Whoever coined the term “paralysis by analysis” must have worked for the federal government – That’s certainly what comes to mind in the case of the flowering rush. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials put the brakes on efforts to get rid of the weed, which is taking hold along the Columbia River.

Flowering rush is a nightmare for irrigators in parts of the Pacific Northwest. It grows so thick that it blocks water flowing through canals. It has now appeared along the Columbia River, and the Oregon Department of Agriculture wants to get rid of it sooner before it spreads farther. Department managers want to send divers into the water to pull out the weed.

But wait a minute. The Corps, which has jurisdiction over the river, needs to review the potential impact of pulling weeds. The federal Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act should be consulted. On top of that, an archaeological assessment of cultural resources should be considered.

To pull a weed.

Even though the Corps has since decided NEPA and the cultural assessment can be skipped, it still must get the OK from the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act.

To pull a weed.

It may be impossible to enumerate all of the shortcomings of the Endangered Species Act besides slowing the wheels of government, but we’ll list a few:

• Only a handful of species have recovered under the Endangered Species Act.

• More than 1,400 species are listed as threatened or endangered.

• It really doesn’t cover species so much as it covers populations. For example, 55,000 gray wolves are known to live in Canada, but right over the border in Washington state they are “endangered.” That’s nonsense. In fact, most of the wolves in Washington state appear to be overflow from Canada.

• There is no limit to the cost of species recovery. Billions of dollars have been spent in the name of the ESA.

• Environmental groups use the ESA as a money tree. By suing the federal government every time it misses an ESA-mandated paperwork deadline, these groups rack up attorney fees so they can – wait for it – sue the government again.

• Every time members of Congress try to make the ESA more workable, environmental groups that are the main beneficiaries of the law stop them.

Back to pulling weeds. We’re not sure which endangered species are protected while the federal agencies are doing their thing under the Endangered Species Act, but we do know that one species will continue to flourish: flowering rush.