Letter to the editor

Fast currents

Bonnie Cohn Nov. 10, 2014 From the print edition
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In the summer of 1969, my then-husband and I, in our mid-20s, enjoyed a refreshing swim in the Snake River after a hiking trip into the Bridger Wilderness Area. The current was fast, so we cooled ourselves off near shore, blissfully unaware that future generations might be denied this experience if they valued their good health (“Idaho’s Sewer System,” HCN, 8/4/14).


Like the Snake’s current, changes to this river system have happened shockingly fast. While we got on with our lives, the river rolled on, unprotected, to become an agricultural industrial sewer. The final message of Richard Manning’s excellent report is prophetic: “This problem we leave to future generations, as is our habit.” The warning signs now are hard to miss: Big Ag and Big Oil and Coal are out of control.


Bonnie Cohn
Hermosa Beach, California

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