US. Representative Jared Huffman (CA-02) condemned the Department of the Interior’s proposal to spend $40 million in taxpayer funds on planning and preconstruction activities to raise Shasta Dam, calling it an “unlawful, wasteful, and destructive boondoggle.”
Raising Shasta Dam is illegal under California’s Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, which protects the McCloud River, an area that would be flooded by the project. The proposal has also been blocked by state courts, opposed by California’s Attorney General, and rejected in Congress in the past. Representative Huffman vowed to once again stop the project, noting that the proposal is only in the interest of the Westlands Water District, one of the most politically powerful players in Western water policy.
Huffman also criticized the proposal for threatening the ancestral lands of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, much of which was already submerged by the dam’s original construction. Raising the dam would further jeopardize village sites, sacred ceremonial grounds, and critical habitat tied to ongoing efforts led by the Tribe to reintroduce endangered Chinook salmon to the McCloud River.
Read Representative Huffman’s full statement here.
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