Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has a new name for
his proposed protected areas: National Landscape
Monuments (HCN, 12/20/99: The Wayward West). Landscape
monuments run by the Bureau of Land Management would lack the
tourist amenities of national monuments, and mining would be
prohibited. But not everyone is convinced that the BLM is the right
agency for the job. “I do have a fundamental concern that BLM
doesn’t now have the management policies and staffing and culture
to manage these more sensitive lands,” Tom Kiernan of the National
Parks Conservation Association told the LA
Times.
Over 52 percent of residents in
Arizona’s Pima County suffer breathing and vision problems caused
by Phoenix’s air pollution (HCN, 12/20/99:
Desert development raises dust). While the percentage of sufferers
climbed five points from last year, the State Department of
Environmental Quality blames a dry and windy winter. The air is
actually cleaner now, says the DEQ.
Once again,
Colorado’s Animas-La Plata project has some
locals furious. Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., is sponsoring a bill
that approves a new version of the dam proposal near Durango: a
bigger reservoir with a bigger price tag than “A-LP Ultra Lite”
(HCN, 3/20/95: One project seems like the same old BuRec). “This
has drawn broad-based support from all sorts of political groups,
including the Clinton administration,” says Josh Penry of McInnis’
office. Critics say the bill would sidestep environmental laws and
limit public input. “I thought our congressman was supposed to
listen to our concerns, not introduce a bill to shut us up,” says
Mike Black of Taxpayers for the Animas River.
Oscar Goodman, mayor of Las Vegas, has an
alternative to storing the nation’s nuclear waste at Yucca
Mountain. “Why doesn’t this go to a Third World country?”
he asked the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He said
poor countries would welcome the money, and added that the American
military could keep an eye on things. The Senate recently passed a
bill that would permanently store the waste at Yucca Mountain;
President Clinton is expected to veto it (HCN, 6/7/99: The Wayward
West).
Rep. Jack Metcalf, R-Wash., and
animal-rights groups have gone to federal court to appeal the
Makah Tribe’s right to kill gray whales (HCN,
9/28/98: Hunt sparks whale of a controversy). They say the
government approved the hunt without considering risks to sea
kayakers and whale watchers. U.S. District Judge Andrew Kleinfeld
scoffed: “What is the risk that a whale will act like Moby Dick?”
he told The Seattle Times. A decision is pending.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The Wayward West.
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