Lane County Measure 20-373 asks voters to protect local watersheds. The goal is right. It’s the instrument that’s wrong.
Everybody wants clean water and healthy watersheds. That’s how the McKenzie River Trust’s executive director described it recently. Clean water is a public good, and Lane County’s watersheds warrant real protection.
But the ordinance in question here declares that watersheds possess inalienable rights to “naturally exist, flourish, regenerate, and evolve,” and then builds an enforcement apparatus with no compliance pathway, no proportionate penalties and no accountable institution behind it…