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2-High Country News - May 16. 1980

Muskie swapsAir, water toWhy is everyone "9 confident thot our new secretary of state and former senator,"

Edmund Muskie. can stand upto the Soviets, the Arabs, and even ZbigniewBrezezinski?Tbey've seen him face off against polluters. "Some automakers and industrialists breathed a sigb of relief asMuskie took his

place in the president's cabi;'et this week. Through air and water pollution lawspassed over the last twodilcades,lie has forced expensivechonges in their atyle, andhe had shown no "aigns of easing up. .Muskie made a lackluster appointment to the public works committee into a

historic battleground for the earth. He fought pollution before many people evennoticed it. Though he promoted essentially voluntary cleanup at first. he authoredand passed increasingly tough bills as public support and scientific evidence grew"stronger.Now, thanks to the skillful negotiating of this senator from Maine, an effective

battery of air and water legislation is in place. But Muskie's departure from theSenate nevertheless ,makes us uneasy. The battle is far from over.

An upcoming fight to kill an Energy Mobili'!8tion Board conference report thatallows waivers of laws for fast-frack energy projects (see "Capitol Currents")probably would have been led by him. So would the fight for rigorous hazardous-waste cleanup legislation. The markup of a clean water bill, interrupted recentlyby Muskie's appointment; no doubt would have benefited by his presence. So wouldthe debate over reauthorization of the Clean Air Act next year.

OpinionIt's not "thot· Muskie was the only environmentally fastidious member of the

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Far from it. Without help, henever could have cleaned up the country's water and air to the extent that he has.But none of his sympathetic colleagues on the panel has Muskie's muscle and skill.What's worse, the frontrunners for the chairmanshipof Muskie's EnvironmentalPollution Subcommittee are Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) and Lloyd Bentsentn·Tex.). While Gravel is better than Bentsen, neither is a budding environmental"crusader. Because the full committee's chairman, Jennings Randolph (J;J-W.Va.), isweak, the chosen pers~n will be given relatively free rein ..We're not close enough to the legislative scene to be sure, but we suspect that

Muskie's promotion could mean bad news for the big skies 'snd' the clear waters ofthe West. How frustrating to lose Ieadenship in the Senate, just when the country'seconomic troubles are muddying environmental debates and muddling publicconcern.If Muskie's the man who could ease world tensions, we'd not begrudge him to

Carter. But we may find that Muskie's temper or his lack of foreign affairs savvycripples him in the 'new job. Or, if Carter loses in November, he simply may not,have enough time to go beyond his briefings.We hate to suggest denying a fine man an interesting new challenge, but there

are potential problems in the vaccuum he's leaving as well as in the one he hasfilled.We may have traded a great pollution fighter for an ineffective diplomat.

-IN

....;..._........~.-;..--- Dry, bureaucratic proposals mean a "longby !!lam Reynolds

"(T)he North Central PowerStudy of 1971, the propoa~ ofwhic!> run through this book like along night of nausea. 'has beentermed by government agencies,power aDd energy companies, andlome environmentalists as 'In-operative.' I submit thatlt Isnot. Itfsthe essence of 'Project Indepen-dence.' "

The Bonneville Power Administra-tion is running twin 500 kilovolt powerlines.smack through the north side ofthe Missoula Valley.Those lines will occiJpy a corrldor as

"wide as a football field is long. They willbe strung along towers ranging from 85feet to - when both lines hang from thesame tower - 175 feet tall. The latterheight is as tall as a 15-story building.The taller towers are in store for muchof western Montana, and almost cer-tainly for the Flathead Reservation.So whet else is new? From the time

Colstrips 3 and 4 were born it wasknown they would send twin 500

- K. Ross Toole in his book ''TheRape of the Great Plains."

1HE ROA~WEST.

'", - .:

:::'. -. ":.~;.

.':.. :

kilovolt lines across western Montana.News reports dating from 1977 said theMontana Power Co. hod asked BPA to "build the western portion of the Col-strip power lines.News stories last August and Sep-

tember, accompanied by 'maps, showedwhere the BPA wanted to put the twinlines - smack up the Clark Fork Val-ley.People are organizing to resist. Good

lnck. "But don't count on winning. The·prime time to fight was when Colstrips3. and 4 were considered by the stateBoard of Natural Resources, then bythe state Board of Health and En-. ------- / ,....".i-> /~_ ?/"-~ .Ir

___ ;/--. s,

~// ,.,.

vironmental Sciences, then by the fed-eral Environmental Protection Agency. ,Those fights long ago were lost in favorof the project -' and its power lines.It's all over except for the final cor-

ridor selection and the erection of thepower lines, The fight against tha t isworthy, but it will not block the powerlines.But don't despair. The federal gov-

ernment, the 'utilities, the energy com-panies have lots more goodies in store.They've made no secret abont it. The"Colstrip power lines are mere harbin-gers of things to come.

THE NORTH CENTRALPOWER STUDY. Published in 1971,the study was the work of expertsdrawn from 19 Investor-owned utilities,two public power utilities, six corpora-tions and eight municipalities. Onefederal representative served.It proposed to build 42 enorinous

minemouth generating plants (21 ofthem in Montana) with a total generat-ingcapacity of69,OOOmegawatts. (Col-strips 3 and 4 together have a generat-ing capacity of 1,400 megawatts.) ,It projecJ.!'d that the. population of

eastern Montana would increase by an'estimated 300.000 to' 400,000 peopledue to power development. .TWO REPORTS DONE BYTRE

BPA AND THE FOREST SERVICEIN" 1977. These outlined the "longrange energy corridor requirements tothe Pacific Northwest" for seven to 42years.The corridors would" serve mine-

mouth power plants generating up to167,000 megawatts. or roughly 12.0power plants the size of Colstnpe 3 and4. (All of Montana used an average- ofless than 1,200 megawatts during 1975,and more than a quarter of that' wasused by the Anaconda Aluminum Co.reduction plaut at Columbia Falle.)Ifelectricity usage is higher than the

more modest projections, between 14I ,and ~O.energy eorrtdors will.be needed,the studies said. Up to 42 double-circuit

r:

•nlc....

, VALLEY RANCHERS

Dear HCN,

We run cattle on U_S. Forest Serviceland for five months a year and ap-preciate your defense of grazing rights.One point that many overlook in dis-

cussing gtazing 'on public land is thedependence' of many valley floor ran- 'chers on-this summer range. Ifthe ran-chers are denied the .use of this summerrange th'e entire ranch may be economi-cally unfeasible. The ranch, often theonly green space surrounding a com-munity, will then be up for sale and thesubdivisions on their way.

,Bill FalesCarbondale, CO

• p' ,

N:0 STONE UNTURNED

Dear HCN, '

In the April4HCN, in the classifieds..Can you find out 'if Dear Cumquat. found Blackie for me? Il4Y heart wentout to her. rwould have sworn they'd beunder the nightshade leaf, see ing theyweren't in ·th~cogstone. .

Bill ThomsonCupertino, Calif.

,LoonwLhneriCbby ZOne E. COJ.ogY

The BLM said the Flat desert ;"esasJust weren't appropriate wildernessplaces " . j'l \ ,

"They're' toe dry I, and too smallAnd not pretty at all

And besides, there are just 'too manyfaces"

nightofnauseal/------~550 kilovolt power lines mightbe builtacross Montana and 'wyoming duringthe next' four decades,Was-the North Central Power Study

j;ll.st a.passing phantom?' Evjdeptly not.Then came ....

"ENVI.RONMEj\n AL ANALYSISOF SYNTHETIC FUELS."

Publish~d by tile U.S, Department of.'Energy on July 12,1979, this stu'dy laidout a scenario that wOl,lld erect 36 giantsynthetic fuel plants in 10 southeaster"nMontana 'counties, incre~sing theirpopulstions by 369,000 people betwe~n1980 and 1990. , 'Whatever de'vastation the various

c~al generati~g scenslios omit •.sy.nfueltakes care of. C~ngress this year willpass a bill to create an' Energy Mobili-zation,BaarcCThe board will have'vastPowerS--tosweep aside state restraintson synfuel development.Synfuel piants convert coal'to pet-

roleum produc'ts. They use enormousamounts of wat~r. They promise to pol· ,lilte horrifically. Their technology i.syoung, so they can be'-~xpected to wasteresDure.es·and the taxpayers' money.T~hefed_eralgovernxpent will have ul-

timate responsibility ~or the plants.Though energy companies will buildand operate the plants, the federal gov-ernment will guarante.e them a profit,. whatever world oil markets do.-Massive population influxes due"'to

power and synfuel development will .politically overwhelm western Mon-tana and all of traditionally rural east-'ern -Montanal The newcomers can beeXpeCted to be indifferent to the state's

.~, ,traditions, to its pr~sent assets and re-sour~es,' to state control over majorfacility siting, and to -pollution controls., Fairy tale.? \Veil, big mucky-mucks,mostly paid by the taxpayers, keep com-ing up, with the.e horrible accountspresenting them in, dry, bureaucra~tic tomes that they seem to take'seri-ou.ly. . '

-'--

And 10,it isc01'!ing to pass. The twin,,

, Within the past year, three of us onthe staff have becoine parents - andsome corners of the office have an air ofschizophr~nia about them: clippingsand typewriters here, toys and teethingbiscuits there.The latest addition to the stafffamily

is Jes.icaMarie Wiles, born Api'illl foSteve and to Sara, HCN's photo-grapher. . ,'Because of her youth, dark-haired

Jessica has been to :work only a coupleof ~i~es1' so we don't 'know her well. Hertiny, delicate, filce look. old, wise andstern. Her motJier, who know~ her bet, r-------------- ......ter, cjesctibes "er a. active and good- SPRING ~!empered. . .' PLANTINGSara hS$ worked part~time as a Thi

Rhotographer, darkroom technician . s spring plant something that_and production as.istant at HCN for will really grow. Place High' Coun-two years now. She, has a niaster's de- trY He.. in the hands of a friend'j1!'ee in anthropology from Indiana' and watqh a growing awarenessUniversity and did a the.is on takE! root.,'. .Arapahoe kin.hip on the Wind River',Indian Reservation north of Lander.She has been a VISTA volunteer inRock Springs aqd a social worker in• Lander.

It's tough now, as Sara begins part-,time work again, to juggle feedingtimes and deadlines. But this summerJeasica could turn into something of aprof.-ssional as~ ..1fall goes-well, a,tri~'Dl~de URof.Jessica, .Sara. and Marjam;

"Ambler, HeN's former managing'editor, will hit the road together togather storie. and photos.in. Montana·and South Dakota about Indians and~nergy development.What could he a hetter way to break

the conv~~sational·~ce, Sara saya. than'

Colstrip power lines that are about tosweep through western Montana- are .merely the breath of the future. \\Thai'can.we do?Organize- now. Qrganize'? well. Or-

ganize permanently, Fight this powerline and those corning after ilt everyinch' of the way because, friends, we"ain't seem nothin' ~et. "

Sam' Reynolds is the editorial "pageeditor of "The Mis,s?ulian (Missoula,Mont.), w_here this article firstl ap-peared. -

~High Country lawsThe independent

natural resources biweeklyof the Rockies

Publisl:ted biweekly at 331.Main, Lander:.Wyo. 82520. Telephone307-332-4877: s<,c-and class postage ~id at Lande,r" (-USPS No.087480) All rights to publication of articlesherein are reserved. .

Subscrip~ons $1&.00~ year.Single copies 76 ceD"~

Call for permission to·reprint any articlesor il.lustrations. Contributions (manus~cripts, photos, artwork) win be welcomedwith the unaerstanding that ~the editorscannot be held. responsible for loss 0t dam~age. ~icles and letters will be'· published·and edited at the discr.etion of the editors·.1'0 ha-ve· a sample copy sent to a friend,

send us hi~ or h~r address, _Write to BoxK, Lander,Wyn., 82520..... ..

Dear HCN:

I am a livestoekman who runs bothcattle and sheep~n the federal range in,Southcentral Id,aho . .1 am writing toexpress my concern over what has come,to be known as the "Sagebrush Rebell'-ion." .'-Historically state land has become

private land. I see this happening inIdaho shouldit become the owner of all.presently unappropriated federallands. Idaho is not in a position to as-sume financial responaibility for theselanda, and would eventually be forced.to sell them to, the highest bidder.Who would be the buyers for such

lands? Not livestock operator. like my-self. Considering the vast tracts of graz-ing land needed for any economically-sized operation, toe livestockman can-not afford to purchase these landsmuch less pay the taxea upon them. Th;only potential purchasers for such vasttracts are banks, oil companies, insur-ance. companies and the independently -wealt!)y., 'Idahohas aome ofthe large~t tracts of

wilderness and desert left in the conti-nental United States. These would belocked away, forever for use by theprivileged few. Many is the time whilechecking stock, I' have found peoplealone in the middle of the desert, Theywere there for no particular purpose,other than to see what was to be seen,p_erhaps more importantly in our masssociety, to be alone. This last is some-thing that I defin.itely wish'to seepre- 'served for my grandchildren. It won't bethere for them, however, if access tosuch lands is closed due to private own-ership.

Les SfimanSliman Sheep CompanyGooding. Idaho

'Dear Friends,

May 16,,}980 - High Country News-3, .,CLEAN UP URA VAN

Dear HCN,',

'_ In the March 18,article about Ura·van, you talk about the nine milliontons ,!f uranium tailings impounded intwo ponds atop a mesa 350 feet aboveUravan. - .' . .I'own a ranch on the Dolores River a

fe'Y miles to the north ofUravan. Ijustpurchased it about two years ago froman old-timer who had lived on it over 50year s. He said that since the plant has 'gone in at Uravan, no -fish have beenable to live in the Dolores River and thequality of the water even for irrigationis terrible. He said that any time you.wish, you can go up to the plant at Ura-van and the tailing pond. located alongthe river are visibly dripping and flow-ing into the river from seepage out ofthe ponds ..I want to join in with whoever is try-

ing to make Union Carbide clean uptheir operation.

,Jack Treece. .Grand Junction, Colo.

Jessica Marie Wiles

a b,eaming baby? A screaming haby isa"nother possibility, of course. butbuoyant new parents with the determi-na~i~~ of Sara just don't dwell ~n pos.sibilItIes such as that. -

-_the staff

EncloSed is $15 for 25- issues.Send HeN to my fr,lend:

!'lameaddress ..;:;;------...:.-.city '::';"''--~---_.."..:.--''--

,stafe & zip,Or_ 'hem._ COllY -oak ......-.........., tugh Co"nlly _ BoxK, ~r: WY.82520. .

4-High Country News- May 16, 1980

Cheyenne Water.,

(continued from page 11

tines acroaa the Colorado-Wygmingborder 10 timea before deciding to headsouth to the Yampa River.But when the Atlas ICBM boom hit

Cheyenne in the late 1950s, the-city ofCheyenne began searching for supple-mental supplies. Finding no unapprop-riated water close to home in either theNorth Platte or the Laramie Rivet, thecity filed for righta on a treasure of un-appropriated water in the small west.slope streama of the Sierra Madre, \20miles west of Cheyenne, where farmersaccustomed to abundant irrigationwater had never bothered to file forwater rights .•In 1965, Stage Iof Cheyenne's water

development project was completed. Itbegins just below the Continental Di-vide on the west slope of the SierraMadre.Cement barriess divert an average of

7,500 acre-feet (one acre-foot equals325,851 gallou6) from five streams intoa pipeline which transports the waterby gravity flow under the divide andinto a reservoir. The water then flowsinto the North Platte via the Encamp-ment River.Not a drop of that west slope water

- ever actually flows into Cheyennebathtubs. It "repays" the Platte Riverfor water diverted upstream - out ofDouglas Creek, a Platte tributary fromthe east. Douglas Creek water is thenremoved and is transported by gravityflow across the Medicine Bow Moun-tains, the Laramie basin and theLaramie Mountains, finally emptyinginto Cheye nnee own Crow Creekdrainage.This imaginative "Platte payback"

system, combined with the 5,100 acre-feet produced by Crow Creek and 2,000'acre-feet from area well fields, givesCheyenne.an average annual supply of14,500 acre-feet.The city's average yearly consump-

tion (1967-78) has been 12,500 acre-feet, although it dropped a~ 10';' ~s10,621acre,feet when the 1977 droughtprompted a voluntary conservation ef-fort.

GOING THIRSTY?Beginning in the early 1970s, gov-

emment and railroad growth tied toenergy development in the state causedCheyenne to sprawl in every direction.Again predicting water shortages, theCheyenne water board in 1976 askedthe Medicine Bow National Forest for apermit to build Stage II.The board ex-pected a q'uic!<,.automatic approval, al-lowing it to extend its water collection

• •

facilities to another 10 creeks providingan additional 30,000 acre-feet:But Stage IIwould chop.out a sixth of

.Huston Park, the largest remainingroadless area in southeast Wyoming.Dewatering the streams would destroythe last prime habitat of the rare Col-orado River cutthroat trout.The planned reservoir' enlargements

would drown many miles of stream. fisheries and meadows. Roads wouldopen the area to motor vehicles, degrad-ing the habitat of the elk, grouse, bearand big horn sheep that live in the HUB-.ton Park area.The ensuing-environmental analysis

delayed the project and doubled its es-timated cost. And the minimum flowsthat the Forest Service requires will re-duce the possible production of Stage IIby one-third to about 20,000 acre-feet:Realizing that Cheyenne water users

would face awesome water rates if re-quired to pay for Stage II themselves,ths city water board in 1978 begancourting the Wyoming Legislature. In-1979, that body established the Wyom·ing Water Development Commission toplan state water development and au-thorized it to prepare a feasibility studyof Stage II.The nine commission members ap-

pointed by Gov. Ed Herschler includedengineers, ranchers, farmers., lawyersand construction Industry representa-tives. The commission funded's hurriedfeasibility study and last November ,announced it would recommend statefunding for Stage II..The Legislature approved a bill ear-

lier this year authorizing constructionofthe western half ofStage II.The otherhalf, which may provide water largelyfor other area cities, would not be built. until the mid-1980s.

ALTERNATIVES- By putting "U its water-developmenteggs in the 'Stage IIbasket, Cheyenne .water planners may be missing lesscostly alternatives, including conserva-tion, ground water, and full utilizationof existing reservoirs."The water board is so committed to

this project," said Ed Strader, a city re-sident and Stage II critic, "and theLegrslature is so crazy 'to get a projectgoing under the old 'use it or lose it anddamn the costa' philosophy. that therehas been no thought to leas coatly alter-natives. _-"The city should he looking' seriously

at recycling and conservation beforecommitting ourselves to this project,"he said.

LRT-8E

'million gallons a day and pays 52 centsper thousand gallons," 'said Strader."But residential users pay 82 cents. Ifthose rates were equalized it wouldpressure Husky, Warren Air Base andthe Union Pacific to conserve and recy-cle water." .

ll'rhoto courtesy Medicine Bow National Forest'LOOKING NORTHEAST up the North Fork of the Uttle Snake River inWyoming's Sierra Madre Mountains. Stage I is at right. Stage II includes apipeline extending across this area.

John Jackson, a planning managerfor the state water development com-mission, agrees that all the possible al-ternatives to Stage II were notexten-sively considered.. "You have to draw. the line somewhere on how many crazy.schemes you can consider," he said.City Water Board President Elmer

Garrett, who has served on that bodyfor 20 years, disagreed that, alterna-tives w-ere not adequately studied."Back in 1959 when we started this

project, we did an extensive search forwater," he said. '(The only water was in-the Little Snake and I can't imagineany other place to get water in this dayand age.". -But water experts with other agen-

cies feel there may be overlookedsupplies. "There hasn't been much exp-loration" in the area and no predictions ,can be made on ground water potential,said Ma~vin Crist,. a hydrologist in·Cheyenne with the U.S. GeologicalSurvey.There is a spring flowing 20 miles

west ofCl:)eyenne, however, Crist said,"which was producing 875 gallons l'minute (1,430 acre-feet per year) a fewyears ago. "That indicates some- watecould be developed from the area';" hesaid. <

Peter Huntoon, a University ofWyoming' hydrologist in Laramie, saidhe is "pretty optimistic" that a signific-ant amount of water could be takenfrom wells drilled into the Casper for-mation west of Cheyenne.'Stage II critics also say that much can

be done to conserve water, includingraising what they consider to be in-equitable industrial water rates. ."The Husky Oil refinery uses two

A CRACKED DAM

Another potential water source is thecity's Crystal Lake Reservoir.Twenty miles west of Cheyenne on

the Middle Crow Creek, the .reservoircan be filled to only' 60 percent capacitybecause ofa 1978 inspection by the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers that foundthe dam may be unsafe.The Corps inspection report cites a

number of problems, inc1uding cracks,seepage, erosion and an inadequateemergency spillway - all of whichcould contribute to a "possible failure ofthe dam."The Corps recommended a drilling

and testing program to determine thedam's structural capacity.llWe'said fine. go ahead 8J;1dtest it,"

City Water Board President Garrettsaid. "But they said they weren'tfunded to do thst sort of testing, and wesaid we didn't have the money either."The test, according to Gsrrett, wouldcost $150,000.Both Garrett and the board's staff

engineer, Herman Noe, deny the dam isunsafe."None of the dams the Corps in-

spected got a seal of approval;' Noesaid. "They're just covering their owntail by questioning the integrity ofevery dam. -It's never been shown that

,; . , ,

the dam has a structural problem. TheCorps did not claim. it was unsafe, theyonly recommended it be investigated."The Crystal Dam leakage problem,

however, is nothing new to the board. 'Grouting programs in 1958, and againin 1975, sealed many cracks. But theconsultants who did the 1958 work re-ported to the board that year that "thestructure was found to have such litlarge number of seams, honeycombedareas and other leakage channels" thatconstruction of a new upstream face wasthe "ultimate solution."As a result of the Corps report, the

atate engineer requires the, city waterboard to keep the water level 15 feetbelow the spillway - 'a loss' of 1,575acre-feet in -storage capacity. which isalmost 15 percent of Cheyenne's pre-sent annual water, usage.' , ,But again, despite having spent some

$700,000 on engineering studies for_Stage II, not one cent has been directed. to considering .upgradtng the CrystalDam to improve storage capacity or re-solve thesafety concerns.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The handful of Cheyenne residentsconcerned about the unanswered ques-tions surrounding alternative watersupplies note that two out of every threedollars spent on the first half of Stage IIare to be paid by the project's waterusers, largely the-city's residents. 'The entire cost of building the latter

half may be borne by water users (noone is sure yet). Early estimates show a .minimal tripling of water bills after the ' 'first half is built:Under the legislation authorizmg

Stage II, a contract for repaying most ofconstruction costs must be approved bythe town's voters. 'A special election 'is ,expected late this summer. '\But project ,critics fear that voters

will not be given all the facts, and thatthe election will be submerged in themurkiest depths of electoral politics."Until they get their first water bill,

the voters mayor may not realize (thecosts of the project)," 'conceded statewater planner Johnson. "They (thewater project backers) are going'to bedoing a real selling job; since we have a?40 percent above normal runoff thisyear."Cheyenne residents, are not-alone in

lacking solid financial information. Noqne, including Stage' II builders, canpredict the exact cost of the' project, or ,p'inpoint exactly who will pay whatshare of those costs.T~e estimated price tag for Stage II is

roughly $100 million. That .figureexcludes inflation; cost overruns, and'future oReration.and maintenance costs- factors that have doubled and tripledthe costs of similar water developmentprojects.In the sort of fractionalism that has

characterized"water project fundingthroughout the West, only the cost ofthe first half of Stage IIwill be cons i-:dered in this summer:s election.(The city is merely required to de-

velop a financing plan for the secondpart, and voter approval, if that planshould ,call for bonding, is not necessaryfor several years.)The first half of Stage IT is to cost $60

million to construct. One-third of thatsum is to come from a grant born theWater Development Account and therest from a loan through the Permanent.Mineral Trust Fund. Both accounts arefunded by state severance taxes onenergy development.According to a Feb. 12 report to the

legislature 'from the state engineer,-water from the first half of Stage II isprojected to cost $2.77 per thpusand gal-

Ions - a 338 percent incr.ease over pre-sent rates.That estimate, however.us based on a

seven percent interest rate on the bond.The catch is that no one knows exactlywhat the interest rate will be until it isapplied for. And in a classic Catch 22, itcan't he' applied for until the voters ap-prove the overall mechanism.Under the legislation authorizing

Stage II, that interest rate must fall bet-ween five percent and one-halfpercentless than .the going rate, which is cur-rently ten percent and in a high state offlux. Project backers say it will be sevento eight percent; critics fear ten percentor more. The final figure is anybody'sguess at this time.A meaningful cost-to-benefit

analysis of the Cheyenne water projectjs also elusive.Most large water projects are multi- '

purpose, and include water targeted forirrigation use. The benefits for theseprojects can 'be calculated in increasedcrop yields and other tangihle products.

The Cheyenne project, however, isstrictly for municipal and industrialuse, and the, project's benefit is definedby what the water users are willing topay. To equalize-the cost-benefit ratio,one simply raises the water rates untilthey' match the costs.The k,ey' to scrutinizing -a project's

cost-benefit ratio, however, whether itis multi- or single-purpose, is to corn-pare the proposed project with thecost-benefit ratios of alternatives. This,say Stage II critics, has not- been done. ,One reason is that Stage II is wholly

state funded. I

Federal projects require environ-mental impact statements, and the En-'vlronmental Protection Agency's rolein co-mmenting on those sta·tements isconsidered key tohaving independentreviews of federal projects., Most state-funded projects, includingStage II, involve federal lands, and thusrequire environmental impact state-ments. But according to the Environ· -mental Protection Agency's GaryJohnson in Denver, his agency will beable to only superficially comment onStage Irs economics because it is statefunded. .In the meantime, the burden of pro-

viding an. independent project analysisof Stage II rests with the citizens ofCheyenne. And only one group, Com-munttyAction of Laramie County, hastaken any initiative to_do so. Theirstudy will focus on the impacts to low-income citizens ,ot;lly.

May 16, 1980 - High Country News-5

Indians counter sage rebeJs:'the londdoesn't belong to you'

by Jim Robbins

A new ingredient has been added tothe simmering pot of the SagebrushRebellion -' the question of 'Indianrights and sovereignty.Numeroua Indian tribes throughout

the West have come out in opposition tothe rebellion, a move by Western statesto gain control of land now under fed-eral ownership.At the heart of the issue are rights

guaranteed by treaty to many tribes tohunt, fish, cut timber, graze and gatherfood on public lands outside the reser-vation. These lands were part of the-tribes' aborrgtnal hunting grounds, Thetribes fear that the states, who have along history of enmity toward Indians,would not allow off-reservation rights,despite promises by many state officialsto the contrary.During Idaho's legislative session,

representatives of the five Idaho In-dian trihes - the Shoshone-Paiute,Shoshone-Bannock, Nez Perce,Kootenai and Coeur D'Alene -traveled to Boise to testify withenvironmentalists against severalSagebrush Rebellion bills.Larry Echohawk, an attorney for the

Shoshone-Bannock of southern Idaho,told the Idaho House Agricultural Af-fairs Committee, "Any guarantees thattribal off-reservation use rights willsurvive a state takecveroffederal landring's hollow. A guarantee today is anunkept promise tomorrow.""The ,federal government may be a

devil," one tribal representative said,"but itis a devil we know."Ech_ohawk cited the importance of

unappropriated public land to the In-dians. "Enactment and implementa-tion.of (Sagebrush Rebellion bills) willdirectly threaten the survival' of tribalculture and religion which are tied tothese ancient activities," he said. "Such-measures will also seriously deplete ordestroy important tribal foodsourcesata time when nearly 40 percent .of theShoshone-Bannock are unemployed.":The threats to Indians could extend

beyond t:be loss of off· reservation

rights. Nevada- has claimed in courts .that it was not admitted to the union on -the "equal footing" with other statesthat the Constitution assures becauseCongress retained 87 percent of itslands. If'Nevada's "equal footing" ar-gument is accepted by the courts, the.state would be entitled to all puhliclands within its borders set aside afterstatehood, including Indian reserva-tions, according to an informal opinionfrom John Leshy, an attorney for theInterior Department. 'Idaho Indian reservations would not

be affected since they were set asidebefore statehood, however.At the legislative hearing most ran-

chers and farmers spoke in support of.the rebellion. "My father settled thisland in 1895," one white cattle-ranchersaid. "Now the federal government istrying to tell us what we can and cannotdo. The time has come for us to havecontrol over our own lives:'Later a Shoshone-Paiute ranchertes-

tified: "You know I've set here listeningto you people talk about your land andhow your daddy came' here '100 years. ago, Well, I'll tell you something. Mydaddy lived here, and his daddy, and his'daddy before him, all the way back for6,000 years. A-t least. '"The land doesn't belong to you and it

doesn't belong to the federal govern-ment. It belongs to us and the federalgovernment has only made a 'small~O';"h payment OD it. You people cantalk all you want about your land, but·I'll tell you something brother, youdon't own it."It appears that at least some of the

concerns expressed by Indians fell ondeaf ears. Although the bills they op-posed were not passed, a bill that set upa committee to study the SagebrushRebellion and included representativesfrom 10 affected groups made no provi-sion for Iridian representation.

Jim Robbins is a free-lance writerand a researcher for the Idaho Conser-v.a.tion League.

'J,. '."

THE HARD SELLPAID ADVERTISEMENT'

FICTION and FACT. . .from ETSI'S ALMANAC

So the issue returns to the questionon everyone's minds: Wi'n the citizens ofCheyenne approve a $40 million bondfor a wa ter project, for which the fina Icost is unknown, the need uncalculatedand the alternatives unstudied?Just last month, the water board got

an inkling of the possible difficultiesahead for them when, for the first timein recent histor..y, the city council fail~to approve a rate hike requested by theboard. ''And that increase request wasfor a mere eight percent in water andsewer rates, necessary to cover in-flationary costs 'Ofexisting operations'.But ifanyone can sell Stage II,it'sthe

city water board.ttWe have to prepare for growth," says

board president Garrett. "If peoplewant to come here, we can't §itoP them.Eventually we'll have to supply waterand sewer to the outlying developmentsbecause they'll pollute themselves."Boulder tri~d to control growth and

failed miserahly. You just can't control I'growth." !!::=====~==============l:======dJ, ~

FICTION:Water is in critically short supply in Wyoming and everydrop is needed for purposes other than coal slurry, such asmunicipal' use.

FACT:Wyoming currently uses only 15 percent 'If its surfacewater' resources, with the rest flowing unused to otherstates. This, along :with the enormous amount of under-ground water in storage (ETSl's source), represents a hugeuntapped volume. ProP!'rly util~zed, there is ple!lty foreveryone.

. "Slurry Pipelines - Moving The-Nation's CoalSafely, Cleanly, Silently, Cheaply"

. .

/

Energy Transportation Systems, Inc.330 South Center StreetCasper, Wyoming 82601 (307)265-1800

6-High Country News - May 16, 1980

BLMwilderness ...

(exmtinued ftompage 1)

,/

million acres of land assessed, theagency OOsproposed that about 12 per-cent, or some 21 million acres, an areaslightly smaller than the sta te of WestVirginia, should i>.e studied for possible ,wilderness designation.In individual states the percentage

varies -from 14 percent ofBLM lands

" .

in Idaho to three percent in Wyoming.The BLM's recommendations in Col-orado and Montana are about 10 per-cent. .. In Utah, where some of the agency'smost spectacular lands lie, 10 percentor 2,179,000 acres have been recom-.mended ~ an 'area smaller than Yel-

BLM Wilderness Inventory Results

PabHc lands subject Acres proposed as Acres already identified as0" to wilderness inventory .,'. wilderness study wilderness,study areas

areasArizona ,12;596,000 0 517,000California 16,585,000 4,000 6,338,000

!Colorado 7,996,000 765,000 50,000Idaho 11,949,000 804,000 820,000Montana' 8,140,000 534,000 249,000

1 Nevada 49,118,000 . 3,079,000 1,626,000New Mexico 12,847,000. 672,000 148,000!North Dakota ' 68,000 0 0

i Oklahoma 7,000 0 0... Oregon' 13,965,000 1,750,000 439,000,...: South Dakota' 277,000 _ 00...

'i1' Utah 22,076,000 1,752,000 427,000~ Washington 310,000 15 0~ Wyoming 17,793,000 497,000 56,000oSSl Totals 173,727,000 1O~057,OOO 10,670,000

by Van Decay,I '

DURANGO, Colo. - 'Severalhundred yards outside this town of12,000 sits a million ton mountain ofradioactive tailings, a byproduct of thenuclear industry that processeduranium here from World War IIto theearly 198Os.Though Colorado has nine such tail-

ings sites, Durango's is in the highesthealth risk category for mill tailings set'by the Department of Energy: It isranked as the most hazardous in' thestate by the Colorado Departinent ofHealth.Plans for cleaning up the pile range

from burying or covering tbe tailings totrucking them.over 150 miles and con-solidating them with .other tailingsbeing reprocessed in Naturita. How-"., ever, despite growing agitation amongresidents here, any solution to the prob-lem is considered years away.

WORLD'S BIGGEST SANDPILE

A' mill- to process uranium fot the 'ManOOttan Project was built on thissite in 1943. After World War II theVanadium Corporatjon of AmeriCjl ac-qnired the mill and continued to processuranium for the Atomic Energy Com-·mission.In 1959 a cleanup of the site was

sparked by waste leach water seeping'into the Animas River, which runswithin 60 feet of the main pile. Beforethe cleanup" radium in the water twomiles below the mill measured 480times bigher than normal backgroundradiation. Radium in the sedimentmeasured 545 times background radia·tion. Even today, long after the cleimup,'levels are four times background radia-tion.In 1963 - Va~adilim clo~ed its

Durango operation ,&ndleft tOWD,leav-ing behind a mam pile of 1.3 milliontons of radioactive waste and a smaiIeradjacent pile of 300,000 tons.Residents of Durango then were more

concel'!'ed over dust .blowing frop! thetailings than possible radiation·

j, -,', ....,

hazards. Since nothing had been done,

Colo.. town waifs,·wonders what'to do

with uranium tailings

In 19t6 Vanadium - since mergedwith Foote Mineral Company - soldthe tailings and some adjacent land toRancher's Exploration- and Develop- The most likely scenario for thement Corn,pany of Albuquerque~ N.M. Durango tailings wil) include-movingAt the time, J{ancher's was reproces- the pile, whether or not it is reproces.sing a similar though smaller tailings. sed. Alternafives rao'ge fr;m m~ingpile at Naturita; Colo. 'the tailings by conveyor or 'slurry to aSince the Durango piles eontain ap~ spat a few miles aw·ay from town to be

"proximately 20 percent of th~ original reprocessed or buried, to trucking themuranium content, or 600,00"0pou,nds .of 150 miles to Naturita, site of Rancher'srecoverable are, and delivered uranium first successful, reclamation prQje~t1ito

wing the pile as a problem~" then was worth about $40 a pound,it be reprocessed there.Wigton invited the AEC, Vanadium, looked as ifDurangb would be rid ';Lits D,espite the cost of diesel Mel and the

and the Colorado Department afHealth t~ilings and Rancher's would realize a huge mass of tailing's involved (moving I

to Durango to discuss the matter. The ·tidy profit. . the two Durango' piles wi.!l require 25heal~h <lepartmen~ agreed' something , , !lut tlJi'; tim~ the Colorad.o.I!epart-,., ton·!r!Jok", to 9arry,65.860 truckloads),should be done and proposed a two-to· ment of Health thw,arted .t)!e pla·n. . the Naturi~a plan has.it~ supyorters.,,three foot cap of soil. vana'dimii ahd the .... Rancher's proposal wliS"to ttuck the ," 'The} hiip;,'thal it ~ould' consoHcla(e

to stabilize the two piles of fine sand,winds would kick up plumes of dustthat towered thousands of feet into theair, and a fine pinkish layer of dustwould settle over cars and houses.Gretta Highland recalls growing up

In the early: '60s. '''After school myfriends would sneakInto the mill yardand play in the tailings.' It was thebiggest, best sandpile in the world. Mymother would never let me go withthem because she was afraid we'd getcaught by the watchmim."With tbe economic benefit of the mill.

gone, -residents began clamoring toclean up the source of dust. In 1966 Dr.Chester 'M. Wigton, a general :prac-titioner, was'elected president of theDurango Chamber ,of Commerce. toIbegan receiving calls -from all overtown," said Wigton. "People began vie~

"After school myfriends would sneak. into the mill yard andplay in the tailings. Itwas the biggest, bestsandpilein the world."

AEC disagreed."The spokesman for the AEC told me

that according to their standards therewas no radiation hazard froirr the pile,and since the wind.wasn't blowing thatday, there was no dust problem," recal-led Wigton. "I asked the spokesman,since there was no hazard from theradiation, if we could use the tailingsfor roadfin and ether construction pro-jed's in town. The spokesman said., 'Oh,·no, you can't. do that. Those tailingsmust be, left strictly alone," .. ,Wigton had no better luck with Van-

adium. Though the Colorado healthagency required covering the' piles," the· ".regulations had no Iteeth in them. Thecompany agreed to water the maIn pileand to plant some ground cover to_pro-vide a cap over, the mountain of sand.

. STIU. VALUABLE "

Line Re.-.._ r.... un ..

lowstone National Park. Here, too, the.agency has met- some ofhs most spec-tacular opposition.Lonely Mancos Mesa in the south-

eastern part of the state didn't make it., At 51,000 acres it is big 'enough - 10times bigger than the Wilderness Actrequires, And it's natural enough. Theimprint of man in a wilderness must be"substantially unnoticeable.' Only 25percent 'of Mancos Mesa would be dis'qualified because .of drill sites androads, the BLM says. .But Mancos Mesa and. many other

wild, open spaces i.;':the West fell short.on utilitarian grounds. The Bureaudidn't think they measured up to theact's requirement that an.area provide"outstanding opportunities" for either"solitude" or "primitive and uncorifinedrecreation."· The mesa is clearly no traditional"'outdoor fun spot. It'a windy, hot and-except for the occasional cangon.c-. aplain blend of bare ground and hardy

tIl buffalo berry, Mormon tea, cliff roseand Indian ricegrass. The BLM doesn't· go so far as to call the terrain moncton-ous; but in its April 1980 Wilderness"Inventory document, it does say it lacks"focal features." . "l."

As to solitude, th~ Bureau impliesthat if a van full of Boy Scouts arrivedat the other end of the mesa, you would

radioactive material to a spot 10 milesoutside of town, "leach the tailings torecover the uranium, and cover both oldand new sites with two-and-a-half feetof shale.The health department cited numer-

ous environmerrtal and healthsaf~guard!, that W~)Uld have JO beguaranteed to allow such a.proposal.The agency a lso req uired a dirt coverten feet thick. Rancher's felt the addedsafeguards and covering made the pro-ject economically unfeasible and de-cided against reprocessing the tailings.Durango had lost another chance to berid of its radioactive waste dump.Disposal of the Durango tailings now

awaits the federal cleanup mandatedby the Uranium Mill Tailings Act of1978. Federal money to dispose of 25 'tailings sites in ten states will RBYup to90 percent of the cleanup costs.Richard Oampbell, manage-r of a spe-

cial office of the Energy Department inAlbuquerque, N.M., resp;onsible for, cleaning up &11the tailings sites under· the federal,law, stressed that all optionsare still open. -But Campbell noted, 't'Physie~ny covering the Durango pilestretches the. imaginafion. Putting thenecessary cover on such ~ steep Rilewould be extremel~ hazardous. Alm9stany reasonable man will-look at thatpile and say ho~ can you get 10 feet ofdirt on top of it? ... the law requires wealso con,sider reprocessing."

-I

MOVING· THE PILE

feel pretty silly seeking cover behind agossamer clump of rice grass.In the Bureau's words: "Opper-

tunities for primitive and unconfinedrecreation are considered to be lessthan outstanding. This is attributed tothe limited natural screening and thelack offocal features that would providean environment for either a variety ofprimitive recreation pursuits or an out-standing experience in anyone primi-tive recreation pursuit ....Opportunitiesfor solitude...are- less than outatand-ing."That means Mancos Mesa may be big

arid wild, but in the Bureau'sopinion ithasn't got what it legally takes to bewilderness.The San Juan County commissioners

are pleased. What with Arches andCanyonlands national parks next door,they think they have enough sanctifiedscenery."We think enough land in our county

,already has been taken over by the fed-eral government," said Commission" Chairman E.S. Boyle. "Of course we'reopposed to wilderness proposals."

"ATROCITIES';-

-"They say you can't find solitude

here," said Bick Carter of the 'UtahWilderness Association: "But based on

the isolation and size of'the unit and thecanyon systems, we say you C;8n.".·Carter goes so far as to list this deci-.

sian among "the great BLM atrocities"that he feels have been- committed' inthe wilderness decisions in his state.Among the other expansive, remoteareas that he said have been unfairlythrown out. of the running areWahweap on the Kaiparowite Plateauand part of Mt. Ellen in the HenryMountains. Both contain well over '"100,000 acres, hut BLM rejected themon . the grounds that' they don't offer"cutstanding" opportunities for sol-itude or recreation."Solitude is inherent in areas of this

size," Carter said.Unfair interpretations of the

solitude-or-recreation requirementhave resulted in homogeneity amongthe proposed wilderness 'study areas,Carter said. Lots of canyons and buttesmake it, but the rolling or flat, openareas generally don't.'<lA flat or rolling area in this country

that has managed to stay pristine ...isvery, very rare," said Debbie Sease,who 'is coordinating several pro-wilderness groups' work on the BLM'inventory from Washington, D.C. "Itshould be 8. top wilderness priority:' ., BLM's Utah Wildern~ssCoordinator,Kent Biddulph, makes no apologies for

COMMENT CALL

Deadlines for public comment on theBureau of Land Management's prop-osed wilderness study areas are:

UTAH-June 30COLORADO - April 30IDAHO-July 3MONTANA - June 30WYOl,\fING - July 7NEW MEXICO - JUne 30OREGON AND WASHINGTON -June 25NEVADA - June 30ARIZONA - late August

the discrimination against flat areas."Look at the criteria in the Blue Bookfor determining toutsta.ndi~g/" he said.BLM's blue-colored Wilderness

Inventory Handbook states; "Factors~or elements influencing solitude mayinclude size, natural screening, andability of the user to find a secludedspot....lt may be difficult, fdrexample,to avoid the sights and sounds of people 'in a flat open area unless it is relativelylarge."

tailings instead "of creating new hotspots. .In western Colorado, near Uravan,

(see HCN 2-22-80) Naturita is cent-rally located to most ofthe tailings sitesin the Colorado River Basin. If the planproves economically feasible, it couldserve 25 other tailings sites within thesame range. Should Ra ncher's cho9Setobid on the reclamation, the company'sequipment from the original reproces-sing is still located in Natu;rita.

"j- Neil Reams, Montrose County Com-missioner and one of the original prop-onents of moving the Durango tailingsto Naturita, said, "The.biggest problem.with moving the pile is the economics.However, if the government is going tospend millions of dollars on disposal ofthese tailings, it is far better to put themoney into transportation and truck

the tailings where they are politicallyacceptable."The people of Durango don't want

the- tailings there. They're afraid ofthem, they feel they're bad for thetourist business. If you covered that pilewith 100 feet of dirt; the people ofDurango would still he afraid they'dexplode or seep into the ground orwhatever. Naturita is different. I knowof only one person 'in the area who hasPonydoubts about moving the tailingshere."Besides being acceptable to area re-

sidents, consolidating tailings inNaturita has other advantages. Theunderlying Mancos shale in the areainhibits the tailings from leaching andpolluting water. Also, since Rancher'shas already reprocessed tailings there,environmental studies required for ad-

ditional reprocessing can be taken inpart from earlier. studies done forRancher's.As for the danger of transporting the

tailings, Reams said: "Trucks wreck.You could get run over in Naturita, too.But the radiation from one truckload .isso low that it wouldn't be a disaster.One truckload off a bridge isn't going toaffect the river."

FRUSTRATING WAIT

Nevertheless, disposal of the tailinga .is still years away.Ip the Durango Chamher of Com-

merce office sits a 16-step flow chartissued hy the Department ofEnergy de-tailing the next two years of proce-dures. Simplified, they include federal

(continued on page 14)

Photo coJIf'tesY of the Durango HeraldURANIUM TAILINGS at an abandoned millsite in Durango, Colo., despite some vegetative g..owth, have causedalarm among' townsfolk, who f~ar 'their instahility an!!. radiation ";ay cause heaith :problem~. .

., • ':'-' I ';0-'

May 16;1980 - High Country News-7

Biddulph's conclusion is: "So a flatarea with sparse vegetation and littletopographic variation probably is notgoing to stay in."However, a July 12, 1979, memo to

state directors from the associate direc-tor of BLM warns against narrow in-terpretations: "It is erroneous to ~s-Burne that simply because a unit or por-tion of a unit is flat and-or unvegetated,it automatically lacks an outstandingopportunity for 'solitude."Carter suspects that the BLM is

throwing out the big, flat areas for thewrong reasons. Kent Biddulph deniesit, but Carter says that the BLM is con-'sidering Mancos Mesa's uranium p0-

tential and fears the wrath of the ac-tivist, anti-wilderness San JuanCounty commissioners.BLM is supposed to ignore resource

conflicts until the next round, the "wil-derness study" phase. Even if a roadlessarea is lined with solid gold, at thispoint the agency must concentrate onwhether its wilderness characteristicsmeet the minimum requirements of thelaw.Likewise the BLM is supposed to turn

a deaf ear to wilderness polemics from1 the public. This has been difficult, sincenearly every segment of the public par-ticipating in- the process has at times'ignored BLM's orderly process. Thepublic has frequently jumped from theinventory-phase discussion of whetheran area has wilderness qualities to thequestion that will be asked after Sep-tember: whether it should be protectedas wilderness.

Commissioners want to talk abouteconomic freedom, oi-loompanies about.energy, ranchers about bureaucracyand environmentalists about thenumber of people who support the con-cept of wilderness. At this point, accord-ing to BLM's rules, all of these topicsare irrelevant.AI' the inventory first began, state

and local officials and commodity in-ierests scowled while environmen-talists smiled. "The fruits of ou~ inputso far have been excellent:' a SierraClub news release stated last fall.

But now Dick Carter speaks of "at-rocities" and his counterparts in otherstates are upset. though in most cases toa lesser degree. "Utah provides anexample for every problem we havewith tbeinventory,' said Sease. BLM'sPats on the back are coming from out-side the conservation community, Onewilderness skeptic who is a Utah stateofficial said: "They've done an excellentjob." Commissioner Boyle has only aslightly less enthusiastic assessment:"The BLM has done a fair job of follow-ing Congress' dictates;" he said.

BLM is ata watershed. By Septemberit will have completed what most oh-servers consider. to be the easiest part ofits wilderness task - deciding whichlands merit consideration. Next, it willplunge into the controversial businessof weighing one resource value against.another. In many cases it will have totell Congress whether wilderness orenergy development is the preferred op-tion for a given piece of land. What'smore, it must protect the study areas'wilderness values until Congress takesaction. BLM's final recommendationsto the president are due by 1991.

""... While the furor over Mancos Mesaand other wild, open lands proposed tobe dropped from the inventory will havedied down by September, BLM's workwill have barely be3UD.

8-High Country News - May 16, 1980

Birds of Prey Natural Area

BTBI.8IN TB. CAl,

INT_.

III

Inset photo by Glenn Oakley

SNAKE RIVER CANYON provides a nesting ground for the largest concentration of raptors inNorth America.

by John McCarthy This, time of year, in March, the gol-den eagles Iare sitting on ieggs. Theyhunt early and then remain, in the nest. on a cool day such 88 this one. In a weekor two, after the hatch, the male eaglewill go into a hunting frenzy.A team ofBLM biologists and -univer-

sity contractors established the birds'hunting range through radio trackingand observation. Now, in a secondphase of research, they are looking atman's activities in the area - grazing,oil and gas leasing, National Guard.training, unnatural fires, recreation ..They'll use, the information to write '8

management plan for the proposed con-servation area aimed at curbing thoseactivities that threaten the raptors'welfare.A squall is blowing in from the

Southwest as we climb O\.:1t of the ca-.nycn, comp1eting a loop. Before head-ing for home, I try to drive back out tothe Swan Falls road. The rain, fog andmud" from the stor.m discourages mefrom going out tu tJ1,ecanyon rim in mysmall car. So Iwalk through the flats tosm.ell the wet sage, "listen to themeadpwJatks sing and watch the kes-trels d~ye off the wires,

Defenders 0

PRAIRIE FALCONS, at home in their well-proteeterritories. a red-tailed 'hawk soarsoverhead.In 1971 the secretary of Interior de-

clared the canyon-and-cliffs nestingsites a "natural area" of 32.000 acres.Now the U.S. Bureau of Land Manage-ment, which administers this land,hasrecommended protecting a total of720,000 acres inc! uding the sageplateau, the birds' hunting ground. Theplan would set aside the land as a con-servation area, which would requirethe birds survival to come first, whileallowing other uses. .The road to the river hangs on the

canyonside. We creep down to the firstimpediment ever placed on the SnakeRiver, the Swan Falls Dam. Built in1901 to generate electricity for silvermines, it is still in operation today,At the utility's settlement it is warm,

the apricots are in bloom. the onions areup, the forsythia is bright yellow. TwoCanada geese 'walk across the yards, Ina beautiful masonry building,generators deliver the muffled soundsof progress.Around the bend, cows with calves

are grazing.Along the river common mergansers

and cinnamon teal take off as we ap-preach, A pair of geese honks at the . . - - - .trutk. Two·blue herons flap into their . -Iohn McCarthy is a free-lance writer}Wiglfi'~ry f1igh(~X;iita"¥;1tlbKwrJ~o~fi: '" J;fHd' r8~~h~nd·basM~ti':W_hi1re Bird,the. reeds. .~' Idaho. -'-'f ,.. .• k., ,. ",-..,,, >.c-

. "' ~

Off the top of a power pole drops a birdwith wings tucked, the fast-flyingprairie falcon. This is its turf-the sage \flats. Townsend ground squirrels be-ware.As the squirrels dart in and out of

their holes, I bounce along the road in apickup truck headed to Snake RiverCanyon. My guide is Mark Hilliard;wildlife biologist for the Snake RiverBirds of Prey Natural Area in south-western Idaho. The sagebrush plateauthat stretches out on either side of theroad is the hunting ground for thelargest concentration ofnesting raptorsin North America.Fourteen species nest in the area:

prairie falcons; kestrels; marsh. red-tailed, ferruginous and Swainson'shawks; golden eagles; turkey vultures;and great horned, bam. screech. long-eared, burrowing and short-eared owls.Dedication Point is the first open viewof the canyon. Steep cliffsoffracturedbasalt rise up several hundred feet fromthe river bottom. It's all downhill forbirds carrying prey from the shrub-grasaland hunting area to their eyriesin the canyon walls.Five prairie falcons are swooping.

cutting and calling kee-kee-kee. Quickand bold, they look like overgrownswallows. As they acrobatically se~ up

AGRICULTURAL operations such as this one in Id.squirrels, biologists say.

.. LRT.8U\1'2

·BUNTBBB

TBB BAGB

Defenders of Wildlife photo by Dick Randalln ·their well-protected- canyon eyrie.

o yoncCay

rch as this one in Idaho mean goodbye ground.

Photo by Ron Maier

THE DIMINUTIVE.burrowing owl is among 14 species of rap tors thatlive in Snake River Canyon in Idaho.

. \Expanded raptor)refuge under siege

Interior Secretary Cecil r Andrua'proposal to expand the Snake RiverBirds of Prey area in southwestern'Idaho is under siege.April 29, about a month after Andrus-

submitted his plan to Congress, twodovalopment-oriented groups and fiveIdaho residents filed suit in federal dis-trict court in.Boise,claiming that theInterior Department's environmentalimpact statement on the proposal is in-adequate."I'he plaintiffs argue that the570,OOO-3cre expansion abuses thelegal rjghts ofpeoplewhowantto claimland in the area for farming under theCarey and Desert Land Entry acts.The U.Il. Supreme Court, h~we"er,>in

a related case, has ruled that the sec-retary of interior has the final say aboutwhether to allow homesteading underthose acts.The plaintiffs in the birds-of-prey

suit want the Andrus legislation with-"drawn and a' 'preliminary injunctionagainst enlarging the bird refuge untila new impact statement is written. Ftl-ing suit were Sagebrush Rebellion Inc.and Southwest Idaho Development As·sociation, both non-profit groups.Andrus' proposal, which would extendprotection to the birds" expansive up-land hunting areas as well as to "theirnesting sites in the Snake River Ca-nyon, emerged from recommendations• by the UB. Bureau of Land Manage-ment ana Idaho Gov. John Evans. Thenesting sites have been protected as the32,OOO~acreSnake River Birds of PreyNatural Area since 1971. So far, Con-gress has taken no action 'on the newproposal. "BLM studies indicate that farming

the dry sage flats around the canyon

would destroy a major food source fortbe raptors '- the Townsend .groundsquirrel. Agency researchers say thebirds come out of the canyon to hunt,making forays of up to 15 miles.

Opponents of the expansion arguethat the studies did not consider thepossibility of new advancements in ag-ricutural techniques that could makefarms and squirrels compatible. Theyalso say there may be undiscoveredways to enhance squirrel populations inone area to mitigate their loss in ?therareas.

"If someone can come up with aJeasonable plan for both birds and ag-riculture that's fijte," said BLMWildlife Management Biologist MarkHilliard. But he maintains that no sci-entific evidence confirms thesetheories. Besides, Hilliard said, "Thereis more than enough land (suitable forirrigated farming) outside the area touse all the water available in southernIdaho."

The BLM studies indicated that a. number of oth~r land uses ~ould becompatible with the natural area. Graz-ing, in fact, is deemed beneficial to thebirds of prey ecosystem. Local grazinggroups, including the Owyhee Cattle-men's Association and the SunnysideWinter Grazing Association, supportthe conservation area.

Other existing uses that would con-tinue under the proposal are recreationand Idaho National Guard training.New mineral leasing would also be -

allowed, "as long as- activities are inharmony with management objectivesfor the area," Gov. Evans said.

May 16, 1980 - High Country Newa-9

Defenders of W'l1d1ifephoto by Dick HaDdaD

THE KESTREL

Teton National ~ark photoSCREECH OWL

..;~.L:' ;;;,,. ",

flWQ'~"'') c-'t.

1.0.,Hig.'.h.C.O.UD_try_N.eWS_.,.M.a.Y.16.'.19.8.0 .;.. - ...... INBIDY ---------------------"""'!'--

Fairbreeze for wind energy; projects whirlby Dan HoUow

LIVINGSTON, Mont. -If you listen~ Jay Carter hold forth in his lightTexas drawl on the 25-kilowatt Windmachine he 'raised on private ranchland east of here, the temptation isstrong to buy one quick before anothergust passes.Carter, of Jay Carter Enterprises of

Burkburnett, Tex., was standing besidethe tower waiting for the wind to comeup and aet the blades spinning and cur-rent flowing into Montana Power Co.lines.He was not bashful at all about pre-

dicting that generation of electricityfrom sophisticated new wind turbines isabout to explode, .'Tve had 27 orders in the last-week,"

Carter said. With the implementationofPURPA, a 1979 federal law that re-quires utilities to huy back electricityfrom private alternative-energysources, and the sizeable tax breaks andSUb8iai~8 contained in the recently pas-sed federal windfail profits bill, "it'sjust going to be phenomenal," Carter.said.

Under such buy-back rules, theowners of such, generators will get cre-dits from the power company for everykilowatt they feed back into the system.

PURPA (Public Utility RegulatoryPolicies Act) requires each state's pub-lic service commission to establishrates based on the "avoided costs" of theelectricity, meariing a figure tied towhat it would cost the utility to build anew generating source, such 8S a coal-fired plant, not on' an existing cost

such as the half-cent-per-kilowatt pricefor hydroelectric power.The Montana Commission is expectedto consider the complicated question ofbuy-back rates when it deals with thenext round of Montana Power rate ~hikes later this year.Carter's machine isthe largest of the

modern -generation of wind turbines inMontana, according to James Iversonat the state Department of Natural Re-sources and Conservation.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

Not only is the market for machineslike Carter's growing, the technology ofwind power generation is scheduled totake a giant step' forward next yearthroughout the West. At GreasewoodFlats, near Medicine Bow, Wyo., afiberglsss rotor on a steel tower 262feethigh will hegin turning in September,1981.The Wyoming project, funded by the'

federal Water' and' Power ResourcesService, is aimed at installing 50 such2,000 kilowatt wind machines in theGreasewood Flats area by 1990. The100-megawatt system will cost $196million - a price tag federal officialssay it will repay in 30 years.The U.S. Department of Energy is

funding the erect jon of a similar windmachine, capable of producing 2,500kilowatts, near a Columbia RiverGorge site in Washington.And various windy spots throughout

the region are thinking ahead to theEnergy Department's MOD- V windproject, in which giant 4,OOO-kilowattwind machines will be erected. Compet-

PboOo by DaD HollowWGH-MOUNTED ROTOR will harness the high winds near Livingston,Mont., and reed electricity back into the lines of the Montana Power Co.

ing contracts to design the turbine havebeen awarded to General Electric andBoeing, and 18 locations, includingLivingston, have been designated"candidates" for MOD·V. The EnergyDepartment is erecting wind' measur-ing towers at each site for two years 'ofdata gathering. . .Other candidate sites in the region

include Bridger Butte, Wyo.; Finley AirForce Base, in North Dakota; Minot,N.D.; 'I'ueumcari, N.M., and Wells,Nev.At the end of two years, the "candi-

dates" will have the inside edge for theMOD: V award, though the competitionwill be open to suy sites that utilitiesnominate.

MODEST SCALE

In the meantime, though, things aremoving ahead on a more modest scale.The wind turbine erected here was

purchased - for $25,000 installed ~ bythe' Montana Power Co. as part of astate-funded research project by theMontana Energy Research and De-velopment Institute of Butte. MERDIreceived a $100,000 grant from the De-partment of Natural Resources andConservation last June to study datafrom the turbine and from windmeasuring towers in Livingston, Big ,Timber and Whitehall.Montana Power engineers will be in

charge of the turbine, with power com-pany employees making daily checks atthe site at first, according to LeonardDecco, senior engineer at MPC bead-quarters in Butte.A special fast-drying cement was,

poured for the tower supports. The-tower was raised, leveled with guywires and then lowered 'again to attachthe turbine and blades. The power willgo directly into s MPC distribut.ion linethat was extended three-quarters of amile to reach the -site, which is locatedon private land leased to MPC.A bank of sophisticated meters will

- record all the input and output to theturbine, according to Keith Goodall,head of metering at MPC.The data, digested by a computer,

will be used to determine the electricalactivity. so the MPC revenue depart-ment can use the information in prepar-ing buy-back rate structures to presentto the Montana Public Service Corn-mission. The data will also be used bythe 'MPC engineering department tomake predictions on the- feasibility ofwind power, Goodall said,"Personally, I think you'll see wind

really take off the next few years," saidPete Antonioli, who is director of con-servation and alternative energy forMPC."It's a beautiful resource," he said.

"You don't have to mine it or clean it."And with buy-back requirements,

and new tax incentives, the wind powerindustry seems a little blown away byits new vogue. Carter said his firm isbackordered, to April 1981, and lieforesees gearing up to the production of60 machines a month within two years ..

Dan Hollow is a reporter for theL~vingston Enterprise.

UneR~T

Hat LineURANIUM PROBES OKAYED. Astate district judge in Montana deniedlast month aq attempt by environmen-talists to stop uranium exploration inthe state. Friends of the Earth, theMontana Wilderness Association andFlathead Citizens for Safe Energywanted to stop Kerr-McGee Corp. from'exploring for uranium in southeasternMontana until an' environmental studywas done. Judge James Wheelis ofMis-soula ruled that Kerr-McGee's drillingdid not appear to have serious en-vironmental impacts.

IN SITU PLAm CLOSES. An ill-situuranium mining operation in Palanga-na, Tex.,' WIll be shut down because ofhigh mining costs and low uraniumprices, according to a McOraw-Hill'sNuclear Fuel newsletter. The an-nouncement of the shutdown came.close on the heels of the Nuclear Reg-ulatory Commission's decision to shutdown ;- at least temporarily .:- an in-situ uranium mine in Wyoming thatwas reportedly polluting groundwaterwith uranium-leaching agents. TheTexas operation had been in operationsince 1977.

MBPP WHOOPING IT UP. Afteryears of delay caused by financing, far-mers, worker accidents, and whoopingcranes, the Laramie 'River Station'Power Plant, near Wheatland, Wyo., isabout to start pouring out the juice. Thefirst unit of the coal-burning plant, thelargest consumer-owned electricalgenerator in the country, will produce500. megawatts sometime this month.Two more units will go to work over thenext two years. The ,$1.6billion projectwas nearly delayed two years ago whenthe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service de- .elared the Platte River downstreamfrom the project critical habitat forwhooping cranes, an endangeredspecies. The consortium of electriccooperatives behind the project got aspecial congressional okay, after agre-eing to maintain streamflows and setup a $7.5 million trust fund for whoop,ing cranes.

"

OIL GLUT DEVELOPS. When itcomes to reserves of oil, it's feast orfamine in the Western world. The In-ternational Energy Agency, 'R 20·nation organization that coordinatesenergy.policies for Western countries, .told the New York 1;'imes that indus-tries in oil-consuming countries arebuilding stockpiles well above whatthey had in reserve last year at thistime. Trying to avoid a squeeze like the'one suffered last year during the Ira-nian crisis, energy companies are in-creasing supplies at record rates. In ad-dition, > a mild winter has slowed con-sumption. The agency, which suggestedlast year that each member countryhave reserves equivalent to 90 daysworth of imported oil needs, sayssupplies in the United States and otherWestern countries have now risenabove that leveLand Industries are.still adding to their petroleumstockpiles.

BUILDING WITH COAL. They don'tbuild houses of coal, but the WyomingHomebuilders Association, facing a "60percent drop in residential building_this year, would like to ahore up thehousing market with coal severance taxfunds. The association asked for a.tem-porary cut from the state's Permanent,Mineral Trust Fund to provide low in-terest loans for new homes. An associa-tion official said carpentersin the atatefaced losses of$6:4million in wages thisyear, 'and $16.5 million in sales, prop-erty and income tax revenue would belost by the state. An aide to Gov. EdHerschler said he was "sympathetic", but not likely to rebuild the housingindustry with coal bucks,

BUFFALO SYNFUEL. While offi-'cials and townfolk in Buffalo, Wyo.,.were still sorting out. their feelingsabout a Proposal made last year to builda coal gasification plant at nearby LakeDeSmet, they got something new tothink about - Mobil Oil Co. wants tobuild a synthetic fuels plant in the area,too. Like the earlier prop'osal,'made byTexaco Inc. and Transwestern PipelineCorp., the Mobil plan is in the earlystages '~ the company has applied forfederal grants to do a feasibility study.Mobil owns about 2,600 acres near But-falo, along with water and mineralrights. A spokeswoman told wire ser- .'vices that if the company went aheadwith the plan, construction would begin"In 19~5: bringing abouL7,000 workersto the area at its peak.

,'t C' "" *_,'

INTRODUCINGSTYLHOMESWHOLE NEWSTYLE HOME.

QUALITY ISOUR STYLEBrJD Sourh [}rOQtiwoy Rlvenon Wyoming 82501Jelephon€' (.307) 856·QP6

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, SUN SHINES ON N.M. The NewMexico Solar Energy Institute at NewMexico State University in Santa Fe haagotten the nod from the U.S. Depart-ment of Energy for a $6 million prog-ram to demonstrate the use of photo vol-taic cells in residences. The Institutewill.begin immediately construction ofup to 15 photovoltaic systems on homesin the area. The pro~am i~one of three

_ ~,r~gi9nat demonstration prC?gra~s_ -:- _the other .two are in the Northeast. andSoutheast.

HOLD THE BIOMASS. The SolarEnergy Research .lnstitute (SERD· In'Golden, Colo., should have a new build- 'ing to house, its 700 employees and-re-search labs by 1985. But if the federalbudget cutters have their way, the newbuilding will not be the showcase of al-ternative technologies that SERI Di-rector DenisHayes would like. Hayes, a'long-time solar advocate and coor-dinator of the first Earth Day in.1970,had asked for $30 million in construe-,tion funds for fiscal 1981. The .Carteradministration balked, cuttirrg back.that request' to '$1 million. At presstime, it appeared Congress would upthe figure to $5 million or $6 miHion.But according to Hayes, a "fair numberof demonstration features would bescrapped" even at tliat funding level,including windmills, photovoltaic-cells, and a sizable biomass plane Thecuts have disgruntled some SERIemployees, who feel the federally-,funded institute should be trying outthe.technologies it is researching.

,,-: ,."t' "11';

We've been designing, bUilding anddelivering factory-built homes in the west forover 0 decade. Things.have chonged a lot inrMat time ... new ideas, new materials, newmethods and the ch(imging preferences ofbuyers. Ypu cqn be sure rhat when Stylhomesmakes changes it's to improve:our product,not just to make if differenr. >

We've just completed spmeimproved .home designs, Some of our most popularplans now have" f$sh new exterior designsplus we've added a whole line of innovativenew models_sure to c:reate excitement. AllThe new Srylhomes fe'afOre decorator coordi-nated color schemes, carpers, floor coverings.. cabinets and nome brOAd appliances.

Quality is our style ... every Srylhomeis builrwirh pride. We insisr on the finestmaterials and workmanshifi) and-you'll findeach home full of ~r'Jergy-saving feGfutes. others offer onll:' as extra-cosT aptipns.

We think you'll Iil-'ie our "new" sryle and'our remarkably fast·delive.ry, Time.

Come in and see us soon.~

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DRILLERS' HIT- LIZARD. It's noteasy to get through hard rock to pools ofoil, but a group of oil explorers in Au-stralia has run into something- evenmore difficult: the Great Goanna lizard.Drillers'in remote Western Australiarecently gave up their hunt whenaborigines, alarmed that drill bits

Capital, .:Currents

ENERGY BILLSOver the past month the Energy

Mobilization Board' and synthetic fuelscorporation leg·islation has, been. wotkedout among House and Senateconferees, and final passage is immi-nent. But there are other partato theomnibus energy bill that are holding upthe package "'7""" among them is.a sectionsetting up solar and conservationbanks, and gasohol andbiomass fund-ing.'Ihe final version ofihe EmergencyMobilization Board legislation leftsome Senators seething - it wouldallow the EMB, with congressicnal ap-proval, to exempt 12 projects a yearfrom federal laws and state laws mod-eled after them. Senate conferees votednine-to-eight to accept such waivers,which had previously been voted downby the full Senate. Opponents of themeasure, who say they .will fight it on, the Senate floor, compla~ned that the.White House, which ostensibly opposedsuch waivers, made no at~empt to influ-"ence the_conferees in that direciion. The .conference compromise now returns toboth houses for.approval; a fight is ex-paeted on the Senate floor.

May 16, 1980 - High Country News-H

might prick the lizard that they believesleeps' beneath the ground, drove thedrillers away with stones and yelling.The drillers rliay return with armedguards, but a member of the Yungngeratribe implied that policing theaborigines was not the problem -r-' "thelizard," he told wire services, "will bedisturbed," with drastic consequences.

_LOTIERY I.EASItCEASEiInterior Secretary Cecil Andrus has

lifted his ban on noncompetitfve lotteryleasing offederal oil and gas tracts. ButCongresa may 'soon bring the system toa halt. Faced with widespread corrup-tion in the noncompetitive leasing sys-tem, the Senate Energy Committee hsstentstively approved a proposal by Sen.Dale Bumpers (D·Ark.l, atrongly op-posed by Sen. John Melcher <D-Mont.)and other western senators, that wouldmake all leasing competitive. In 1978;, 76,000 acres were leased competitively,while 12.5 million acres were leasednoncompetitively. The Bumpers billwould shortsn the lease term from 1r \0five years and increase the maximumlease size from 640 acres to 2,560 acres.

WILL FEE BE?On the eve of President Carter's 10-

cent-a-gallon gasoline fee, a districtcourt judge has decided Carter over-reached his jexecutive authority andruled the fee could not be imposed. AsHeN goes to press, federal attorneysare appealing the ruling. Judge Au-brey E. Robinson Jr. ruled that Carterwent beyond the scope of the Trade !'x-pansion Act of 1962, which gives himpower to regulate imports .on crucial.{IUlteria:ls .. Robinson -wrote that Car-ter's fee on all gasoline' - not just im-ports --was illegal. But Robinson didnot buy the argument of consumergroups and oil !ndustry lawyers againstthe lO-cent fee: that it was a tax andhad to originate in the House. of Rep-reseptatives .....~......................•........................ ~....

Name

with the names and addresses of per- Addre ••sons YOU'dlike to have receive a Sam-ple copy of High Counlry News. Mail City,them to HeN, Box K, Lander WY.82520. State & Zip --...,...-----

We'll do lhe rest.

Fill in the blanks

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12-High Country News - May 16, '1980

Colo. legislature passes clean air bill,.. .

by Todd Engdahl

DENVER, Colo. - The Republican- .lee!General Assembly passed air pollu-tion controls and some energy tax cre-dits during its recently-completed127-<iay seasion,.but aside from thosetwo issues, the 52nd session" was more·notable for whst it didn't do on en-vironmental 'and resource issues thanwhat it did.Reduction of automobile air pollution

along the heavily-populated FrontRange was the session's major issue. Abill requiring mandatory vehicle in-spection and maintenance was passedon the session's last night, and Gov.Dick Lamm (D) has promised to sign it.Successful passage of pollution legis-

lation has eluded the General Assem-bly for three yesrs, and that history offailure - plus heavy federal pressure to .pass a bill or lose $300 million in federalmoney -contributed to passage of abill this year.Light rail transportation for Denver

was also a major issue in 1980. Butlawmakers were more concerned withthe politics of the Regional Transporta-tion District than they were with possi-ble reduction of pollution. And manyexperts predict that any light rail sys-tem in Denver would do little to reduceair pollution.Unable to resolve bitter differences

over the RTD issues, the General As-sembly settled for letting Denver-areavoters decide in November if they wantto raise sales taxes to pay for construc-tion of the initial leg of a light rail sys-tem.Efforts to tap the massive state

budget surplus for use in light rail con-struction failed.

TAX CREDITS

Perhaps the most future-orientedstep taken by the Legislature was pas-sage of income tax credits for mstalla-tion 'of energy-conservation or alterna-tive energy-generating ·devices., There is a maximum credit of $400 .for energy-saving devices and of$3,OOO

•

CJ.iVUS.Multium ,I

An environmentally sound; waler-lese waste Ireslmenl syslem forhomes, cabins and campgrounds.ComposlS lollel wasles and or.ganlc garbage Into a rich ferltllzer,conserving nUlrients, waler andenergy.

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I.. IFOR INFORMATION AIolD NAMEOF NEAREST DISTRIBUTOR_CON-TACT:Clivus MuHrum Hortbern Rockies205 Mea1Iows Rd.Whlteftsh, MT.58937.(408) 862 3854

for alternative systems such as solarpower.Those tax credits were the only sig- '

nificant energy conservation measurewhich passed, despite - or maybe -be-cause of - the fact that Gov. Lammmade conservation a top legislativepriority. Lamm, a Democrat, and theRepublican-controlled Legislaturehave a history of stormy relations.Another Lamm suggestion, increas-

ing the 'state's low severance tax onminerals, was made with little expects-tion that it would pass, and it did not.But legislation was approved making

it easier for energy companies to prepaycertain taxes. Officials hope that wiJiallow potential, boomtowns to preparefor development before it happens.Other major proposals shared the

fate of the increased severancetax,

DEVELOPMENT FUND

Lamm'a fondest wish, use of the statesurplus to create a Colorado Develop-

ment Fund, remained a wish for themost pant.Lamm wants to establish a $500 miJi-

ion fund that would be used .for suchmajor public services as water projectconstruction, highway repair,. rapidtransit development and boomtown as-sistance.

Not many 'Colorado lawmakersopenly share Lamm's concern aboutfunding future development, but the..legislature did'v"te to commit $100rniflton of next year's general fundsurplus to highway repair and waterproject construction.

Lemm said that was better than giv-ing the money away permanently astax relief, which was what happened toanother $100 million of surplus funds -.

Another major proposal, this one byRepublican Senate President Fred An-derson, also got short shrift. Andersonwanted to create a water authority withthe power to issue bonds for water: pro-ject construction. With an original $100million price tag, his proposed waterboard was cut to $1 million and finallydied in committee.

Gov. Lamm also pushed for work on amore immediate problem - manage-ment of hazardous wastes. But law-makers were unable to come to any ag-reement on the issue.

UTILITY RATES

The Legislature also failed to agree

but little elseon a couple of crucial utility rate mea-, sures.

Intense consumer pressure caused'. the surprise defeat of a bill which wouldhave allowed utilities to temporarilyimpose proposed higher rates while thestate Public Utilities Commission con-sidered whether such rates should bemade permanent.

But a proposal to establish lower,lifeline rates for the poor ahd elderlyalso died.There were a few small steps taken'

by the Legislature, including: creationof incentives for local governments todevelop waste methane gas and solid•wastes for fuel; recognition of the stateOffice of Energy Conservation as an of-ficial state agency (it has been operat-ing informally, financed by federalgrants);' and approval of various taxbreaks for 'electric automobiles.

A couple of things which the Legisla-ture didn't do pleased environmen- .talists.The Legislature reviewed all the

rules and regulations of the Depart-ment of Natural Resources - a movesome feared could have lead to weaken-ing of environmental rules.That 'didn't happen.And a proposed reorganization of all

state energy agencies eventually waskilled.

~ u· • ~

Todd Engdahl is an assistant cityeditor and statehouse reporter for theDenver Post.

CLASSIIIIDSCI.s.lfled ads ,cost 101cenls-. word., They inust be prepaid. .

INTEllNSHIPs. Applications are now bei'ugconsidered for summer and fall-internshipsat HeN. Applicants should have some ex-perfenee in either Journalism or theenvircnmental-enargy field. The wsition isunpaid, and provides .experience jn writing,production and research. '

POSITION: The Powder River Basin Re-source Council, an agrfcultural-eenaervationgroup working on energy development is.sues in eastern Wyoming, seeks a staff coor-dinator and field organizer. Self-motivated,dedicated, ant;l enthusiastic individuals de-sired. Send resume immediately to PRBRC,.48 N. Main, Sheridan, W'i 82801; ,(307)672-5809.

TETONWILDLIFE:a 5 day fi'l.ldcoUrseonecological' relationships of the larger .mam-mals found within the Jackson Hole~ Yel-lo~stone ecosystem. June 2-6. For informa-tion write or phone Teton Science School Box68, Kelly, WY83011. (307) 733-4765.

HELPWANTED:Get away from it all, Liveby yourself. Remote area - S. Wyoming·Tree cutting, log consuuetion, & upkeep.Starting date and duration open. Preter ma-ture individual .with chainsaw experience.Salary, Board,Room,Benefits. Apply:CloudNioe Ranch. coo1241 Palisade. Ave.,RockSprings"Wy.·

BLACKIE: In code, I would write: Din-woody, fish haven, phosphoria, and don'ttake the towels, -au~ there can be no moreco~s. Awhole n(t"!·ballgame, ani:lforget theMinnesota_Twins. Peel me a muscat. Yourdaffy taITy'tragedywill riot be forgotten.

OUTD00R PHOTOGRAPHY:a 5 day fieldcourse on landscape, close-up and wildlifephotography. Basic through advanced skills.Operation of the camera and darkroomtechniques. July 7-11. For information writeTeton Science School, _Box 68, Kelly, Wy83011 or phone (307)733·4765. .

SUMMER NATURE CLAS/>ES IN THETETONS. 5 day courses on wildlffe, plants,geology, astronomy, river ecology, archeol-ogy, photography, environmental educationand backpacking. For brochure write TetonScience School, Box 68, Kelly, WY 83011 orcall (307) 733·4760.

REVEL! CAROUSAL!PERUSAL! All this.and much more at the Lander Bl~omsday.walk-a-talk. Live chickens, dead romanceand'moot literary allusions will be supplied ..If you're. in search of something whether afather, a son, or jusf your hat, join theLander Bloomsday walk-a-talk June 16th.Replies will be kept confidential, but maylater figure into best-selling sex thriller.Contact: wm, box k, Lander, WY 82520.

BIRDS OF GRANDTETON:a 5 day fieldCOUTseon identification, ecology, and be~havior of birds. June 15-20. For informationwrite Teton Science Schopl, BoJl,:68, Kelly,WY 83011 or pbone (307)733-4765.

FIELD BIOWGY:' Several extended field·trips provide practical experi~nce with vari-ous field~study techniques and equipment;observation, sampling, handling,-and iden-tification of terrestrial organisms. Lecturesand discussions provide a conceptual modelfor interpreting field observations; emphasison morphologi~a'l, physiological; and be-havioral adaptations to arid environments.Designed_for (but not limited' to) teachers.Jnne 16-July 5; 4oem.br•. credit; $370 cov-ers all; contact Stuart Croghan, c--oMalheurField Station, Box 260 E, Princeton, Oregon.. 97721 (503) 493-2629by May 20.

WILD HORIZONS EXPEDITIONS, Box2348-H,Jackson, Wy.83001(307)733·5343.Guided backpacking, mountaineering, skitouring, field seminars in conservation. Em-phasis on all aspects of conservation and.wildernesa education. Custom. and familytrips, small groups, free brochure.,EOURTHFOOTRACE. TheFourth AnnualHigh Country News 5-mile Citizens Foot-race will begin June 14 at6p.m. inCity Parkin Lander. The route hasn't changed, butwe've added more classes this year. Ribbons.will be awarded to the first three men andthe first three women finishers in each offollowing age categories; 18 and under,19-29,30-39,40-49,50 and over. There willalso be a'n open walkers class. Entryfee isone dollar. Registration for tlie race willbegin in the .Park at 5:15 p.m. A potluckpicnic will f~llow.

TRAIL FOODS. Wide selection. Good ~at-ing. M~al packs. Breakfast -lunch' - supper.F.ruits - vegetables - soups - main dishes _snacks - specialities - spreads ..baking mixes- desserts - beverages. Servings for 2 - 4 - 6.SAMPLER $11.50. BIG DISCOUNTS toschools, churches, organizations. Forcatalog, send self-addressed; stamped, No.'10 return envelope to: CHUCK WAGONli'OODS, 908 Howard Ave, Billings, Mon-tqna•.59102.'

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WANTED. An independent woman witb anadventurous spirit, to join me in exploringseveral proposed. Wilderness Study Areas inWyoming during August or September. Call

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"May 16/1980 -:- High Country News-13

Western Boundup1080 coyote control research

9iver. new lifeRekindling the predator. 'control con-

troversy, Secretary oflnterior CecilAndrus has resumed federal researchinto the use of Compound ·1080·in toxic

t collars to kill coyotes.The decision closely follows the agen-

cy's 'approval of a request to use the, controversial chemical to poison Col-umbian ground squirrels in Montana.Sheep ranchers, strong advocates Of

1080, are hoping the decisions will leadto increased use of the controversial. chemical. A spokesperson for Andrusdenies such a trend is in the works. .The predator control policy adopted

by Andrus last November emphasizestechniques that cut livestock losseswithout killing coyotes,' such as im-proved sheep.management.That policy eliminated federal funds

to research killing coyotes by placing1080-filied collars around the throats ofsheep.Wildlife enthusiasts oppose the use of

.1080 in any form, including collars, be-cause of feared "secondary" killings ofwildlife who consume contaminatedbait or carcasses., . .Andrus' decision to resume federal

research was based on new evidencediscounting the secondary killingtheory. and on the secretary's fears that1080 advocates would, pressure statesand private institutions to do their ownresearch, says Alan Levitt. public rela-tions officer for the Fish and WildlifeService.State Rnd private research, Andrus'

'<maintains, would ':be le$sl,controllable,and' could- involve -extensive 'anddangerous field testing.Two national wildlife groups backed

Andrus' decision. In a joint press state-ment, the heads of the National Audu-bon Society and the National WildlifeFederation said, "We can- live with"toxic collars "until, non- lethaltechiniques prove effective. '1

A representative for the Defenders ofWildlife, however, said heopposes An-drus' decision to resume research."What he's done is thrown a hone to thesheep industry," says Dick Randall, the.group's Wyoming representative."There's a lot of politica 1pressure fromthe industry to use 1080, but the factremains that toxic collars can only beused in limited situations, and reason-. able alternatives. exist, including fenc-"ing, guard dogs, and better herding:'Convincing lO80.advocates that such

alternatives work will not· be- easy,Randall admits. At congressional hear~ings on the issue this spring, Sen. John_Tower (R-TexJ said, ItIf a .lot of these

bleeding hearts had been around a mill-ion years ago, we'd be up to our eyeballs"in dinosaurs,"And Sen. Alan Simpson IR-Wyo.l,

who has a strong rancher. constituency,applauded the resumption of 1080 re-search and said he was optimistic-that-it would eventually lead to a completepolicy reversal in favor oftoxic controls.Ranchers are expected to continue lob-bying for immediate 1080 programs.Defenders' Randall says illeMontana

permit for rodent control is of seriousconcern. The state will' be allowed totreat 50,000 acres in 19 counties with1080 to poison ground squirrels, which"caused $1.4 million in crop damage in12 ~ther counties sprayed last year...The exempt jon was made by the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency. Buta Department of Interior sign-off wasnecessary under the EndangeredSpecies Act, which prohibits federalapprova I of programs that harm suchspecies:The Interior department ruled that"

the spr-aying would not impact the are-as hald eagle, gray wolf and grizzlybear population. State officials hadfeared Interior would rule against the..request because of Andrus' predatorcontrol policy, which, at the time theapplication was made, still. excluded.federal 1080 research.

Car:bon€lale hec;.rrsgreenbelt ,pion

"Facing heated pressure from nearbycoal development and unchecked urhangrowth: city planners in Carbondale, .Colo., are considering-a recreationalplan that would make it a "modelnatural garden town" for the wholecountry, "according to plan backers.The plan was recently submitted by

Carbonda le residents' Jack and Bar-bara Snohble to the city's Parks andRecreation Committee for considera-tion,Among its features are support for

designating 'Red Bluff....{a scenic over-look andsite ofa proposed mine) a BLMnatural-study' area, river raftingmarinas and put-In and "take-outpoints •. r ive'r-front and ridge-linepedestrian trails, and preservation ofnearby ghost towns as historic sites."There is still time to create a viable

green belt here," the Snobbles wrote' ina local newspaper' article detailingtheir plan .."Bu~ it is closing up fast."

Utah archeological riches threatenedArcheological resources on ~state-

owned lands in Utah have received Jit-I tle protection from state agencies, andthe neglect is likely to. co:pt~nueJ saysstate 8;rcheologi~t David Madsen.

. In, a recent letter to the Bureau ofLand Management, Madsen said th~tthe 'state has railed to work out any

~ protective regulations. He recom-.m~nded that the BLM revi~w a'ny plan-ned land exchanges with the state withthis in mind.Environmentalists in Utah say

the issue shows how. the state wouldmanage lands it is trying to obtain fromthe federal government through theSagebrush Rebelli~n,'

_ Photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force

THE MX RACETRACK 'plan is dead, the. Defense Department recentlyannounced. The current idea is to arrange the missiles along straight roads,using shorter transportation lines, slightly .less land, and a JO percentsavings in cost. ~ven so, the Deseret News editorialized on May 8, the uMXremains an unpalatahle prospect for Utah and Nevada." The MX proposalhas evolved considerahly since the original vertical shelter depicted in thisartist's conception..

Idaho land bid snubbed by court""-<-Thesecretary: of Interior has the finalsay in.determining whether millions ofacres of federal lands will be turnedover to individuals for agricultunil de-velopment, the U.S. Supreme Court hasruled. .

At issue was the 1894 Carey Act, pas-sed by Congress to encourage homes-teading of federal lands in the West,and a lawsuit brought by the state ofIdaho that claimed it had an absoluteright to some 2.4 million acres offederal'land under the act.

The state brought suit claiming thatSecretary of Interior Cecil Andrus wasstifling state efforts to convert much ofthat desert acreage into irrigated farm- .land. As a key example, state officialspointed to A-ndrus' proposal to.expand

the Birds of Prey "natural area hy ab-sorbing s9me Carey Act lands.Nine other states -:- Arizona,

California, Colorado, Montana. N'eva·da, Oregon, Utah, Washington andWyoming - joined Idaho in arguingthe case, At stake were some 17 millionacres of public lands throughout theWest that may qualify for homestead-ing under the act.A ruling in favor of Idaho would have

added a new twist to the Sagebrush Re-bellion. But only one of nine justices,Byron White, sided with the states.Idaho Attorney General David Leroy

nonetheless called it a legal draw, point-ingout that the court also ruled that ifthe secretary of Interior rejects a Carey-Act application,"it could' be subject to~ judicial review.

New natural landmark listingsTwenty-fou r areas in the U.S.

deemed nationally significant exam-pies of America's natural heritage havebeen. .designated as National Land-.marks by the Secretary of Interior.The classification does not affect

.,Ownershipof the areas ..But landmark.owners are encouraged to voluntarilyprotect -the signific;ant value.s of theirproperty, and for their troubles, receivea bronze plaque identifying their fanda's a registered landmark.Of the latest additions, which bring

the total number of landmarks to 511,sev~n are in the West: Rox-boroughState Park, a"765-acre tract ofEountainSandstone formations and raptor

habitat near Denver; Hobo Cedar, Grove Botanical Area, 24 acres of pris-tine old growth western red cedar innorthern Idaho; the Mena,n Buttes, fivevolcanic cones in eastern Idaho nearRexburg; Niagara Springs, one of thelargest land least disturbed by hyd-r~electric development) sp"rings in the.Snake River- Plain aquifer system inIdaho; Fischer, Lakes, a glacially-scarred plain in centra) North Dakota;Gtande Ronde G€losenec'"ks,a5,600 acreare£\. in- Wa:::hington's Columbia,plateau itigWighted hy the meanderingGr.ande Ronde River; and the Steptoeand Ka'miak Buttes in' e:-asternWashington. '"".. , ,

_-.-...;.~ . J •

14-High Country News - May 16, 1980

..-

FOREST PLANNINGAnew magazine. forest PlanDlng, and a.

number of other aervices are offered by U.e .Nationwide ForestPianning Clearinghouse: -,. a resource fila tbet mayhetapped by mail fora dollar fee. a lJQeakers bureau and workshop ...uBistaDce services. The Clearinghouse, runby..the nonprofit Cascade Holistic EconomicConsultants, is at P.O. Box 3479, Eugene,Ora. 97403. SubllCriptionsto the monthlyinagazine'are $4.80 for individuals.and $10for institutions.

WILDLIFE PORTRAITSTbe greenest treefrog ever pbotographed

is one of nine portraits now available frQm.the U.S. Fiab and WildlifeService in.16x20ioeb posters. Brown .bears, kestrels, swans,and rattlesnakes join the treefrog in theFWS gallery, and each portrait-comes with a-brief information sketch. The portraits arefor sale for $6 from the Superintendent of.Documents. Government Printing Office)WaahingtDn, D.C. 20402.Aak for WildlifePortrait Series Number 6.

LOCAL PROGRAMSA 8U!'¥ey of 150 projects involving local

communitieS in renewable energy resourceprojeets is available-from the Center for Re-newable Resources. The survey is titledShining Examples: Model ProjectsUsing Renewable Resources. Among theprojects described are BOlarwater heaters inlow-income PuertoRican homes and the Da-tion's largest solar greenhouse, in, Cheyen-'pe,.wyo. For a copY,send·$4.95 to the Centerfor Renewable Reseurees, 1001 ConnecticutAve..N.W., SUite 510, Washington, D.C.2.0036. .

SOLAR:SUBTERRANEAN DESIGNThe Ar:crntectmal Extension of'Oklahoma

State University is holding a two--day semi-Dar. for architects, engineers, contractors,and others interested in,the technical prob-lems, costs, energy savings ..and integrationof solar systems and underground buildings.The course will be· held at the Arizona·"Biltmore in Phoenix, Ariz. and will cost $195.For more information, write Jody' Proppe,Architectural Extension, OSU, 115 Ar-chitecture Bldg., Stillwater, Okla.

Durango...regulations to establish safe limits ofradiation for sites after cleanup, sev-eral .stages of env'ilonmental studies,, remedial plans, public hearings for citi-zen input, bid packages to contractors,and final performance of remedial ae- "tion. Ifall goes as outlined, cleanup willbegininthespringofl982andcontinue .for three to five y.ears. . ,Durango residents have grown in-

creasingly aware of the hazards of long .-term radiation exposure, particularly-exposure to Radon 222, the primaryhealth haurd from U.e Durango tail-. ings. .Radiation above normal background

levela is evident everywhere within 0.7miles ~of the tailings, a distance. thatencompasses many residences ~andbusinesses. .Dr. Scott McCatrrey, apokeaman for

, Citizens For Safe Tailings Manage-ment; a local action group, voiced thefrustration felt by many. "No matterhow the pile is finally taken care- of,we're looking attbree to five more yearsof expOsure to radon gas. The studies onhealth effects ofredon gail show a linearrelatinnabip. The longer the exposure

COAirENERGYDEVELOPMENTWorkshops.for loCal·officials, planners and

othets interested in mltigating impacts ofeoel- or other energy development.have beenschedUledthiongbout .the Rocky MountainWest by the MiISOui'i River Beain-Oommis-sion.. The tJttee..day workshops will coverenvironmental and economic impacts, andways to manage them. WorkshOps will behald.in Nortb Dakota, June 11-13;Wyom-ing, Juoo'26-27; Montana, July 16·18;andNebraska, Aug. 6-8. FQr registration formswrite U.S.~logical Survey, Box 25046.~Mail Slop 701, Denver Federal Center, De:nver, Colo. 80225.

wYOMING-TEXAS PIPELINEIn anticipation ofineteased oil production

from tbe Overtbrust Belt, MAPCO, Inc.,wants to build an oil pipeline from Rock.Springs, Wyo.,through Utah, Coloradoand·New Mexico to Gaines City, Tex. Public-meetings on the project are being held by theForest Service and the Bureau ofLand Mao-agement inMay. A May 22 meeting will be-at the Outlaw Inn inRock Springs. Copies ofa draft environmental statement ~n the pro-ject are available from the BEM public af-fairs office,Main Interior Building, 18th and"C Sis., N.W.,Washington. D.C.

SOllAR WORKSHOPSColorado SunworItS is offering summer

'workshops covering "solar applications," the"language of solar energy," and "passive.solar design" this summer. The one-dayseminars' will be offered i~June and Sep-tember, et prtcesrangmg from $15 to $95. Inaddition; the company offers to review pas-sive-aolarplana for $35. For more informa-tion, write to Colorado Sunworks, Box 455,Boulder, Colo. 80306.1

,ENERGY IMPACTS

The Western Organization of ResourceCouncils and Rural America-are holding atwo-day conference OIl energy developmentimpscUdn the Northern Plains June 21-22.Among other topics, the conference. will ad-dress- the problems created for small com-munities by large-scale projects -such assynthetic fuels plants._ The conference willbe held in Dickinson, North Dakota, For

- more inforrqation, contact Susan Westfall,~Daiota Resource Council, P.O. Box 254,Dickinson, N.D.;(701) 227·1851.

(continued from page 7)

to radon, the more cancer shows up."After McCaffre¥ claimed lung cancer

rates in Durango appeared to be fourtimes the nstional average, tbe Col-orado Department ofH""lth, in the fallof 1979, ·completed. their own study.They found the rates for cancers inDurango' to be at the state average,·with the exception of. south Durango,neaf the tailings pile, where the ratesfor leukemia- a-nd lung cancer wereslightly higher.Because of the small" numbers in-

volved (only cancers of the last 10years-were studied), Dr. Stan Fe.rguson, di--rectorof disease control and epidemiol·ogy~ for the department, csutions'against dr~wing conclusions from' thestudy. However, he fepis the slightlyhigher rates' nearer the piles is amplereason fo~ additional studies oflhe pos-sible link between cancer and the tail-ings. As of this writing, no new studiesare ~der way.

. - , .

. Van BecSYis a freel"nce writer basedin Durango, ~Colo.

, , , ,

SNOWMACIDNEs RESTRICTEDThe Potholes-Baseline Flats area of Grand _.

Teton National Park would be closed tosnowmobiling, under the preferred alterna-tive chosen by the National Park Service formanaging snow machines in the park. Mostofthe unplowed r08de and waterways wouldbe open, 'however. Public meetings -on thepropoaalare to be beld on May' 26 at theHoliday Inn West in Golden, Colo., and May30at the RamadaSnow King Inn in Jackson:,Wyo. Written Comments 'Will be acceptedthrough June 30 (Superintendent, GrandTeton National Park, P.O. Box 67, Moose,Wyu. 83(12).

SOLAR FILMThe Solar Lobby is promoting the new

movie called "The SOlar Film." The 10 mi-nute, 35 mm film received an AcademyAward nomination, is produced by. Con-sumer Action Now and will soon be availa-ble for rent or purchase. Cont8.ct; ConsumerAction Now, 355 Lexington Ave., New York,N.Y. 10017.

,.~

RATE WATCHERS GUIDf;A book for 'budding utility rate ref~jrmers,

The Rate Watchers Guide: How to ShapeUp Your Utility's Rate Structure is avail-able from the Environmental Action Found-atdcn, 724 DuPont Circle Bldg.: Washington -D.C. 20036. The lOS-page paperback byRichard Morgan costs $2.50.

Meet. With

AmQry; Lovins·, Sept. 21-27~ 1980,

SoftEnergyPathE~plorationfor info OD this and other pro-grams including• Herbs • Nutritior.r •Psychology • Parapsychology• Astrology • 'Yoga •call or 'write Holistic'Life Seminars.Box1682..Helena. MT59601 (406) .442·8196

.r->:.-Designs & Devic;estoc ):.l,,·0,T·· -"High Qual"" LowImpact LiVing . .'

Teton Tinkers & Traders• BOX 91 VICTQR.1D'AHO 83455 -

{:loa, 78!·2~95

A Very Important Workshopfor any.bn,e .,:, .intereste~dHome E(1.ergySystems Clivus Mull/urn

EnergyAudits EducalionaiWorkshopsKIlwaII50Iar COrTIponen1s GreenhO\.lge DesigIS

HelpiOOyou solve your Ie<:hriicalproblems

in:

OUR 'PUBLIC. LANDS-.HOW

IMPORTANTARETHEY?

These·Public Lands Include:Our great National Park Sys·

tern-first in the world-uniquein its beauty, diversity, and use bythe public.

..Our equally great system ofNational Forests, producing tim-ber, forage, wildlife, recreation,and protecting vital watersheds.

Our extensive system of Na-tional Wildlife Refuges, also un-ique 'in the world, sustaining themigratory bird populations ofNorth America,' preserving en-dangered species.

Our. National Wilderness Preservation System(within the other systems): about 3 percent of thefederal lands.

And most extensive of all, some 414 million acres.of "Natlonal Resource lands" under the Bureau ofland Management (BlM). BlM's total will be reduced.when all of Alaska's statehood grant of 104 millionacres (more than all of California) is transferred. Mostof Alaska's grant will remain public tand-e-state-:owned.

The purpose of the Public Lands Institute Is to58e that the8e lands and resources are taken careof properly; also to stop present abuses anddestruction .. and to preyent pollution of theirwaters and the short-sighted depletion of solis,forests, rangelands and wildlife.With an eye to the futu~.With eoneem for tile needs of future genera·

tlons.. . .In these tasks we need your help. Use the lorm

below to Join now, end mail to Public Lands In-stitute, 1740 High Street, Denyer, C.olo. 80218.

Lands owned by Americancitizens, through their federal andstate governments, compriseone- third of the land base of theUnited States. Their importanceis self-evident, but consider-

They contain' 60 percent ofAmerica's coal reserves. Alsomost of our uranium, most of ourundeveloped oil and natural gas,.nearly all the oil shale, and thesole or important supplies ofother minerals vital to modern In-dustry. How these resources aremined and used can vastly affectthe economy and environment of the Western'states-for 90~ or bad.

The Public lands catch the snowfall and protectthe watersheds that make farming possible in rich lr-rigated valleys. I !

IThey produce 25 percent otthe commercial-qualtty

timber resources of the U.SA,They sustain the institution 01. Western family

raAching.

They sustain our remaining major herds of big'game. They provide essential reservoirs of habitat forthe whooping crane, bald eagle, California condor,desert tortotse, griZZly 'bear, and other endangeredspecies.' .,

Except for certain mililary reservations, they areopen to the pUblic for ·tedeatlon,explorationandscientific study.

In short, the Public lands provide, our nationalmargins of economic independence and environrnen-tal quality.

ifor previous story see HCN '10-19-79'Opponents of snowmobiling in the

"Potholes" area of Grand Teton Na-tional Park came a step closer to victorythis month as the National Park Ser-vice announced its rpreferred alterna-tive" for managing snowmobiles in thepark. . .Though a final decision is yet to be

made. the Park Service favors limitingsnowmobiles to most unplowed roadsand frozen water surfaces ....0:;.. the policyapplied generally throughout the na-tional parks.Snowmobile enthusiasts and

Jackson businessmen have argued thatsnowmobiles did little damage to the'Potholes, and the the area lured snow-mobilers from around the country, "be-nefitting the local tourist industry.Under the rule proposed for Grand

Teton, 72.8 miles of mads and 26,700acres of" waterways within the parkwould still be open to snowmobiles.Public meetings on the management

plan will be held (see Bulletin .Boardl;:,"::=::;;=:::'=~:;:=~=~::'':''''':; :':'",;,__'..'",'c._.:..-.y..."'.....~.....~.:..._....; .... ~~ .... ~ .... .:..:.;,;,;;;~:.:;~:..J·;;c fOJ;xletailsl. ~ -1· • 1"- -- GOG

INSTITUTE

CHARLES H. CALLISON, President

Membersl\lp ,contributionsare tax deductible.. III

Yes,:! want to joinPLI and help with 'its work. Please enroll meand send the' PLI Newsletter and other publications. (Checkcategory) .

II! Associate (SUbscriber) $15Supporter $25 to $99 '.Contributor $100Sponsor $500

My name' __ ---_ ..,----c:--:-------=---~-Address ----:-~----,- _

---------;- _-----~--Zip,---. .....

The PLI Boaril 01 Directors .

Ms. DorothyBradley.Bozeman, MTMr. Paul Brooks, LincolnCenter, MA.Mrs.MaryBurks.Hattiesburg.MSOr. Charles canson, Denver,CODr. Douglas.Gilbert.H. ,Collins,COMr.GlennLeDioyt.Omaha. NEMr. John Peavey, Carey, 10Mr. Leonard Sargent, Corwin Spgs., MT

Mr. Albert Simms, Albuquerque, NMDr.eJakleighThorne. III. Cody, WYMs. And Tobin, Albany, NYOr. Beatrice Willard,Boulder, COMr. ThomasO. Wimmer, seattle'Or. Robert Witieman, Phoenix, liZDr.Herbert E. Wright,c Mjnne~lis, MN

Ad.lsory CouncllMr. Horace Albright, Sherman Oaks, CAMrs. BernardDeVoto, Cambridge, MAMrs. Andrew Heiskell, New York CityMr.TomMcCall. Porlland, ORMr. Nathaniel P. Reed, Hobe Sound, FLMr, WallaceStegner, los Altos Hills,CAMr. Stewart Udall, Phoenix. AZMr. Ed Zern, Scarsdale, NY

)

May 16, 1980 - High Country News-15

.~Tr!ckiagsit'. '-IIfQllowups on previous stories

PCB spill.(see HCN 3·7·80 for previous storylArguing thst the federal government

should have acted sooner to stop lastsummer's PCB feed contamination in-cident, a Montana feed company issuing three federal 'agencies for up to$40 million.La wyers for the Pierce Packing Co. of

Billings claim that the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture, the Food and DrugAdministration and the Environmen-tal Protection Agency were negligent inreacting while the company distributedsome two million pounds of meal lacedwith PCBs. Pierce itself has been suedby purchasers of the feed.The meal was contaminated by a

leaking electrical transformer lastJune. Undetected, it spread to almost20 states, resulting in large losses ofagricultural products and. unknown. human health effects,PCB - a polychlorinated biphenyl-

is used in transformers and othermachinery. It is known to cause cancerin animals. 'The feed company says it took the

federal agencies three months to dis-cover the contamination, and that be-cause the federal government is re-sponsible for monitoring the presence ofPCB in commercial foods, the agenciesshould have reacted sooner.The feed company has also sued the

manufacturer of the electrical trans-formers that leaked. The Environmen-ta I Protection Agency ~ecently finedPierce some $40,006 for the spill - thelargest fine to dste under the Toxic. Substance Control Act.'

In a related development, the threefederal agencies are considering a banon use of PCB around food production,'fertilizer and animal feed facilities.Businesses covered by the new ban

would include fertilizer and pesticidemakers. food processors includingslaughterhouses, and poultry, egg andfish processing facilities, and animalfeed prod ucers.

-MM

.Snowmobiles