Narrows session is not a dime a dozen county meeting

By Sun Advocate

People often ask me how I stand attending all the meetings I have to go to as a part of my job at this newspaper. Personally I find them entertaining and interesting. Once in a while they get long and old, but for the most part they are much better to watch than reality TV (How did those stupid shows ever get that name anyway? They are as far from being reality as I am from being a millionaire.)
Surprisingly, some of the meetings are important to more than a few of us. A good example of an upcoming meeting that every Carbon citizen should be interested in is the one that will be held concerning the Gooseberry Narrows project next Monday. It is about the future of water in Carbon County, a subject important to all of us.
For the last few months I have been writing a series of articles about the history of the concept of building another dam in the Price River drainage, an idea that has been killed and come back to life so many times it is like one of those zombies from an old 1950’s “B” movie. But this isn’t science fiction, it’s real and it’s a threat.
When people think of water, they either think of a drink, watering their lawn or the alfalfa field down the street. All those things are certainly important, but there is a lot more to it than that.
We worry about economic development a great deal in this county and we should. Water is one of the keys to developing most industries. In fact for the kinds of industries that pay their employees well, we need to have a good supply of water. Many kinds of manufacturing use thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of gallons per day to make their products and goods.
Without water, those industries will not even look at this area. The water that would be trapped behind that dam should it be built, and sent west instead of east, could make the difference between a viable economy, and a weak one here in Castle Country.
It’s just a point you should think about when deciding whether to come to the courthouse next week and participate in your future or instead watch your favorite television show.