Lee Creek Dam plan resurrected by Congress

How many times has this plan to dam an Ozark river and flood another beautiful valley been suppressed?

Lee Sadler's story in the Sept. 25 editions of The Morning News reports on the $23-billion Water Resources Act:

"The bill also authorizes construction of a dam on Lee Creek in Crawford County, 12 miles north of Van Buren. The Pine Mountain dam would create a flood-control lake that would be used as a regional water supply.


"The dam was initially authorized by Congress in 1965.

"Opponents of the dam maintain it would destroy the beauty of the free-flowing creek and irrevocably harm the wildlife around it."

The verb "maintain," of course, ought to be "say." The factual statement is irrefutable and listing endless imagined or actual possible benefits of the project cannot change the fact of the authorized project's inevitable harm.

Let's hope all conservationists and conservation organizations will keep rising again and again to make sure no more dams will ever be built in this or similar places.

Does Fort Smith have a sustainability coordinator?