Grant County Court opposes proposed River Democracy Act
By Logan Bagett on Thursday, August 12th, 2021 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories
GRANT COUNTY – The Grant County Court has issued a letter to federal legislators opposing the River Democracy Act, proposed by U.S. Senators Wyden and Merkley. According to Commissioner Sam Palmer, the act would take approximately 80,000 acres of grazing lands out of production in Grant County:
“As written, the River Democracy Act would be detrimental to the social and economic interests of Grant County and its citizens by not taking into account the water resource needs of rural communities in Oregon, and by threatening to arbitrarily curtail the grazing rights of permittees in Grant County.”
Under the proposed act, lands up to a half a mile off of either bank of the listed rivers, streams or tributaries would be under federal protection.
A section-by-section summary of the legislation can be found on Senator Ron Wyden’s website. Click here.
