Transcript

John Keys: If you throw everything in the ashcan, you throw away the infrastructure

Well, I think at times we forget that we live in an arid country in the western United States. In this state alone, you go from the 12 to 13 inches of annual precipitation you get here in Boise to the 4 inches just across the border in Harney county [Oregon]. And if you want a good example of that, the next time you fly in here, look at the outside of Boise because right across from where it's being irrigated is brown; where it is being irrigated is green. So the train wreck that you are talking about is for us to ash-can everything that we've got going right now. If you throw everything in the ash-can, and say we are going to redo this whole thing, you throw away all the infrastructure that's in place that guarantees the water that all of us depend on. And certainly, a wholesale abandonment of the water rights system that we've put together that works. Now, I agree that there are some things that need to be done to help the tribes, to help meet some of the Endangered Species Act requirements. But if we do away with that thing without some good substitute, that's the train wreck that I see.

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