A few years ago, my longtime friend, Robert Williams, President of Pee Dee Electric Coop, gave me a book entitled, "The Next Greatest Thing."  The book extols the history of the efforts to bring electricity to rural America.  At the time America was gripped by the Great Depression and people were desperate for work.  President Franklin Roosevelt confronted both challenges by initiating a bold government program called the Works Progress Administration (WPA) aimed at getting people back to work and enhancing the nation's infrastructure.  As a result of the WPA, 3,300 dams were built across the country.  These projects were constructed to provide jobs and create hydroelectric power facilities to generate electricity in impoverished areas of the country.

            The Depression era generation did not place a high priority on the impact these projects would have on the environment, the communities that could be destroyed or the people that would be displaced.  By all accounts, however, these projects were successful in their mission.  But this assessment reminds me of another book I read some years ago.  It was written by a former Governor and United States Senator from North Carolina, Terry Sanford.  It was entitled, "But What About the People."

In the Northwestern states, Native Americans suffered disproportionately as their communities were destroyed and their livelihoods decimated.  In Washington State, the creation of the Grand Coulee Dam prompted a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes in 1977 to lament:

"The river was the central and most powerful element in the religious, social, economic, and ceremonial life of my people.  Suddenly, all of this was wiped out.  The river was blocked, the land was flooded.  The river we had known was destroyed.  Our home sites were gone . . .  . The salmon came no more, and . . . our traditional economy was lost forever."

Similar fates were experienced in the South by Appalachian whites and rural blacks.  Today, government entities are looking for ways to offset further adversities from actions undertaken during that bygone era.  Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Energy helped the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota bring their first wind turbine online.  This project was eight years in the making, and the community was still suffering the affects of their tribal lands being flooded by the construction of the Fort Randall hydroelectric dam. 

            Then there is the case of Fontana Dam in North Carolina that is eerily reminiscent of the Briggs-Delaine-Pearson Connector saga here in South Carolina.  When the dam was built, Highway 288 was flooded and the government failed to fulfill its promise to complete an access road around the lake.  In 2000, Congressman Charles Taylor secured $16 million in federal funds towards the $150 million needed to make good on the government's promise.  And he is facing obstacles similar to the ones I am facing attempting to right similar wrongs to my constituents.

Lake Marion resulted from a WPA project that was desperately needed in South Carolina.  But just as in the states of Washington, South Dakota, and North Carolina, communities surrounding the lake are experiencing many adverse consequences resulting from its construction.  It is time for government to intervene again. Building the Briggs-Delaine-Pearson Connector will literally and figuratively bridge significant impediments to progress. 

We are obligated to find solutions to the problems created by these very worthwhile public works projects undertaken generations ago.  Providing electricity to rural communities may have been "the next greatest thing."  But the greatest thing, in my opinion, is remaining true to our calling.

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