Editorial: Picking up tab for Hoover Dam patrols

Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2001 | 8:47 a.m.

Security at Hoover Dam has been tightened since Sept. 11. All traffic across the dam, which separates the Nevada-Arizona border, was halted for two days immediately after the terrorist attacks. Passenger vehicles now are allowed to go over the dam, but commercial trucks still are prohibited, a prudent step since officials believe Hoover Dam could be a terrorism target. Hoover Dam is much more than an engineering marvel and symbol of American ingenuity; it also is a critical source of water and power for the Southwest.

Local and state police from Nevada and Arizona have been helping the Bureau of Reclamation, a federal agency that oversees the dam, provide additional security. But state and local governments don't have a limitless supply of money and manpower to indefinitely patrol the entrances to Hoover Dam. So Govs. Kenny Guinn of Nevada and Jane Hull of Arizona, who say their law enforcement resources are stretched pretty thin, are asking the federal government to compensate the states for providing this extra help.

The request by Guinn and Hull is more than reasonable. If the Bureau of Reclamation doesn't believe it has the resources to protect the dam, then the Bush administration should ask Congress to supplement the budgets of local and state governments so that they're not forced to pick up the tab for what genuinely is a federal responsibility.