European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 14, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Doily Magazine Tawwab mar i by a the fight to save nine Miles of rubber Rah rides stanislaus River rapid. Sixty Story new melones dam focal Point of dispute Over nine Miles of rapids. By Wayne King new York times he great deluge from the Spring Runoff a abated on the stanislaus River but More than enough surging White water remains to Send froth ing cataracts cascading Over the sleek Black Boul Ders hurling rafts and kayaks into the boiling rapids that have disco fiting names like chinese Dogleg devils staircase razorback and death Rock. There Are dozens of boats on the nine Miles of turbulent water big rubber rafts that Scutta Tike cockroaches its Istir oars beat the water in furious Lime kayaks Graceful As wine glasses surging Tiu ngh furious plumes their Piloti roiling trader water Only to Bob up again downstream raking the Oure Green water with Quick strokes before the next set off Fly. The River alternately whispers end thunders As it courses Between sheer Canyon Walls 800 feet High past Cool Limestone caves and great Granite rocks pocked with mortar holes where the Central Piwok indians ground acorns into flour is centuries ago past Redbud Alder Ash and Buckeye past a Garit Fig tree scenting the air with fruit. It tumbles nearly nine Mies before it softly spends itself in the great Lake that backs up 16 Miles behind the 60-Story new melones  deep will it be How much water asks a hand same Man with silvering hair and wearing a life jacket. Two Hundred fifty feet Here answers a Boatman guiding the raft to the rapids called Bailey s Falls this whole Canyon will be buried under 250 feet of water. The questioner. Rep. Don Edwards sighs and says Well we be just got to Stop it. I think we can but there Isth engr Sman is the sponsor of a Bill that would a Reserve the White water Section of the stanislaus from further flooding behind the dam by putting the nine Miter into Ibe National wild and Scenic Rivers system. With him on the trip Down the River rep Forney h California rowing is Mark Dubois who last year chained himself to a Rock on the River forcing the army corps of Engi neers to Stop filling the Reservoir a other Reft is rowed by Tram club muscular 14-year-old who strains at the oars under us guid Ance of 29-year-old Bob metro who scouts instructions pull left pull left Hardell harder u the raft careens through the plunging rapids. It is a symbiotic relationship to Aruj Gibb a Blind. Bob Metis clings to a strap with arms withered by polio. Somehow they negotiate the run without piling up. The gathering Edwards said was to signal to every one the danger the River is in melts Gibb and Roberts were Here to dramatize he River s Roe As wilderness therapy for the mentally an physically handicapped. Dubois Bead of a 3,000-member group called friends of the River says 40,000 people a year experience the whits water on commercial and private trips Down the stanislaus making it the second most popular White water River in America behind Pennsylvania s Youg Hooghe by. Thousands More hike fish or explore its Valley. To Johnson the resources director the dam is an Issue of Public policy one that Lias set California and gov. Edmund g. Brownjr. Against the Federal  melones he says is a Ripoff of the Public to provide subsidies to farms and utilities a symbolic Point to hold everything up to  set against the loss of the White water the Limestone caves the Piwok mortars and Petroglyph against the alteration of its wildlife habitat and the grandeur of ils Valley and Cli is is new recreation for a vast new number of Fishers swimmers Power boaters and water skiers and a bigger Supply of water As a Workhorse to generate electric Power to grow walnuts and fruit and to water cattle downstream. Another group of friends these calling themselves friends of new melones represents Farmers ranch ers and Alieni growth conscious Smoll towns in Ibe Ralley. Partisans of the dam sport filler up t suits Aad soot bait symbolically dumped buckets of water Senoir. A few care parked pickup trucks across the Road to the raft launching Point causing tense confrontations. The Issue is not the dam itself but How far to fill the Reservoir behind the $341 million project completed in sunday september 14, 1980 1918. Friends of the River the state resources Agency and environmental groups now oppose filling the Reser voir beyond the present 16 Miles. They favor preserving the nine Miles of White water providing no new irrigation and cutting Power generation to one third or one Quarter of what is now planned. In 1974, partisans of the dam Defeated a ballot proposal thai would have Pul the White water under the Stair wild Rivers system. Milton Kramer the publicist for friends of the dam who managed the successful Campaign suggests that the 20-Odd commercial rafting companies Are behind All the opposition. It s proved to be a pretty profitable operation he said. You Don t have to pay anything for the water you Don t have to pay to put in and to take out the rafts and they have done a helluva Good Job of merchandising their  on the other aide Johnson the resources director maintains that agricultural interests will reap the Bene fits of a 25-mile Reservoir. Plunging a figurative oar into the statistical turbulence that swirls around the project he noted an analysis pre pared last year by his Agency that projected a $571 million deficit from irrigation use Over the 50-year life of the project. Federal officials have rejected the analysis but government auditors have themselves been sharply critical of fiscal mismanagement in the 16-dam Central Valley project of which new melones is a part. In a pair of audits the most recent last september the Interior department projected a deficit of More than j10 billion in water and Power sales Over the project s  department s water and Power resources service which operates the project had projected a $350 million surplus. As the Convoy of rafts pulled finally onto the Slack Waters of the River slowly backing up behind the dam Stark tumbled his fellow congressman into the water a Gibb pulled his raft ashore and beamed. I had a great time the Blind youths i messed up on a couple rapids but i Felt compel it. Felt  further up on the Bank a group of pickets demonstrated on behalf of filling the Reservoir holding sign surging save Oil and fill the  we re taxpayers too one  too the stars and stripes Pagan