The Journal devotes much newsprint to the idea that Pocatello needs a vibrant Portneuf River Greenway comparable to that which Boise enjoys with the Boise River. Unfortunately, the circumstances of the two river drainages are not comparable.

The Boise River flows vibrantly through the Boise Valley with rear-around flows of clean clear water from upstream reservoirs because the diversions of water from the natural channel into irrigation canals occur downstream of the city. But the irrigation diversions of Portneuf River water from Chesterfield Reservoir occur 20 miles or more before the river ever reaches Pocatello. As a result, the Portneuf River channel through the city is almost totally de-watered during the irrigation season.

The only water flowing through Pocatello during the summer is the tiny outflow of Marsh Creek, and nothing the city fathers or the USU Landscape Architects can do will ever turn the channelized Portneuf River into anything other than the eyesore it currently is.

"Sediment ponds and oxbows" will not remediate the problem in the slightest. Only the restoration of normal flows of clean water can restore the Portneuf to the status of a real river.

C.R. Stucki,

Pocatello