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<DIV><SPAN class=515153019-03032004>To the Editor:</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=515153019-03032004></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=515153019-03032004>Regarding your story today on
Interior vigorously pursuing a Trinity River litigation settlement,
the following is a bit of relevant history.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=515153019-03032004></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=515153019-03032004>Interior is intensely interested in serving
its irrigator constituents at whatever adverse impacts and costs to others, and
to California's dwindling fishery resources. So, it pursues a
"settlement" of litigation initiated by the beneficiary of Trinity River
water: Westlands Water District. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=515153019-03032004></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=515153019-03032004>Westlands, at 605,000 acres the country's
largest irrigator district, will become a superfund site by 2040 because of
selenium and other contaminant concentrations in the soil and waterlogged land,
one could conclude from a December 2000 United States Geological Survey Report
(Open File Report 00-416). At the same time, since Interior has
absolutely no case for any benefit to the Trinity, good
luck. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=515153019-03032004></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=515153019-03032004>With 35 percent of Westlands land planted to
grossly uneconomic and heavily taxpayer supported cotton production, one
wonders how the public interest is served by Interior fighting so fiercely
for a "settlement."</DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=296120603-03032004></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=296120603-03032004>A "resolution" to Trinity can be found in
the </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=296120603-03032004>pre-legislative history, the Congressional
Record before enactment of the 1955 Trinity Division legislation, that
legislation itself, all subsequent Trinity legislation, the reserved Tribal
fishing rights and the Federal Government's legal trust obligations to Native
American Tribes.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT color=#808080></FONT></EM></SPAN><EM><FONT
color=#808080></FONT></EM> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT color=#808080>Byron Leydecker</FONT></EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT color=#808080>Chairman, Friends of Trinity
River</FONT></EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT color=#808080>Consultant, California Trout,
Inc,</FONT></EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT color=#808080>PO Box 2327</FONT></EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT color=#808080>Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327</FONT></EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT color=#808080>415 383 4810 ph</FONT></EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT color=#808080>415 519 4810 cell</FONT></EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT color=#808080>415 383 9562 fx</FONT></EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM><A href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net"><FONT
color=#0000ff>bwl3@comcast.net</FONT></A></EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM><A href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org"><FONT
color=#0000ff>bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</FONT></A><FONT color=#0000ff>
(secondary)</FONT></EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM><A href="http://www.fotr.org/"><FONT
color=#0000ff>http://www.fotr.org</FONT></A></EM></DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.caltrout.org/"><EM>http://www.caltrout.org</EM></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000></FONT> </DIV>
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