Earth week screening of DamNation in Springfield

A free screening of the award-winning documentary DamNation is happening in Springfield on Thursday, April 23, 7pm. The film will be followed by guest speaker, professor Clark Bullard, who will speak on the locally proposed Hunter Dam. The Liberty Brew & View screening is hosted with Prairie Rivers Network at the Capital City Bar & Grill theater dining room.

This powerful film odyssey across America explores the sea change in our national attitude from pride in big dams as engineering wonders to the growing awareness that our own future is bound to the life and health of our rivers. Dam removal has moved beyond the fictional Monkey Wrench Gang to go mainstream. Where obsolete dams come down, rivers bound back to life, giving salmon and other wild fish the right of return to primeval spawning grounds, after decades without access. DamNation’s majestic cinematography and unexpected discoveries move through rivers and landscapes altered by dams, but also through a metamorphosis in values, from conquest of the natural world to knowing ourselves as part of nature.

Mayor Houston should keep his word and stop wasting money on Hunter Dam

During the election, Springfield Mayor Mike Houston said something sensible about the proposed Hunter Dam. It's time to fish or cut bait. If the project is rejected by the Corps of Engineers again, he believed the city should cut its losses instead of relaunching the costly process of more studies and applications.

“If they’re going to make us go back and start redoing them, then I think it’s time to probably pull the plug on the second lake,” Houston said.

And here we are. Hunter dam was rejected by state and federal regulators yet again. But, some on the city council still haven't accepted reality and are trying to revive it. Keeping this bad idea alive will mean doing another series of environmental studies and starting the costly years-long process of getting approval from scratch. Houston should keep his word. It's time to let it go.

CWLP may be able to fool the city council with a comically flawed study of the alternatives. Attempting the same stunt with EPA and the Corps of Engineers would be a foolish waste of time and money. 

The biggest water hog in Springfield is CWLP's coal power plants. New federal pollution rules will require CWLP  (probably within the next five years) to either 1) shut down their older Dallman 1 & 2 coal units which date back to the 60's and early 70's, or 2) convert them to natural gas, or 3) spend millions upgrading pollution controls on plants that are already near the end of their lifespan. Thanks Obama! The newer Dallman 4 plant is less water intensive than the aging units. 

Shutting down or converting the older coal units will make CWLP's estimate of their supposed water needs obsolete. In the near future, the city will nearly eliminate the primary reason hunter dam was proposed: keeping Lake Springfield water levels high enough for the now-obsolete coal power plants. 

An ordinance to revive Hunter Dam is on the agenda for Tuesday's city council meeting. Citizens will be there in opposition Tuesday, March 4, 5pm at the Municipal Center West. You can submit this form in advance if you'd like to speak.

Just because a small group of people figured out a way to make lots of money on a project nobody needs, doesn't obligate city taxpayers to waste more money going down a dead-end road.