Wildfires continue to scorch the
West at a record pace (HCN, 7/31/00: Colorado blazes fuel
forest restoration efforts). High temperatures, low humidity and a
plethora of dry lightning have created the worst wildfire season
since 1988. The federal government is spending $15 million a day on
fire fighting. As of Aug. 7, more than 60 major fires were burning
nearly 1 million acres. Even with 15,000 firefighters, many fires
are still burning unchecked. “We are stretched pretty thin,” Vi
Hillman of the Bureau of Land Management told
AP.
The Rosebud Sioux Tribe has changed
its mind – it doesn’t want a giant hog farm after all
(HCN, 11/8/99: Can a hog farm bring home the bacon?). Many
environmentalists and some tribal members said the proposed
869,000-hog operation would cause massive environmental problems,
but officials of the impoverished South Dakota tribe had backed the
project since 1998. Now, a recently elected tribal council has told
a federal judge to rescind its lawsuit that would have cleared the
way for the project. The hog farm will now be only half the
proposed size.
For the second time in four
months, an official in charge of cleanup at Washington’s Hanford
Nuclear Reservation has left (HCN, 6/5/00: Hanford executive quits
in protest). After clashing with U.S. Department of Energy
superiors over how to replace a company in charge of turning
nuclear waste into glass, Dick French was ousted
from his position. That’s bad news for the state’s Department of
Ecology, which is in charge of cleanup efforts. “I’m very, very
disappointed,” Dan Silver of Ecology told AP. “I don’t know anyone
else (at the federal level) who is working for (this program) very
hard.”
Many Coloradans are disappointed that
President Clinton has withdrawn support for a bill that would
expand the Great Sand Dunes National Monument
and create a national park (HCN, 6/19/00: The Great Sand Dunes: the
next new national park?). The bill would reserve the groundwater in
the area for local users; however, Interior officials say such
language might not provide enough water to protect the park’s
ecosystems. Bill co-sponsor U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R, says the
federal government doesn’t want the state to control park water.
Administration opposition means that it is unlikely the bill will
pass this year.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The Wayward West.
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