Grant Aaker and Josh Wallaert's documentary focuses on the manmade wreckage surrounding the Columbia Basin in southeastern Washington state. The chaos began in the 1930s, when the federal government altered nature's riparian routes with the construction of hydroelectric dams—violating a treaty with local Indian tribes, who still cannot enjoy their fishing rights. Later, in the 1940s, the Hanford nuclear site was built, producing plutonium that was used in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and the subsequent arming of America's Cold War nuclear warheads. Over the years, the pollution from the Hanford site reached lethal levels, leading to a massive environmental cleanup that is still underway. Meanwhile, native sagebrush was torn up to accommodate farming (on land that was never intended for cherry trees or wine vineyards), a tacky tourism industry, and overdeveloped suburban sprawl that has further taxed natural resources. Arid Lands serves up a depressing look at planning gone seriously awry—to the point that some fish now need to be transported (by truck and barges) in order to be able to migrate to their spawning grounds. Unfortunately, the film is overcrowded with too many voices (scenes with a tattoo artist and a fundamentalist preacher add little), without any balancing remarks from local, state, or federal government officials regarding the region's glaring problems. Optional. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)
Arid Lands
(2007) 98 min. DVD or VHS: $295. Sidelong Films (dist. by Bullfrog Films). PPR. Closed captioned. ISBN: 1-59458-656-X (dvd), 1-59458-655-1 (vhs). Volume 23, Issue 2
Arid Lands
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