EDITOR
Public education benefi ts us all —
wherever we are in our lifespans, however
little we participate directly in public
schooling. Our children are grown. Others
have no children. Others’ children attend
private school. So what? ALL children
must learn to think and care for themselves,
so they can sustain our shared spaces and
public life when they all are grown.
We know that, as this tax is written,
some who benefi t won’t pay as much — or
pay at all. We also know that for a modest
price (check your cost at the city’s website
under “Education Funding Update”) those
who will pay — ourselves among them —
will get great value for our dollars. And
we will get that value soon, and certainly,
rather than maybe someday when, and if,
the state reforms school funding.
We know money doesn’t guarantee
schools’ success. We don’t approve of
every school dollar spent; but we also
know that too little money guarantees
school failure. We know that every public
budget is a compromise; and we know that
public schools with too few dollars simply
cannot do their hugely important job.
That’s both a terrible bargain and a true
misuse of public funds.
So please, Eugene, don’t waste our
school dollars. Let’s spend enough to
spend them well. Please, raise our income
taxes to support public schools!
John Holtzapple
Vicki Harkovitch
Eugene
CLOSED-MINDED SLANT
I will be watching with interest to see
if, and how, EW reports on the recent
decision by Springfi eld offi cials not to
expand the city’s urban growth boundary.
Call me cynical, but I half expect Alan
Pittman to fi nd a way put his usual closed-
minded slant on the story.
Despite Pittman’s assertions over the
last couple of years that the only reason
to separate Springfi eld’s and Eugene’s
urban growth boundaries was to placate
the “pro-sprawl” construction interests,
it turns out that, after careful review,
offi cials in Springfi eld have decided that
enough land exists within the city’s current
boundary to meet residential needs for the
next 20 years, so there’s no need at present
to expand the boundary. Imagine that!
When Springfi eld is allowed to determine
its own future, rather than being bound to
its neighbor, the city can sometimes make
good decisions!
I’ve occasionally complained in this
letters column about what I consider EW’s
one-sided tactics to promote its editorial
point of view. It’s not that I typically
disagree with the paper’s stance; on the
contrary, as a fellow lefty I long to see
intelligent arguments in favor of the
positions I support. My problem is with
the negative language too often employed
by EW, and especially by Pittman, to make
its point, as a cheap substitute for the well-
reasoned, balanced arguments that would
give the paper so much more credibility.
When Springfi eld asked the state
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