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Court asked to force immediate release of
secret energy task force details
January 30,
2002: The battle over Vice President Cheney's secret
energy task force continued today when NRDC asked a federal
court to order the Energy Department to hand over requested
documents within 10 days. NRDC had filed a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request nine months ago seeking the
names of individuals, companies and groups that helped develop
the administration's energy policy, but the Energy Department
has not complied.
"The vice president's task force
proposed a policy that would benefit big energy companies
while doing nothing to promote true energy independence," said
Sharon Buccino, a senior attorney at NRDC. "Americans have a
right to know who wrote this policy. Besides what we know
about Enron's influence, we don't know the most basic
information about the energy industry lobbyists who helped
draft the task force recommendations." The task force, she
added, proposed billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to
oil, coal and nuclear industries, which contributed millions
to the Bush presidential campaign.
NRDC filed its FOIA
request in April 2001, but the Energy Department -- a lead
federal agency working with the task force -- has ignored the
request. After waiting eight months, NRDC filed a lawsuit in
December to get the documents. On January 23, the agency
denied it had refused to disclose names of task force
participants, but declined to provide that very
information.
NRDC is seeking the same information as
the General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of
Congress. The two suits, however, involve separate legal
claims. NRDC sued under the Freedom of the Information Act;
GAO is suing under its own statutory authority. In response to
GAO's claim, the vice president has suggested that information
about the task force's secret meetings is protected from
congressional oversight by executive privilege. In rebuffing
NRDC's suit, however, the Energy Department did not claim
executive privilege. In fact, it provided no legal
justification for withholding the information.
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Bush administration refusing to release energy
task force records
January 28, 2002: For
the first time, President Bush stated support for Vice
President Cheney's refusal to release information about
industry representatives who met with Cheney's secretive
energy task force. After months of discussion between
administration officials on the task force and energy
lobbyists, the administration released its national energy
plan last May. The plan read like a "wish list" for big energy
companies, heavily promoting initiatives that would benefit
the coal, nuclear, and oil and gas industries.
Shortly
before the energy plan was announced, NRDC asked the Energy
Department to provide basic information about the operations
of the task force, including the identities of industry
participants and the nature of discussions. The agency refused
to provide any information, forcing NRDC to file a suit in
federal court in December. At the request of Congress, the
General Accounting Office asked the vice president for similar
information, but Cheney refused. GAO is expected to also file
a lawsuit for the documents.
"The American people have
a right to know who bought and paid for the administration's
polluter-friendly energy plan," said NRDC senior attorney
Sharon Buccino. "After 9 months of stonewalling by the Energy
Department, it's up to the court to compel the agency to cough
up these public documents."
The pressure on the
administration to reveal information about the workings of the
energy task force have increased since the demise of Enron
Corp., an energy company that contributed heavily to the Bush
presidential campaign and which enjoyed special access to
Cheney and his task force. Appearing on CNN's "Larry King
Live," Vice-President Cheney insisted that Enron was "treated
and dealt with just like a lot of other energy companies were
that we talked to during this [energy task force] process."
"The fact that all energy companies -- rather than all
interests -- got the 'Enron treatment' is precisely the
point," said Buccino. "The undemocratic process surrounding
Cheney's secret task force speaks volumes about industry's
role in shaping a policy that rewards big business at the
expense of public health and the environment."
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Agency pushes oil exploration near Utah
park
January 24, 2002: The U.S. Bureau of
Land Management wants to allow oil exploration on the Dome
Plateau, a scenic 36-square-mile area near Arches National
Park in southern Utah's Redrock Canyon Country. The project
involves crisscrossing the landscape with nearly 50 miles of
cable and heavy-duty trucks to conduct seismic
testing.
NRDC and other environmental groups plan to
challenge BLM's approval of the project, which will cause soil
erosion, unsightly tracks, crushed vegetation and damage to
wildlife. They will allege that the agency violated the
National Environmental Policy Act by failing to prepare a
thorough environmental impact statement; failing to consider
alternatives to the oil company's proposal; failing to
consider the impacts of oil exploration on the area's
wilderness qualities; and ignoring cumulative
impacts.
"The BLM's job is to fully evaluate the
impacts of development on our sensitive public lands, not to
rubber stamp destructive projects for the oil industry," said
Johanna Wald, director of NRDC's land program.
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New NRDC report documents sweeping rollback of
environmental protections by federal
agencies
January 23, 2002: A handful of
Bush administration agencies have been quietly carrying out a
coordinated attack on key environmental safeguards, according
to a new NRDC report. The nearly 80 agency actions span the
spectrum of the nation's most important environmental
programs, including those protecting our air, water, forests,
wildlife and public lands. The report also finds that the
administration intensified its efforts after September 11,
when public attention was diverted by the war on
terrorism.
"Our landmark environmental laws face the
gravest challenge since the assaults of the Newt Gingrich
Congress of 1995, and perhaps ever," said Gregory Wetstone,
NRDC's director of advocacy. "The threat this time is more
insidious, and potentially more dangerous. The Bush
administration is quietly subverting federal agency rules that
translate environmental laws into specific requirements for
industry."
The report, "Rewriting the Rules: The Bush
Administration's Unseen Assault on the Environment," provides
a review of federal agency actions since September 11 and an
appendix of all actions since last January. The report also
details the White House Office of Management and Budget's
efforts to weaken environmental safeguards by twisting the
regulatory process to benefit industry at the expense of
public health and the environment.
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Forest Service appeals salvage logging legal
decision
January 22, 2002: The U.S. Forest
Service filed an appeal in federal court to overturn a ruling
that halted salvage logging on thousands of acres of burned
timber in Montana's Bitterroot National Forest. The agency
also asked the federal judge who made the ruling to allow
limited logging of about 5,000 acres in order to prevent
sediment runoff from being washing into rivers and streams
inhabited by bull trout, a federally listed threatened
species.
On January 1, a federal judge issued a court
order barring the Forest Service from "salvage" logging about
46,000 acres of timber scorched by wildfires in 2000, ruling
that the agency had illegally approved the plan by bypassing
the usual public appeals process. In filing its motion with
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, the
Forest Service maintains that cutting and removing the dead
trees would improve the health of the forest
"Dead and
decaying trees are important components of a healthy forest
ecosystem, providing wildlife habitat and returning nutrients
to the soil. Leave it to the Forest Service to argue that
clear-cutting trees will 'restore' a forest," said Nathaniel
Lawrence, director of NRDC's forest programs. "If there was
any validity to the agency's claims, then it shouldn't have
tried an end-run around the public process in the first place.
The judge made the right call, and no doubt the appeals court
will back up his sound legal decision."
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BLM backs gas drilling in national
monument
January 21, 2002: The Bureau of
Land Management gave preliminary approval to a company to
drill eight natural gas wells on already leased federal land
on the eastern end of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National
Monument in Montana. President Clinton designated 47,000 acres
along the 149-mile stretch of the Missouri River as a national
monument. The remote and largely undeveloped Missouri Breaks
contains a unique and spectacular landscape marked by
sandstone cliffs shaped by wind and water into twisting spires
and towers.
Although no new energy leases can be
issued in the monument, existing leases can be developed with
agency approval. The BLM's analysis concluded that drilling
for gas would not harm the environment or wildlife, as long as
efforts are made to mitigate any potential effects. BLM will
allow public comment for a month and issue a final decision at
an unspecified later date.
"During their epic westward
journey Lewis and Clark recorded the natural beauty and
grandeur of the Missouri Breaks, and the area remains largely
unchanged today," said Johanna Wald, director of NRDC's Land
Program. "I doubt those explorers would've raved so much about
drilling fields."
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Interior proposes spending boost for
refuges
January 21, 2002: Interior
Secretary Gale Norton proposed an 18 percent funding increase
($56.5 million) for the national wildlife refuge system,
primarily to cover maintenance and renovation at refuges
across the nation. The proposed increase would be the largest
in seven years, boosting the refuge budget to $377 million for
fiscal year 2003.
Ironically, the Interior Department
said the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska would
benefit under the budget request. The Bush administration
wants to open the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling, an activity
that poses significant risks to the environment and the
wildlife the refuge was designated to protect.
"Extra
money for the refuge system is a good thing, but it should go
to operations and wildlife programs, not fixing roads and
building scenic walkways," said Chuck Clusen, NRDC's program
director for national parks and Alaska projects. "In any case,
adding money to the refuge system while trashing the 'crown
jewel' -- the Arctic Refuge -- doesn't balance out. Sounds
like pretzel logic to me."
Next year marks the 100th
anniversary of the first wildlife refuge, which President
Theodore Roosevelt set aside on a small island off Florida's
east coast to protect pelicans and other birds from hunters.
There are now 538 refuges spread over more than 95 million
acres.
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Coming Soon: More logging in the Pacific
Northwest
January 18, 2002: The U.S. Fish
and Wildlife concluded that logging "has not appreciably
affected" spotted owls, opening the floodgates for the return
of timber sales in Pacific Northwest national forests. Anne
Badley, regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Service,
sent letters to the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land
Management informing them that, contrary to earlier findings,
less than 1 percent of spotted owl habitat will be destroyed
by logging by the end of the first decade of the 100-year
Northwest Forest Plan. Wildlife officials originally estimated
that over that period timber cutting would eliminate almost 3
percent of the old-growth forests the owls need for
nesting.
Logging over the last 150 years has destroyed
as much as 90 percent of the owl's habitat, forcing their
listing as a protected species under the Endangered Species
Act. The landmark Northwest Forest Plan, adopted in 1994,
sought to accommodate the timber industry while preserving
enough old-growth forests to ensure the survival of the
remnant spotted owl populations, and other plants and animals
dependent on the forests.
"The Bush administration
wants to boost logging on public lands," said Nathaniel
Lawrence, director of NRDC's forest program. "Unfortunately
for the spotted owl, they're not about to let endangered
species stand in the way of their vision of converting
national forests into tree farms."
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Bush administration changes science on polar
bear impacts to suit Arctic
drilling
January 17, 2002: Despite earlier
government studies indicating that oil drilling in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge would harm polar bears, the Interior
Department has reversed its position. The agency has
determined that the bears can be adequately protected thanks
to improvements in oil drilling technology.
Two reports
-- in 1995 and 1997 -- by Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service
concluded that drilling for oil might violate America's
obligations under a 1973 international treaty to protect the
world's largest land predators and their habitat. Although
Fish and Wildlife Service staff remain divided on the issue,
some agency scientists now believe that the risks to polar
bears are minimal if oil development in the refuge is properly
regulated.
"Out with the old 'good' science, in with
the new 'bad' science," said Chuck Clusen, NRDC's program
director for national parks and Alaska. "The Bush
administration seems intent on doing whatever it takes to let
the oil industry get its sticky fingers on one of America's
greatest national treasures."
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Justice Department finally justifies air
pollution lawsuits
January 15, 2002: After
an eight-month review ordered by the White House, the Justice
Department concluded that it is justified under the Clean Air
Act to proceed with lawsuits filed by the Clinton
administration against 51 polluting power companies. But
Justice Department officials said that potential settlements
of these cases would reflect the Bush administration's
expected changes to federal air pollution protections. They
also admitted that it is likely that violators will resist
settlement discussions altogether until the laws are relaxed
in their favor.
At issue is the new source review
program, which requires older, dirtier power plants and other
industrial facilities to install modern pollution controls
whenever they increase pollution significantly from plant
upgrades or expansions. Under the guise of "reform," EPA
Administrator Whitman is expected soon to adopt
industry-friendly revisions to these important regulations,
allowing tens of thousands of industrial facilities across the
nation to increase their air pollution without cleaning up.
Weakening the new source review rules would cause more urban
smog, acid rain, hazy skies, and lead to more premature
deaths, birth defects, heart and asthma attacks, bronchitis,
and other respiratory diseases.
"Coal-fired power
plants are major sources of pollution that has been linked to
environmental and health problems, and tens of thousands of
deaths annually in the United States," said John Walke, a NRDC
attorney. "The Justice Department's decision to continue
pursuing big air polluters is positive, but industry is
waiting for a better deal. We think they're about to get
it."
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Park Service okays drilling expansion in
Florida preserve
January 14, 2002: The
National Park Service concluded that expanding oil drilling in
the Big Cypress National Preserve would not harm the
environment. For 60 years the federal government has allowed a
family with mineral rights inside the park to drill their land
for oil. The family wants to increase supply from 2,000
barrels of crude oil daily to 10,000 barrels. Therefore, a
company plans to drill nearly 15,000 holes in a 41-square mile
grid, detonate charges of dynamite 25 feet underground in each
of them to seismically search for oil, drill a 11,800-foot
exploratory well, and build a 7.5-mile access road.
Big
Cypress preserve is home to alligators, black bears, wading
birds, the endangered panther and dozens of protected species.
Park officials insist that the marshes, forests and wildlife
within the 729,000 preserve will be protected. The fate of the
proposal now rests with the South Florida regional office of
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
"Given the neglected
state of the Everglades to the east, and the abundance of
wildlife in the Big Cypress preserve, this fragile watershed
needs to be protected," said Brad Sewell, an NRDC attorney.
"The easiest way to provide that protection is to avoid
drilling it for oil."
Shortly after the NPS decision
was made public, Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced that
the government would consider acquiring the mineral rights in
an effort to thwart plans for more oil drilling in the
preserve. The availability of money to buy the land is subject
to congressional approval, Norton said.
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Corps relaxes wetlands protections, White
House approves
January 14, 2002: The Bush
administration pulled a "bait and switch" on wetlands policy.
After insisting on Earth Day 2000 that the administration
"will continue to take responsible steps to ensure that we can
preserve these vital natural resources [wetlands] for future
generations of Americans," the White House signed off on a
controversial plan by the Army Corps of Engineers to relax
nationwide permit rules that prevent the destruction of
thousands of streams, swamps and other wetlands.
The
nationwide permit program, established by Congress, allows the
Corps to issue "general" permits for activities that discharge
fill or dredged material into wetlands or streams only if
those projects have "minimal adverse effects" on the
environment. These permits do not require public notice or
comment and they undergo much less stringent review, if any,
by the Corps.
The Corps weakened the permit program by
revoking standards that require acre-for-acre replacement of
destroyed wetlands, limit total impact from commercial
development to a half acre of wetlands, prevent the
destruction of more than 300 feet of seasonal streams and
document that development projects meet federal and state
floodplain standards. The new weaker rules also continue to
allow coal-mining companies to bury and destroy hundreds of
miles of streams with mountaintop removal fills. Overall, the
resulting environmental impacts will include increased
flooding, more water pollution and greater loss of wildlife
habitat.
"By relaxing the nationwide permit program,
the Corps of Engineers is reversing course on the policy of
'no net loss' of wetlands set under the first Bush
administration in 1990," said Daniel Rosenberg, an NRDC
attorney. "President Bush must have misread his father's memo:
it's supposed to be 'no net loss,' not 'new net
loss'."
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Norton withholds government critique of
proposal to relax wetlands rules
January 14,
2002: Interior Secretary Gale Norton suppressed
information from within her agency that was highly critical of
a plan to weaken protections for wetlands and streams. In
October, after the Corps of Engineers proposed relaxing a
series of wetlands protection rules, Interior's Fish and
Wildlife Service drafted comments denouncing the plan as
scientifically and environmentally unjustified. The agency
warned that the proposed changes in the Corps' permitting
program lacked a "scientific basis," and would increase
destruction of "aquatic and terrestrial
habitats."
Although the Environmental Protection Agency
formally opposed the Corps plans, Norton suppressed the
negative comments from Interior's key biological agency.
However, she did allow Interior to submit comments in support
of re-issuing a controversial surface mining permit that
allows continued dumping of mining debris from mountaintop
removal into valley streams.
"Secretary Norton actions
were unprecedented and unconscionable," said Daniel Rosenberg,
an NRDC attorney.
"The Bush administration's commitment
to making environmental policy based upon the advice of the
mining industry, rather than qualified scientists, spells big
trouble for the environment."
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Bush administration fighting for new oil
drilling off California coast
January 10, 2002:
The Bush administration is trying to strip the state of
California's right to review proposals for oil drilling off
the coast. The administration is appealing a federal district
judge's ruling on June 22 that the federal Minerals Management
Service (MMS) illegally extended 36 undeveloped oil leases off
the state's central coast. The judge ruled that California was
improperly denied a voice in deciding the fate of the leases.
The appeal is being heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Ninth Circuit in San Francisco.
"We are disappointed
that the Bush administration is trying to make it easier to
drill new oil wells off California's coast," said Drew Caputo,
a senior attorney for NRDC, which intervened on the state's
side in the case along with other environmental groups. "The
great majority of Californians think the administration ought
to be working to protect the coast, not to drill
it."
President Bush has said repeatedly that he will
respect local and state viewpoints on natural resource issues.
But by seeking to overturn this federal court decision, his
administration is ignoring local wishes. "When it comes to oil
drilling, President Bush apparently respects local voices only
when they agree with his administration and the oil industry,"
added Caputo.
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Bush administration nuclear weapon cuts, less
than advertised
January 10, 2002: As part
of its recently completed Nuclear Posture Review, the Pentagon
plans to reduce the number of "operationally deployed" U.S.
nuclear warheads from 6,000 today to 3,800 after five years
and to 1,700-2,200 by 2012. These reductions are similar to
those agreed to by Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin at the
Helsinki summit of March 1997.
The Bush administration
intends to augment its offensive nuclear forces with missile
defenses and conventional weapons and to revitalize the
military-industrial infrastructure. Many of the warheads
removed to meet the lower ceilings would be stored (rather
than destroyed) for possible redeployment in the future. The
administration also wants to shorten the time it would take to
resume underground testing at the Nevada Test Site and will
not pursue ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty.
"At the summit with Russian President Vladimir
Putin last November, President Bush agreed to reduce the U.S.
nuclear arsenal and to put the Cold War behind us. Those goals
have only been partially achieved in these proposed plans,"
said Thomas B. Cochran, head of NRDC's Nuclear Program. "A
decade is much too long a period to get to the lower levels.
Furthermore, integrating defenses with offensive forces may
provoke unexpected responses and new problems. And a
resumption in nuclear testing represents an unnecessary and
unacceptable risk to the environment and public
health."
FOR MORE
INFORMATION
Press Release: 11/12/01
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Environmental enforcement suffers under
Bush
January 10, 2002: Environmental
enforcement has declined steeply during the first year of the
Bush administration. Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility (PEER) analyzed data from the U.S. Department
of Justice and found that cases referred by the Environmental
Protection Agency for criminal prosecution dropped by 20
percent overall during fiscal year 2001 (ending October 1).
The fall-off in EPA referrals was more significant in several
of the agency's principal anti-pollution priority areas: Toxic
Substance Control Act (down 80%); Clean Air Act (down 54%);
and Clean Water Act (down 53%).
PEER noted that this
downturn reflects cases through September 2001, and does not
include effects of EPA staff reassignments announced last
month. The agency plans to move about 40 percent of its
criminal enforcement staff to non-environmental security
tasks. The removal of EPA's criminal investigators is expected
to result in even greater declines in 2002.
"The Bush
administration tried but failed to cut EPA's enforcement staff
from last year's budget, but polluters still had it easier,"
said John Walke, a NRDC attorney. "Environmental enforcement
was abysmal when Bush was governor of Texas. Now that he's in
the White House the situation is still bad and might even get
worse."
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Bush administration plans to double
'Brownfields' cleanup funds
January 10, 2002:
The Bush administration intends to double spending next
year on cleaning up "brownfields" sites -- abandoned
industrial or commercial properties located primarily in urban
areas. EPA Administrator Whitman said the administration's
proposal for fiscal year starting October 1 seeks $102 million
more than the $98 million Congress appropriated this year for
brownfields cleanup. Congress in December approved a program
providing states as much as $250 million annually over five
years to cleanup and revitalize brownfields properties. The
plan also incorporates sensible liability changes in federal
law to encourage innocent private parties to step in and
cleanup these idle sites.
"This program encourages the
redevelopment of the 450,000 brownfields sites across the
country, helping to revitalize urban areas and reduce suburban
sprawl," said NRDC's Deron Lovaas. "The extra money will go a
long way toward transforming contaminated sites into
properties that enhance the quality of life -- both
environmentally and economically -- of America's urban
communities."
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Bush administration backs pollution-free
automobile initiative
January 09, 2002:
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced the Freedom Car
partnership between the federal government and U.S. automakers
to create a fuel-cell-powered vehicle. It will take at least
10 years for fuel-cell vehicles to hit the mass market. The
U.S. will spend an unspecified amount to fund long-term
research on vehicles powered by hydrogen and oxygen that emit
only water vapor.
Even though environmentalists
strongly support the use of this cleaner technology, many are
concerned that the administration is using a publicity stunt
to scuttle Congressional action on stricture fuel-economy
laws.
"The Freedom Car is pointed in the right
direction, but by itself it's going nowhere. Americans will
buy 150 million vehicles during the next decade and Freedom
Car won't do anything to reduce the amount of oil they will
consume," said David Hawkins, director of NRDC's Climate
Center. "We can't afford another research program that just
gives billions of dollars in subsidies to the automobile
industry with no commitment from them to actually produce
advanced vehicles for consumers to buy."
According to
Hawkins, we have the technology to raise fuel economy
standards now for the cars that Americans will buy in the next
decade. Doing that will save billions of barrels of oil while
fuel cell vehicles are being developed.
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Bush administration plans to get ready to
resume nuclear weapons testing
January 08,
2002: The Bush administration indicated that the United
States needs to be ready to resume nuclear weapons testing.
The just completed but still classified Nuclear Posture Review
calls for speeding up preparations at the government's Nevada
test site just in case. President Bush has said since taking
office that he would maintain a moratorium on underground
nuclear testing imposed by his father in 1992, and upheld by
President Clinton. However, George W. Bush maintained his
opposition to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, an agreement
aimed at instituting a global ban on nuclear tests. The U.S.
Senate refused to ratify the test ban treaty in 1999. Given
the administration's pull-out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile
(ABM) Treaty, the possibility of renewed nuclear weapons
testing is no idle threat.
Supporters of testing cite
the need to maintain the reliability of the nation's stockpile
of nuclear weapons, a view with which NRDC and most
independent arms control experts emphatically disagree. Based
on the historical record and the fundamental physics of how
nuclear weapons work and how they fail, the safety of the
existing weapons can be maintained indefinitely with proper
surveillance and repair protocols. No nuclear explosive
testing is required for as long as the nation has a security
requirement for weapons of mass destruction.
"The Bush
administration's hostility to a ban on testing compromises
U.S. global leadership on nuclear nonproliferation and
undermines international security," said Christopher Paine, a
senior researcher in NRDC's nuclear program. "It also makes
for some interesting fellow travelers, as Iran, Iraq, Libya,
North Korea, India, Pakistan, China, and Israel have likewise
declined to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, while
Russia and all of our traditional allies have approved
it."
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Bush administration bends rules for favored
coal company
January 03, 2002: Bush
administration officials granted a Kentucky coal company a
regulatory reprieve to continue mining without a federally
required reclamation bond. Bonds are used to make sure that
mining companies fix environmental damage caused by coal
removal.
Addington Enterprises, one of the nation's
largest coal companies, lacks adequate insurance to cover the
cost of reclaiming disturbed areas -- a violation of federal
law. In an unusual move, the Interior Department gave the
company a 90-day grace period to find reclamation insurance or
risk being ordered to cease all mining in Kentucky and
Tennessee. The grace period has expired, so the Bush
administration is extending the deadline for three additional
months. In lieu of a full cash bond, the deal allows Addington
Enterprises to put up a cash bond of $1 million to cover its
liability -- just pennies on the dollar. In granting the
company another extension, Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven
Griles -- a former coal industry lobbyist -- cited national
insurance troubles created by the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks.
"It's outrageous to use our national tragedy
as an excuse to give a sweetheart deal to a major coal
company, a deal that sidesteps federal law requiring the
posting of bonds to cover the full costs of environmental
restoration," said Johanna Wald, director of NRDC's land
program. Larry Addington donated nearly $1 million to
President Bush and other Republican candidates during the last
election. "This has nothing to do with patriotism, and
everything to do with a polluter payback," Wald added.
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New Corps study backs Columbia River
dredging
January 03, 2002: In an effort to
aid shipping, the Corps of Engineers plans to go forward with
plans to dredge 103.5 miles from the mouth of the Columbia
River at Astoria, Oregon to its confluence with the Willamette
River at Portland, deepening the river from its present
average of 40 feet to 43 feet. The Corps released a biological
assessment suggesting any impact on threatened salmon will be
minimal, and expanded habitat-restoration plans might even
benefit fish.
Environmentalists had sued to stop the
$188 million project in 1999. As a result, the National Marine
Fisheries Service (NMFS) withdrew its support in August 2000
pending further study on the effect on salmon. After more than
a year of additional study, the Corps acknowledged that
dredging could have some short-term effects on the river
system, but the project could be completed without long-term
negative effects to salmon or the environment -- especially in
the delicate estuary near the river's mouth. In addition, the
agency expanded the list of restoration projects needed to
minimize dredging effects from three to nine. Satisfied with
the Corps' study, NFMS signed off on the
dredging.
"Other than adding a few restoration
projects, this represents essentially the same plan the Corps
put forth last time," said NRDC attorney Daniel Rosenberg.
"Dredging was bad for the salmon then and it's bad for the
fish now."
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