To ensure that “environmentally and socially
responsible choices’ are exercised in the planning of the 2002
Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Ivan Weber has founded the
Olympic Watch League (OWL). Weber is a member of the environmental
advisory board to the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee, but
he warns that environmental issues are not being taken seriously:
“So far our decisions have been what kind of plastic fork should we
use.” He says his nonprofit watchdog group is more concerned about
issues such as a proposed land swap at the Snowbasin Ski Resort,
where the skiing events will take place. Though environmentalists
estimate that the resort needs no more than 50-100 acres of state
forest land to hold downhill events, Snowbasin owner Earl Holding,
who is also a member of the organizing committee, maintains he
needs 1,320 acres. “What people need to realize,” says Weber, “is
that this is a serious conflict of interest.” Weber also notes the
committee’s failure to fund a full-time environmental consultant,
although they pay the committee president
$315,000.
For more information about OWL, call
Ivan Weber at 801/569-7037.
* Bill
Taylor
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Gold medal watchdog.
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