Patagonia should stay home

Patagonia bought full-page ads in several newspapers in Washington. These ads were to get people to contact our state senators to attempt to destroy four hydroelectric dams on our rivers.

The ads failed to mention these dams have generated very cheap power for Washington residents for many years. If these dams were gone, several unintended consequences would result: 1) Electricity rates for many Whitman County users would skyrocket; 2) every spring these rivers would run wild with spring runoff and flood many downstream towns, causing millions in damage; 3) in the summer, when farmers need the water to grow their crops, these rivers would be nearly dried up.

Also, these dams provide the river barges the ability to move millions of bushels of our No. 1 cash crop – wheat – to market at a much lower expense than trucking.

So who or what is Patagonia? It is a clothing maker from Ventura, California, and it spent thousands of dollars to place the ads. Why would someone from California want to wreck our infrastructure in Washington?

Are these the same people who destroyed all the crops in the San Fernando Valley to save a 2-inch fish. Oh, California is having a severe drought because these left-wing geniuses have done such a great job handling their water supply. Do you suppose they want our river water? We need to tell these Californians to stay home, shut up and let Washingtonians handle our business.

Del Carman

Spokane