In yesterday's Columbian, Don Brunell's column looks at how natural disasters have been used to promote interest group agendas. The December floods serve as an object lesson.
Nothing could stop or even control the wall of water, mud and debris that inundated southwestern Washington. The Corps of Engineers says the storm was a 500-year event.
But now, some people are trying to blame the flooding on clear-cutting in the upper Chehalis River. They want the Legislature and governor to change forest practices laws to curtail some logging. It is as if the proponents were waiting for that event to launch their crusade.
Washington already has one of the best forest practices acts anywhere in the world. No law or government edict can thwart the consequences of a 500-year event.
To cripple an industry with excessive regulation would compound the disaster.
