Panel Votes for Kings River Bill

A House subcommittee today voted 19 to 11 to grant wild and scenic status to the middle stretch of California’s Kings River, which runs through the deepest canyon in North America, outside of Alaska.

The measure, sponsored by Rep. Richard H. Lehman (D-Sanger), is aimed at stopping the Rodgers Crossing hydroelectric project in the Sierra Nevada, proposed by the Kings River Conservation District. Lehman called the proposed dam, which would be up to 600 feet high and would provide irrigation water for farmers in the San Joaquin Valley, “uneconomical, unnecessary and ill-advised.”