 Summer of 2001 ment hard times in the resort
town of Detroit,
Oregon. Months of drought, in the Pacific Northwest, brought low
stream flows. Detroit Lake is a reservoir impounded by the large
Detroit Dam. Rather than turning off generators and saving as
much
of the precious lake water as possible, the region's hunger for
electricity
and down stream salmon habitat took priority. Water was kept
flowing
through the dam thus dropping Detroit Lake to extremely low
levels.
This spelled economic problems for a lake side town dependent on
fishing
and boating. One would see "Save Our Lake" signs all over town. Detroit Lake in summer
of 2000. Hard to say if they could ever convince the rest of the world to use less power, from the dam, so more water could be saved in their lake during dry years. It seemed like a case of the needs of one small community pitted against the thirst of a large region. Someone from the fairy conference, that I had
just been
to at Breitenbush, suggested Detroit could have an economic boom if the
stores would stock old clothing supplies for drag queens headed to the
conference. "This boom could happen, two times per year, while
conference
people pass through." "Maybe drag supplies could be kept behind
cat
food down at the store." |