I for one don't want to be at the beckon of a river flow controlled by a dam and I don't know if it's true or not but i've heard Steelhead have gone up that. This is just the start of things. After the dam is put in they'll be saying "powers cheap move up here", then "lets make a thousand acre farm in the corner over there, we'll get a permit to withdraw water from the dam" then "we're gonna flush all the water for two weeks before running the South fork dry for irrigation purposes". There's no need for it now and there never will be.
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Why build in the flood plain?