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2-High Country News;- April 3, 1981

Dear Friends,"The Upper Cretaceous stratig-

raphic .section lying above theAspen Shale and helow .theAdaville Formation ..." Like to readabout rocks? Or is the precedingsection about as pleasant as eatingthem? '. Wh;t. geologists have to say isimportant to our future ill this reg-ion - it has oil drillers on fbe edgeof their seats even while the rest ofus snooze. The problem is under-standing it,'HCN runs into thejdifficulty all

the time, and we're lucky to have'Bob Anderson around to help usout. Anderson, who has done somework for the Powder River Basin

, ,Resource Council, now lives in De-nver. He is a certified geologist, but 'he-might also be called a transla tor- he turns the heavily compressedsediment of professional Geology-,speak into the kind of polished peb-bles you can put upona layperson'ssideboard.Jn the past he has tack -',led tar sands ana other equally ex-citing subj~d;s- crucial to the reg-ion but not the kind ofbarnburningstories that .make run-of-the-milljournalists salivate, This week heis tackling oil shale,Not only does Anderson put his

flinty material into 'readable prose,he lightens it up with amusing'aaides. Talking about the PiceanceBasin, for instance, he adds BOnte-marginal scrawl on the etymoiog-ical origins ofthe oil-shale-rteh reg-ion's name. "Piceance, by the way,is pronounced pee-ants. a cleverdisguise by the 'map-makers," be-gins Anderson, and goes on to exp-lain that some people believe it tobe a Frenchified way of describingthe way insects in the area werelured forth by certain human func-.tions. \The Coloradoan Illlys that -he's

now offto the Pacific Northwest fora while, We expect to see more ofhis work when he returns ~hissummer. ---When we write a story expOSing

the loss ofmillions of i101111rs in re-.venues due to lax mineral tax en~forcement, we expect to Ret mail ..But wedonot, and did not, expect

to get a lot of mail when w.e ran acover story on the tweedy s.ubject ofa college professor,Apparently, we were wrong. Ken

Western's piece on 'John Baden.(3-6~8Il, a professor at MontanaStatt.~University who recommendsprivate ownership of public lands,generated more mail than any~thing we've .published recently,You'll see a sample of letters thisissue - they're still coII1iJlg-i,n,

- the staff

liSforn Kouniup.Blasters, reprievedin Marshall wilds

N.'D. mixes oiltax and water

~. a Sufficient. funding for water de-s:: velopment projects is on many western~ minds these days. and North DakotaIf legi-slators are no ex'ception: iTo in-~ crease available cousjrucnon .tn0ney,~ -fhe Republican-dominated body votedg to divert ten percent of a new oilsever-:;: ance tax directly into the water re-~ s-ource coffers.~ Known as Measure No.6, the sever-Ul ance tax (6.5 percent on crude oil) was

approved by voters last November, andrevenues were allocated for education,tax relief and a permanent trust fund.Arguing that water resources de-

velopment is the bestthing the statecould do for future generations, .hcw-ever, House Majority Leader EarlStrinden (R·Grand Forks) led a success-ful effort to redistribute the trust fundmonies to the water resources, budget.. Backers of'Measure 6 called the move a"raid'vof the trust fund and "a violationof the will of the voters."

U .8, Forest Service Chief Max Peter-son has ruled that an application to setoff explosives in three Montana wilder-ness areas in a search for oil and gasmust be ~onsidered by regional fores-ters., Peterson was responding to an appealby Consolidated Georex Geophysics, aDenver-basad exploration companywhich had its application to conductseismic tests in the Bob Marshall,Great Bear and Scapegoat wildernessesrejected last April. At that time, theagency's northern regional forester"Tom Coston, sidestepped the issue ofwilderness resource exploration by re-jecting applications from companiesthat had no leases on the land they were loration in wildemess areas remain-exploring. ' murky and controversial. The North-CGG, which-had no leases in the wil- ern Region hasa task force studying the

~ ~ issue which is not expected to issue aderness areas, intended to collect its oiland gas information and sell it to in- report before 1982, M . It' t

,TheCGGappealattracted,theatten- mnero ax ge sterested energy companies. tion of the 'Mountain States Legal\ eGG first applied in 1979 to set-~ff Foundation, Interior Secretary James day' in courtexplosives over lines covering ljil;niles Watt's fanner .sinecure, and the Rockyin the wilderness area, and another 46 Mountain Oil and 'Gas 'Association, 0n March 30; the U.S. Suprememiles in adjacent national forests. Cos- both of which filed briefs supporting Court. heard oral arguments on theton a~proved only the testing outside CGq, The Bob Marshall Alliance; the challenge by several coal-burningthe wildernesses. .. Wilderness Society and-the Sierra Club utilities that Montana's 30 percentIn ordering Coston to consider wil- filed in support of -Coston's April deci- severance tax on coalwas excessive and

derness exploration as well, Peterson sion not to consider CGG's application. a barrier to interstate commerce. Sev-said in,part: "The cit,izensof the United Wilderness Society Montana Rep- eral utilities and seven states - none ofStates have an interest in assessing all resentative Bill Cunningham said op- whiIiR:have major coal reBerVeB'oftheirvalues lying in those wildernesses." ponenta of seismic exploration and re- own - are challenging the tax."It's a heavy:' said Dick Guth, an in- source development in wilderness areas The utilities, supported by Texas,

formation officer with the Norther'n would wait for Coston's decision before Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, .New Jer-,Region office, Coston must now take ,deciding what steps to take, In the sey, Michigan and Kansas, are notchal-another look at the GGG application meantime, they have scheduled a lenging Montana's right to tax coal, butStandan!s for Urineralleasing and "xp' march and rally in Missoula April 24. only what they call the excessiveness of:-------------------------------,-1 the 30, percel)t leveL rhey also con-

I fi h h' I tend that states with large. energy'Crows o~e' IS, ing, .unting contro resources are unfairly damaging stateswit"hout energy minerals through the

The U,s. Supreme Court has ruled The casedoes not directly affect tri- severance tax,that the Crow tribe cannot regulate the bal rights under the Winters Doctrine, Montana, supported by mineral-richhunting and fishing by non-Indians on The Winters Doctrine, established in Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico,private lands within 'the reservation, 1909, says tribes are entitled to all wat- North Dakota and West Virginia, asThe case began several years ago ers flowing in,lthrough or adjacent to well as a number of environmental

when a ~o~tana man was fishing along; reservations. F. Woodside Wright, a groups, argued that Montana's tax addsdepartment attorney for the Montana .the Little Bighorn River on land within - very little to the cost of coal to the con-Department of, Fish, Wildlife andthe reservation that had been purch- sumer, Montana Attorney General

fM Parks, said, "The issues were strictly M'k G I d h ' diff,ased by the state 0 onta1\a as a fish· 'I e roo y. sai t ere IS no 'erenceing access site. The man was arrested ~hunting and fishing issues and owner- between Mo.ntana's coal tax and state

. ahipofnavigsble rivers, based on treatyby a Bureau of Indian Affairs agent for - taxes applied to manufactured goods-violations of the tribal code. . Interpretation. Winters Doctrine af- that are sent out of state. Lowe'r courts

-. fects the use of water, which this case have so far supported Montana's argu~In court, the tribes argued that they does not. However, it could affect hunt- ments.

had jurisdiction over hunting and fish- ing and fishing issues 0'0 other reserva- A decisio:n is expected in late June .ing on private land. The court disag- tions; but you would have ~ read eachreed, saying, "Non-Indian hunters and treaty." Wright believes, however, thaffishennenon non-li)dian fee landClonot some people will use the decision asenter into agreements with the Cro.w precedent in hidian water use cases.Tribe so as to subject themselves to tri- T~ibal Winters Doctrine r~ghts are cur-bal jurisdiction." However, the tribe rently being adjudicated in Wyomingstill has the authority to regulate fish over rightS to the Bighorn River as it. an~ game issues on tribal land for both flows througn the Wind River IndianIndians and non-Indians. Reservation.

CGG workers check seismic data

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• Published biweekly at-331 Main, Lander, Wyo. 82520. Telephone 307 -332-4877. Seconi class postage paid at Lander. (USPS ~No.

High CDuntry News 087480), All rights to publication of articles herein are reserved, - i!1!. ,Publisher Thomas A. Bell <

, Editor Geoffr~y O'Gara. Business Manager Jazmyn McDonald ': .-Production Kathy Bogan ,- I StaffWri~ Michael Moss Photography Sara Hunter·Wlles

The Independent, Asaociate Editor Dan Whipple Circulation Betsy Schimelpfenlg

D,~turaIre8OUJ'Ce8 biweeklltk I Contributing Editor Peter Wild Typesetter -;,..,.Debbie East"'"of the Rocklea Correspondent Philip White

- Call for permisStOn to reprint any articles or illustratio~. Contributions (manuscripts,phoios"rtwork) will be welcomed with the :/ understanding that the editors cannot be held responsible for 1088or damage. *rticles and letters w-ill be published and edited at theSa'-rtpd_'11.OO per lyeat'. discretion of the editors. < ,I V" -. 8lDcIe copIao 75,_ta, - '\To have ~ sample copy sent til a (riend ~nd,lli! his or he·r 8d4ress~ \\;"riteto Box_K, Lander, Wyo:, 82520. ISBN:0191-5657.' , I

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WYOMING AUDITWyoming state auditor Jim Griffith

says that auditing the mineral industrywin be one of his top priorities in thetwo remaining years of his term. Therecent legislature authorized him tohire three special auditors to inspect-mineral production records in the statein an effort to make sure the state gets'all the mineral severance taxes' androyalties it dese;"es. (See HCN 2-6-81,p. 1, for a story on Wyoming's losturanium revenues.I

,CLEAN AIRIndustry, it seems, is not the only in-

terest group unhappy with the CleanAir Act these days. The Sierra CIub andthe Natural Resources Defense Coun-cil, also suffering cloudy. reception onthe clean air channel, -are supportingfederal legislation to extend to 1985 thecompliance deadlines for steel plants.It's a "fine tuning" of the act, the groups .say, made necessary by "economic con-ditions." Maybe this is what Colorado'Sen. Gary Hart (D)was referring to lastmonth when he said the only choice isbetween keeping deadlines no one will~meet, or scrapping the deadlines. Hart,in growing company, favors the latter.

ALTON COALLawsuits are piling up over former

Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus' deci-sion to designate part of the' Alton-coal-, field near Bryce Canyon National Parkunsuitable for strip mining. ,Environ-mentalists and some' area ranchers aresuing to close the area he left; o~n;Utah Internatiqnal, the coal' developer,is suing t6 open the area he closed;. andthe state of Utah is suihg to aaaert itsright to regulate coal mining in thestate. Andrus, of course, is now out ofoffice, and _-his successor, -SecretaryJames Wat~, is yet to consider the issue.

Armstrong backs off new dam fundsBreaking an age-old tradition in the

Colorado congressional delegation, He':publican Sen. Bill Armstrong has re-fused to. back federal budget increaaesto start or resume construction of twoColorado water projects.

The state delegation, includingDemocratic Sen. Gary Hart (D), stoodunited before Houae and Senate ap-propriations panels last week' to en-.dorse the Reagan admmistration'a con-struction budget for ongoing water pro-jects.

But saying he would "be less thantrue to my own beliefs" if he were to"propose additions to the administra-tion's budget, Armstrong. dissentedwhen the delegation asked for $3.3millionmore to begin construction of

the propoaed Animas-La Plata project.near Durango and reaume building theNarrows dam near Fort Morgan.. Both projects were halted by Presi-

. dent Carter'a1977 "hit list" campaign toeliminate uneconomical or damagingwater projects. While Interior Secret-ary James Watt has promised new con-struction starts in the 1982 budget, the1981 Reagan proposal )ncludes nofunds for start-ups.Armstrong said another year's wait

on construction was necessary to theReagan program of fiscal restraint, ButHart, whose unwaivering support forColorado water projects contrasts withhis other policy standa (both fiscal con-servatism and social Hberalism), saidArmstrong's dissent would endangerColorado's chances of gettingthe funds.

GLACIER ROADWildiife experts who fear that road

improvements aroundGlacier NationalPark will lead to more developmentandless wildlife got a boost when the Fed-eral Highway Administration agreedrecently to draft an environmental im-pact statement. Concern about a prop-osal to pave a road-that runs along theNorth.Fork ofthe Flathead Riveron thewest side of the park has focussedprimarily on grizzly bears. The bears·have already shown an interest in thegarbage created by a recent surge inhumanpopulation on the west side' hfthe park. The 60-mile road, alreadypartially paved, runs from ColumbiaFalls to the Camas Creek entrance tothe park. ,.'1-

INDUSTRY CLEAN-UPThe Amoco Oil refinery in Salt Lake

City says it will pay an unspecifiedshare of the $1 million necessary toclean up an oil shale dump now owned I

by the city. In a case aimilar to the dis-aster at Love Canal, N.Y., the citybought the land, dump and all, and thendiscovered carcinogenic chemical wasteafter a bulldozer ~clearing land for apark sank throngh the sludge. UnlikeNew YorK'S Hooker Chemical Co.,Amoco officials say they're willing to"help solve the problem before nearbyresidents are injured. And in Canon"City, Colo., state health officials say.they are pleased by the Cotter Corp.efforts to move its uranium mill tail-ings 10 a new, Iii!,\,] disposal pOnd: "Ev-erything wacited them for has beencorrected or is on track for a compliance"schedule," said Robert Arnott, assis-tant director of the state agency, andthe company has been' granted a newradioactive materials operatinglicense.

GEOTHERMAL crowsBackers of the Ran River Geother-

mal Project near Malta, Idaho, len outo,fPresident Re';gan'~ new budget, arehaving trouble finding new funds fortheir multi-million d~llar facility. Butdown in northern Nevada all systemsare go. A consortium of five utilities,including Pacific Power & Light Co.,have hired a Texas firm to build them alO-megawatt well-head generator thatcan be moved around the' state to newgeothermal sites aa old ones dry up.

NATURAL RADIATION"High radioactivity levels found inEdgemont, S.D. homea is due not touranium mill tailings, but rather tonatural sources, according to an un-named official of the Nuclear Regulat-ory Commission. Some 12 percentofthe334 homes sampled thus far have in-door gamma radiation levels above En-vironmental Protection Agency stan-- dards. But according to NuclearFuel, aMcGrav.:HiHpublication, one unnamedNRC, official said, "We feel the predo-minant source is natural r-adiationrather than mill tailings." The most re-cent owners of the mill tailings inEdgemont, the Tennesaee Valley Au-thority, is contesting its responsibilityfor cleanup costs.

PEAKING WAVE~A 'proposal by the Water and Power

Resources Service to increase the powergeneration at Glen Canyon Dam willcreate waves that "are "extremelydangerous" to .whitewater boating onthe Colorado, says Jerry Mallett of the .American Wilderness Alliance. Thestepup, intended to provide as much as25 percent higher peak power, wil) alsoeffect the trout fishery and erodebeaches and campsites, the g.roup ischarging. A draft environmental im-pact statement on the proposal is forth-'coming.

CONSERVATION CREDITSInvestment tax credits for industrial

effortS to save energy would be doubledfrom 10 to 20 percent, under a bill in-troduced last month by Sen. Malcolm.Wallop (R-Wyo.). Financial assistance,under the Industrial Energy SecurityTax Incentives Act, would go towardsconverting oil consuming plants tocosl,purchasing' recycling equipment andfostering cogeneration. Citing a studyt!fat estimates a $20 billion a year in-vestment need by industry for energyconservation, the Environmental Pol-icy Center in Washington said Wallop's"bill was "urgently needed" and couldsave 3 million bairels of oil per day bythe year 2000.

LARGER LEASESThe present 5,120 acre size limit on

oil shale leases is too small for econom-i·cal development, says Rep. Dan Mar-rioft(R-Utah), and he's introduced fed-~ral legislation t~up the size ceilingand give the Secretary ofInterior widerdiscretion on development provisions.

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Apri! 3",1981 - High CountrY New .. 3

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CORRECTIONInDCN 3-20-81 we reported that

a YeS. Interior Department com-mittee voted 3-2 to close the con-troversial Potholes-Baseline Flataarea of Grand Teton National Parkto anowmobilera. HCN had tbe voteright but the voters wrong. Votingagainst snowmobiles in thePotholes area were chairmanWally Schtrra, the former as-tronaut and memberoftbe InteriorDepartment's Council on NationalParks; Ron Tipton, a WildernessSociety repreaentative; and JohnD. Hunt, assistant dean of the col-lege of Natural Resources at Utah. State University. Voting to leavethe Potholes open to snowmobilerswere Jerry Tracy, a Teton Countycommissioner, and Jan Wilson,-di-rector of the Wyoming RecreationCommission. -.

PARK VISIBIUTY.Arguing that "we cannot base our

" economy solely upon the tourists," localofficials near Bryce Canyon and Zionnational .parks in Utah opposed newfederal rules to protect visibili ty fromscenic park vistas. The state Bureau ofAir Quality is holding hear-ingsthroughout the state on its plan to com-ply with the federal Clean Air Act re-quirement, and speakers at a recent St.George hearing were largely againstadditional protection. But most of the35 persons testifying in Salt Lake Citysupported the strictest regula tiona andagency director Brent Bradford, accord-ing to the Deseret News, says, -..It'sobvious we will have to find some-kind-of middie ground.' " ,

YELLOWSTONE SYNFUELThe Tenneco Corp.· is asking Mon-

tana, North Dakota and Wyoming forpermission to use water from the Yel-lowstone River near Glendive for use ina coal gasification plant to be locatedin Montana. A Tenneco subsidiary hasclaimed 80,650 acre-feet of the river'swater, but the plant would require only14,000 acre-feet. Tenneco promises toavoid conflicta with agricultural waterusera in drought years by building anBOO-acre'storage reservoir to be filledduring spring and winter. The oompanywould then pump the water from" theYellowstone Basin to the Little Mis-souri Basin, where. the $2.3 billionplant would be built. The YellowstoneCompact prohibits taking the waterfrom the Yellowstone Basin without.permission from the three states.

COLO. AIR DELAYEncouraged by the prospect of new

federal environmental policies. theColorado House Conunittee on Trans-portation and Energy unanimously ap-proved a .billlast week delaying tbe im-plementation of a motor vehicle inspec-tion ana maintenance program. Previ-ous delays resulted in threats ofeconomic penalties and sanctions bythe Environmental Protection Agency.But calling the program "the biggestrip-off ever," the bill's sponsor, stateRep. Mick Spano (B-Arvada), said, "Idoubt if the preaent administration willallo~ sanctions on the states." Rather,said Spano, a one-year delay will save·$10million in inspection fees, and that,contrary to findings of a fedetal studyheaded by Sen" Gary Hart (D-Colo.), the·PlOgram has not been proven effectivein reduc.ing cuban monoxide' levels.

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Powerline quizzedTrans-state transmission lines must

meet a.test ofpublic need, under legisla-tion passed 'this session by the SouthDakota state legislature.The new law, sought by the South

Dakota Resources Coalition and othercritics ofthe proposed MANDAN powerline project, requires the state's utilitycompany_ to prove such a need duringpublic evidentiary hearings this fall -a forum project 'critics hope to use todisprove such claims.In other actions, the Coyote State .01-

ons approved a hazardous waste trans-portation control bill (exempting pet-roleum products from its regulation),upheld the U.S. Fisliand Wildlife agen-cy's wetlands preservation programthat utilizes perpetual easements, senttwo 'mining and exploration reform:bills to an' interim study panel, andamended the state's environmental pol-icy act to mske the preparation of im-pact statements discretionary withstate agencies.Esther Edie, chieflobbyist for the Re-

sources Coalition in Brookings, calledthe latter bill "disastrous," and said itcould affect future state funded waterdevelopment projects. State water pol-icy director, Vanni Kallemeyn, how-ever. says federal impact reviews wouldalmost be certain on such prqjects.

Ev.anston sniffs as 'sour' gas nears

Since their friend James Watt took necessary."-over the Interior Department, the Now that Watt's in charge, the de-Sllgebrush Rebels have fired few shots bate is shifting from attacks on federalin Washington. It's hard to findSageb- incompetence and arrogance to ques-rush leaders there who still advocate tlons of state sovereignty and na-what used to be the movement's central tionalization afthe country's resources,goal: putting federal lands, into state Black said. _hands. "Is it wise and prudent for the feds to

own and control 50 percent of the na-Utah's Orrin Hatch (R) is one excep- tion's most valuable resources?" Black

tion to that rule, however. Hatch is still asked. ''It'sjust not compatible with the,trying to gather co-sponsors to rein- American scene. It's tantamount to.troduce the land transfer bill that nationalizing the auto. industry." .caused a stir in Western"states during In the West, too, many Sagebrushthe last session of Congress. Rebels have been pacified by the prom-He hasn't gotten them yet. But his ises of the new administration. But a

aide, JiB! Black, maintains that .land few land transfer advocates are stick-,trarisferis till a top priority for Hatch," . ing to their guns. , ,bec~use Watt can't give the Rebels all "The states should control their own~liey need. ' . destiny," said ,John Keenan of Sageb- .- rush Rebellion, Inc., in Boise. "In the"A lot of -guys don't want to chuck long run the BLM will not he a friendly

rocks at Jim Watt and neither do we," landlord.:'1Black said. "But there is an overridingna iMiltIMt-.fiHn'll!Oib&<tms bill

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With deep-drilling' oil 'and gas rigsmoving closer to populated areas, offi-cials in southwestern Wyoming say- they are worried about the possibility ofpoisonous leaks.Drilling companies have made spec-

tacular oil and gas finds north andsouth of Evanston in recent years bydrilling much deeper than traditionalwells. But much ofthe gas discovered atdepths below 10,000 feet is "sour" -laced with hydrogen sulfide, apoison-ous gas. Now the rigs are moving closer. to Evanston's populated areas.

IlWe're concerned about it," saidMayor Dennis Otley. An official forAmoco (Standard Oil of Indiana), one ofthe major drillers in the area, said hercompany has made one sour gas find -the Urroz well - just south of the citylimits, and is drilling another well.Other companies have applied to drillnew wells within city limits.Most of the proposed welis in town '

would be relatively shallow, drilling todepths where "sweet" gas is usuallyfound. But Chuck McLean of the Over-thrust Industrial Association, a groupof.oil and gas companies formed to miti-

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Weak D.C. receptionfor sage reb bills

Idaho fJixes airIdaho Gov. John Evans (D) is repeal-

ing all of the state's air quality protec-tion rules, responding to the scrappingof the Bureau of Air Quality by thestate legislature.That agency was just one victim "Of

the Republiean-dominated budget-slashing Gem State legislature. Othertargets included all of the state's'groundwater monitoring program,one-half of the stream channel protec-tion budget, one-quarter of the parksdepartment budget (forcing the closureof three state parks), and a fifth of thewater quality bureau's budget.The healthiest survivor among f---------------.....,----

natural resource agencies was the stateFish and Game Department, which re-eeived a hefty 40 percent budget in-crease in part to set up a new non-gamespecies management program.Eliminating the Bureau of Air Qual-

ity drew the sharpest criticism from en-vironmentalists in Idaho. Pat Ford ofthe Idaho Conservation League inBoise says his group will use that move,as a campaign issue in the next electionto help oust unfriendly solons.The U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency, which supplemented the stateagency's $280,000 budget this yearwith $600,000 in federal funds, is ex-peeted to tllke over the siate air qualityprogram. A similar move occurred inOregon three years ago when thatstate's legislature cut its drinkingwater program, leading EPA to set up aprogram there that has "worked prettywell," according to EPA Region 10spokesman Bob Jacobson' in Seattle."But there's no way we can replace.,verything (in the Idaho air proaram)."he said. uWbat we're losing, besidessome fundl"g ..-is the handa-on experi-ence that the state agency personnel.haw'llsillllil' _,lie1f<!_,~J·r'5"'.Y-'r

gate the impacts of development, saidcompanies have found evidence of'shal-low sour gas deposits around Evanston.The geological structure, he said, maybe "topsy-turvy ," with sour gas depositsoverlying deeper sweet gas - a reverseof the usual situation.

Oil company officials say newtechnology enables them to drill-sourgas without endangering workers ornearby citizens. The National Institutefor Occupational Safety and Health re-ported that 26 workers were killed bysour gas exposure in Texas-and' Wyom·ing between 1974 and 1978. But aspokesman for the Occupational Safetyand Health Adm in iat.r at.ion inCheyenne, Wyo., told the CasperStar- Tribune that his agency had noreports ofdeath or injuries in Wyarningdue to hydrogen sulfide exposure "inthe last few years."

Neither industry nor town officialscould confinn rumors of a civil defenseplan for evacuating Evanston citizensin the case of'a major sour gas leak. Thecounty civil defense director was notavailable for comment.

~Joan Nic .

Taf1Jet l..f

,~hamei wiref.• Rumors that the newly-renamed

Wa~r and Power Resources Ser-vice will switch back to its oldchristening, and' perhaps its 'oldways, were substantiated by a re-cent agency press release. An:nouncing the appointment ofRobert Broadbent, the Interior De-partment Secretary said, "...he willbe outstanding as Commissioner ofwhat we shall always regard -as theBureau of Reclamation." Bread-bent, we note with interest, wasformerly a Federal BankruptcyTrustee, as well as water districtdirector for that oasis of oases, LasVegas.

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An Aurora, Colo., proposal tosave water this summer by ban-ning new la wns drowned in a floodof criticism last week. Opponents ofthe ban said the resulting dustwould increase allergic reactions,while others said no new lawnsmight mean more crime, reportsthe, Denver Post. Most notablewas forester Ken Hostetler's warn-ing that less lawn watering wouldraise the city's ambient air temper-ature. Melting ice fielda-m thenearby Rockies could only be next.

Joggers, often unperturbed byrain, have been curbed by the im-pending drought. Frequenters of ahillside trail in western Coloradowere asked to desist beca use theranch owner is moving in his ca ttleto get a jump on what looks like awater-short irrigating season. Butthey can still use the nearby road,he says, if they keep the gates shut.

K.T. Roes, a reporter with thePowell Tribune, compiled theFirst Annual High Plains DriftingAwards for Wyoming legislatorswho broke new grammaticalground during the recen tl y-completed session. Rep. CharlesScott (R-Casper), won note for voic-ing his fears of"the subsidization ofone industry by another," and Sen.Diemer True (R-Casper) invented auseful new word, "hypothecate."History collided with itself in thesyntax of Rep. Dan Budd(R-Sublette County) when he saidwhat government encroachment.would lead to: "The clock is going tohave a hammer and sickle on itsface and we're all going to have toraise our annsand say, "Sieg Heil."Others worried about "the nittygritty of nuts and bolts" and "rais-ing (legislator's) shackles." Roeswisely concluded with 'the malap-ropism of Rep. James Roth SD- 'Green River): Doesn't that makethis verbiage rather mute?,t'lf, 1.~ \1"". rn J fl:'~:" >,:; ... ' }",r""

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by Jack Kutz

. The Valle Caldera of northcentral:New Mexico has often been described as"the mountain that blew its top." Theincredibly violent' volcanic eruptionsthat occurred here during the Pleisto-cene era a million years ago rank amongthe most dramatic events in NorthAmerica's geologic history.Catastrophic eruptions, followed oy

the collapse of,the area's structural. dome, c~eated a crater 1·5miles indiameter and deposited the materialthat formed the plateaus and canyons ofthe Jemez- Mountains.Today, it is a land of extreme beauty.

The Caldera is richly meadowed; thecanyons are deep and rugged; and themountains are heavily forested withspruce, fir and aspen. The area supportsa variety ofwildlife, including deer, elk,bear, cougars and a rare endangeredamphibian, the Jemez Mountain sala-mander. .,Although the Caldera itselfis almost

entirely on private land, the mountainssurrounding it have long been a mecca'for tourists and outdoor recreationists.For the residents of the rustic villagesof Jemez Springs and Ponderosa, theJemez country has been an idyllic placeto live. And for the Pueblo Indians ofthe region, it is a land of great religioussignificance, a place of sacred springs,shrines ana herbs.

.CALDRON VALLEY

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Jemezqeothermcl dri-Iting.stnikes angry chord

Valle Caldera is Spanish for "Cal-dron Valley." Beneath the surface ofthe Caldera lies a great boiling caldronof geothermal liquids and vapors - anenergy "resource which Public-ServiceCompany ofNew Mexico, Union Geoth-ermal Company of New Mexico (UnionOil) and the U.S. Department of Energyplan to develop"As a part of the Federal Geothermal

Program, DOE and the two commercialpartners have proposed the construe-tion of a 50-megawatt geothermal wellfield, power.planband transmission lineto be located on the Baca Ranch withinthe Caldera. The purpose of this de-monstration plant, according to DOE'sEnvironmental Impact Statement, is"to provide information on theeconomic, technologic, and environ-mental aspects of electrical generationfrom a liquid-dominated sour~ and "isaimed at enhancing development. ofelectrical production from the bulk ofthe U.S. geothermal resource."-The power plant will be very similar(from the standpoint of power cycle de-sign) to the closed condenser systemnow being designed and built at theGeysers in northern California,If this project successfully de-

monstrates 50-MW capacity, future ex-pansion up to 400-MW is expected. TheEIS notes, "Development of a proposed50-MW demonstration power plant al-ready represents a change in thecharacter of a portion of the Baca Loca-tion from a relatively natural setting toan industrial one. Expanetcn to400-MW would considerably escalatethis change,"The residents of the Jemez Moun-

tains are Ie.. tHan enthusiastic aboutthe industrl8lization of thei' -eo un- ...,. .tryside. Angry opj>oaitionto the prqjec:t· · "They cannot pay·any 8IIlount of money ·to.b1q' out :o.urjm, ,.has come from the All Indian Pueblo terest; once our water iiigone we 88a people'win Dot.hrVive.~ ..Council, La Raza Unida and an lid-hoc . ',i'" "I,"," U"l,,;t.J_..-..,,,,,,,,,,,,C" ~'""citizen" group, Save the jemez(STJ). - _. -......,--"-'~ - --.- .•._-"_.. ---. -------

\. .

~ZIA

"why ruin the Jemeg Mountainsfor amarginal energy source that, wouldtrade perhaps our state's most beautifularea for California kilowa tts?" askedSTJ member Dr. G. Theodore Davis.Spokesmen for PNM insisted that the

utility "has gone to enormous pains"to affect the area as little as possible.N~vertheless, the impact will be c'on-sidereb le.So far, 22 test wells have been drilled

over an area of 43 square miles. l'AI_ready we're seeing the beginnings of aboom town," said Davis. "There are 80semis per day on the tourist road andplans for a 250"-unit trailer park."The project's impact on the area's

water resources is one of the opponents'major concerns .. The proposed 50-MWplant would extract approximately9,665 acre feet of water per year fromgeothermal supplies, and would re-

.inject approximately 6,856 acre feet,thus consuming 2,809 acre feet an-nually.In a report prepared by Geological

Services of Tulsa for the Santa ClaraPueblo, hydrologist 'I'om Aley con-eluded, "The extraction of more waterfrom the thermal aquifers than' is re-injected would rapidly lead to majordewatering of the thermal aquifers.This dewatering would induce ground-water recharge from' overlyinggroundwater supplies, which in turnwould divert waters from surface watersupplies. Induced water recharge wouldhave major impacts on surface watersupplies."The EIS acknowledged the reduction

in the flow of springs and wells fed inpart by geothermal reservoir outflow isexpected to occur. but added "the totalamount of depletion is not known .at -'

April 3, 1981 - High Country Newa-6 I'j;,this-time."

Jemez country residents fear theworst. Jemez Springs councilmanMichael Stay said, "One of the earlyimpacts of the project could be the cut-off of the water supply of the 212 cus-tomers of the Jemez Springs DomesticWater Co-op. We know the project willlower the level of wells, and reducewater for irrigation, but the cut-off ofour water supply is even more serious."

SACRED SITE

Pueblo Indians ofthe region view theproposed power plant as a violation ofthe American Indian Religious Free'-dom Act - the 'legislation that protectsand preserves Native American religi-ous sites and sacred objects and thefreedom to worship through ceremonialand traditional rites. The Pueblos havetaken the position that the wholeJemezMountains are sacred and constitute areligious site.PNM has assured the Indians that no

shrines or archeological si tes will bedisturbed, that the transmission linecorridor will avoid all known religioussites and that no drilling or explorationwill take place on Redondo Peak, thesacred mountain above the' project.However, the Indians contend that thisonly shows PNM's lack of understand-ing of the Puehlo religion. ~According to Pueblo beliefs, life must

be lived in a way that maintains thebalance of nature and causes no dam-age to the spirit world. Geothermal dril-ling is considered a sacrilege, since itinvades the underworld, which is the. most important level of nature in Pue-.blo cosmology. The contamination qrdisturbance of underground water isparticularly serious because water isthe medium by which spirits travel toand from the Ullderworld."Every part of the earth is sacred,"

said Jose Lucero ofSanta Clara Pueblo."OUf church cannot be containedwithin four walls."- James M. Hecker, attorney forSanta Clara, added, "Pueblo shrineshave much tRe same significance as a~-tars in the Catholic church. The shrineat the top of Redondo Peak is the altar,and th~ area surrounding the peak is- the church. It is nearly impossible toestablish or maintain one's focus of de-votion and worship in the naturalchurch-like setting when only a shortdistance away there is the visible ugli-ness of plant technolcgy.: the audibleshock waves of drilling operations, andthe occasional smell of noxious hydro-gen sulfide fumes. The situation iscomparable to operating ajaekhammerin the interior of a Catholic church."All seven Pueblos in the vicinity

(Santa Clara, Tesuque, Jeinez, Zia,Santa Ana, San Felipe and Cochiti)bave opposed the project. The All In-. dian Pueblo Council has indicated itmay iile a lawsuit to stop construction.The impact of the project will extend

beyond the power plant and the wellfields Iyi"g in the shadow of RedondoPeak. Transmission of the electricitygenerated will require the constructionof a 20-mile long, U5-kilovolt powerline across the Valle Caldera,In 1976, the entire Baca Location

(Baca Ranch) was desigDated as.a Na-.tiona! Naturill Lan'dmarit because ofitascenic qualities and relatively wellPri>servedM~I!·t:ate.II)be.dll'j.-$;

-----.-----(wotinaed oli_pHge1:2T-,..---.-"-

ous principles. Others, despite earnestleadership, 'were hodgepodges ofwould-be wets, philosophers, and justplain freeloaders. They dotted the coun-tryside, taking their messages of hopewestward intoths raw wilderness.On one of these communes, .called '

Hopedale, might be found Horace.Greeley, America's most celebratededitor, spending a weekend of respitefrom the jangles ofNew York City, hap-pily grunting over a spade or intently,nearsightedly, sewing grain sacks.When the editor visited Massachusetts'Brook Farm, an unconverted bystanderquipped that Greeley "looked like awandering Moses at a fair, ready to beduped bya fakir.". Visionary Greeley certainly offered

The author of the famous passage a large target for cynics. "The oddity ofwas John Muir. Through such eloquent his appearance, with his pink face ofbluster, he filled his readers with the babylike mildness fringed by throat-combined.shame and self-righteous ire whiskers, his -broad-brimmed hat,that compelledmany of them to support white overcoat, crook'edc~av~~Jshape-his movement for environmental re- less trousers, and white socks, hisform. Yet Muir_hadbeen living quietly shambling gait and absent-mindedamong his grapevines in Northern manner, was exaggerated. by everyCalifornia until Robert Underwood caricaturist," notes one commentator,Johnson, campaigning edi tor of Cen- who continues, "His squeaky voice andtury Magazine, lured the vineyardist illegible handwriting became themes ofback into the mountainato view recent familiar humor."devastation by lumbermen and, The large influence over public opi n-sheepherders. After their camping trip, .ion that Greeley eventually wieldedMuir became the activist "John of the didn't come easy for this odd fishMoufltains," father of the Sierra Club, swimming in the roiled social and polit-founder of national parks, and druid of ical waters of the time. Crude frontiermany nature lovers to this day. neighbors in New Hampshire had mar-If editor Johnson, far less colorful veled over the towheaded Greeley, who

than Muir, seems to playa minor role in as a child learned to read ~ upsidethe unfolding of conservation history, down - at the age of three' and whohis part was nonetheless typical of a became ill merely at seeing rain outsidespecialized band of conservation prom~' his log-cabin window. This strange,( oters. Progressive journalists formed sickly babe would dozeoff at local spel-

. - -.: !-an auxiliary corps, supplying essential ling bees, wake' at his turn, mouth thesupport to leaders of' environmental proper letters, "then fall back intocauses. They saw to it that the conser- slumber. His father, Zack, partook toovation articles foundwide audiences in liberally of rum, the frontiersman's es~.the Atlantic Monthly, the Century, cape from grinding reality.Scribner's, and other opinion-setting Yeats later, Greeley helped fbund themagazines and newspapers of the .day: Republican party, served a brieftenn inthey penned sympathetic editorials and Congress, and held considerable swayoften used their considerable influence over the outcome ofstate arid nationalto "lobby behind the scenes in elections. But debt plagued him, a~ didWashington. his wife's hopeless hypochondria -=- notWhile the Muir-Johnson team had its to mention the repeated skewerings by ,

platoon of-contemporary counterparts Thomas Nast, whose cartoonist's penand their followers down through the mercilessly exploited the editor's weakdecades whole companies, historians points. Added to his trouble~, Horaceoften gloss over or miss entirely the suffered from bouts of mental instabil-journalistic predecessors of the Muir ity, which he unclinically referred to asgeneration. Horace Greeley, founder "brain fever." Humility was not a vir-of the New York Tribune in 1841, tue counted among the reformer'sstands out among this group of editors traits. A Greeley contemporary lanced'which early recognized environmental the moral~t as a "self-mads man whocare as one need in a crusade for social worshipped his creator." .betterment. At the age of sixty-one, the editorWe often think of America's first re- challenged' President Grant forelection

form period as coming somewhat later, .and lost his last bid for -the officialas a backlash during Muir's. time to the stamp of public recognition. He diedexcesses of what Mark Twain 'wryly . soon after, incoherent in a sanatorium.labeled "TheGilded Age." However, the A large part of the public wasdecades. of earnest strivings. bad their charmed by the indomitable, Greeleybeginnings. in the pre-Civil War years, image - especially of the ganglingwhen a. nation grappling [With the youth walking out of the wilderness, achainsofslaveryandstumblipgtoward few belongings dangling in a bundlea prolopged war, began to deal with from a stick, to seek and find fortune inbroad questions of'civil rights and so- New York City. It was impressed by acia! ehanga. . man who, though born into hardserab-As in many periods of change, some- ble circumstsnces, mastered the ins-

thing ill-defined yet el~ctric w.as in the, and-outs of publishing to found theair. Itmight be, so semepeople thought, NewYork Tribune at the age ofthirty.the aura of a dawning Utopia, when The growing number of subscribershumans at last' would discover their Iearned, even as it chuckled, that in theideal selves. Massachusetts' Brook main Greeley's odd genius could be .Farm, in existence between 1841 and. trusted. TliereadershipoftheTribune1847, is perhaps the best known of the eventually extended from the l\tlanticexperimental, commurrist.ic com- seaboard to the Mississippi River.munitiea which turned their backs on Greeley further extended -his influen-ce

. the evils of Society and sought Ii more through books and lecture tours. Rural~! divine reality by r?otingth.em~ellY~in peopl~ flocked ~ropnd~~!ee,IE;.~:as b-e 'L~_""-~4:;' L. .~~, "-I-!i. L_--the wiJ(0Sfil1le;,r'the~!bbi<fs~Uk'.r ilrJ!JOl> stum1Ji,'dtlie tbl.intrysid.-speakmg ,,;,-

:1-;J' '~f ~haker gtoup,s"followed sternly religi. this or that moraUssue. They not only\

6-High Country News - Apl"il 3, 1981

G_reeley. said, 'Go

West,' _but fought-the

19th century

BarbequeY of public

land

•

. .

@ 1981.by Pe!"'r Wild

Nearly a hundred years ago, an arti-de in the Atlantic Monthly contrastedthe careful forestry practices of Europewith' America's rapine~ then drove apoint home:

A.ny fool can destroy trees. They cannotron away; and if they could, they wouldstill be destroyed, -chased and hunteddown as longas fun or a dollar couldbegot out of their barkhides ...God hascared forthese trees, saved them fromdrought, disease, avalanches, and athousand straining, leveling tempestsand floods; but he cannot save themfrom fools, - only Uncle Sam can dothat.' .

~I

listened to his counsel on poll tics butsought his guidance on personal prob-lems as well. On a rare visit to NewYork, a farmer might clump lip 'thestairs to the Tribune office, seeking thetrusted editor for advice on what cropshe should plant.In the main, the public today remem-

bers Horace Greeley for his four fam-ous words, "Go West, young .man." Healso dedicated one of his many books,What I Know of Farming, to "TheMan of Our Age, Who Shall Make TheFirst Plow Propelled By Steam." Hewas a booster indeed, but a Sensitiveone; not 'at all along the lines of thetypicafly aggressive nineteenth-century captains of industry. In his Re-collections he urges:

~. Men of means and of thrift should buyup sterile tracts that.areoffered for saleat low rates, and promptly cover themwith White Oak, Hickory,White Pine,'Locust, Chestnut, ~c ...Timber growssteadily dearer and dearer: streams be-come desolating torrents at intervals,and hem of dry sand and pebbles forweeks in Summerand Fall, because ourhills have been SQ generally strippedand denuded of trees. Let us unitedly.cease to do evil and learn to do well.inrelation to trees.

Unlike the expanding' nation,-,Greeley loved nature far more thangold. He believed in development, hutto him clearcutting virgin forests for'quick profits, overgrazing the recentlysettled prairies, and recklessly tearingdow~ mountainsides in the search formetal were anathema.He told the nation's restless y,outh

with dollar signs in its eyes to go South,to go East, as well as West - to find a ('runaown farm, buy it cheap, and re-store it through a lifetime of care. "Na-ture offers us good bargains," he 'lec·tured, "but she does not trust arid winnot be cheated." In an effort to check thenineteenth century's "Great Ba:r-beque"of the land, he sternly reminded readersthat ttThe one grea t etTor tha t misleads.and corrupts mankind is the preSUffiIPtion that .omething may be had fornothing .... But the universe wasframed on a plan which requires somuch for So much."New Yorker Greeley did"not equate

ind~strialization with the evils ofcitie~. The editor's hopes for the -grow-ing Republic included the benefita thatlarge-scale manufacturing could bringto civilization, but they also includedThomas :Jefferson's dream of a ruralAmerica living in prosperity and atpeace with the lsnd. To state the assocr-ation more directly, in Greeley's ~indthe nation would prosper if; and only if,it lived at peace with nature. "A goOdworkman," he remonstrated, udoes notquarrel with his tools."By Greeley's time, weswring had heM

come a disturbing reality. With eachdiscovery'of gold-in California or Col·orado, more Eastern clerks threw downtheir p.ens, more Eastern farmersahandoned their plows, to rush by thethousands across the Mississippi andplunge into the unknown beyond. Somevillage. in the East were left all outd~p'opulated, while th€tir former OCCUPMants ditched and dug and axed the newlands iIi .seal'Chof instant wealth. Such,a get-rich-quick m!=lntality cut· acrossthe grain of Greeley's basically conser:. ,vative outlook.. He illustrates this in one of his mostwitty, reada~le, and informative books,An Overland Journey. In the Springof 1859, the editor - as always clutch-ing hi. huge umbrella - cfam~redaboard a carriage of the Erie Railroad

/

and headed West. Four months later hewas back in New York City, havingbounced across the plains and over theRocky Mountains on stagecoaches toSan Francisco, then returned bysteamer via the Isthmus of Panama.Along the way, he visited the gold

diggings outside the haphazard log cityof Denver, in Utah interviewedBrigham Young, cagey leader of theMormon Church, and toured the Bier-ra's Yosemite Valley. The trip, and the

. '

tal, now dense and opaque with pul-verized rock.': As to Greeley's alwaysbeloved trees, he spoke of "the generaldevastation of timber" by the busy min-ers. Few people listened. He sadly con-cluded: "Remonstrance were-idle, but Imust be permitted to deplore.". A week later, however, he had anearly' prophetic inkling ofhope. When,.suffering badly from saddle sores, thetenderfoot editor dismounted in theMariposa Grove of redwoods, his spirits

"Nature offers us good bargains, but shedoes not trust and will not be cheated."

- Horace Greeley

dispatches he sent back, served severalpurposed for Greeley and his Tribune.readers. At a time when some peoplescoffed at constrqcting a transcontinen-tal railroad, comparing the proposal fabuilding ~ bridge to the moon, Giee!l!ywanted to see for himselfifitcould hedone. Also, as William Hale pu~ it inHorace Greeley: Voice of thePeople, "He wanted to get away forawhile from the political turmoil. Hemay have thought it would be a goodthing to get his readers' minds offit too.The West was America's greatest ad-venture. It might also prove now to beits place ofself-re?ewal and salvation."

With the latter thought particularly. in mind, Greeley was fairly 'flabber-gasted by the West's resources, the richpotential. of the Kansas prair-ie, theseemingly endless forests along thePacific coast. But he wrote about the-negative aspects, toO': Because of thisbala~ce, 'An Overland Journey'-re-'mains one of the most reliable accountsof the early West.Unlike many a glowing conternpor-

ary account of Western travel, the bookinformed would-be pioneers that theplains of easte~n Colorado were 'ltree_less, cheerless, forbidding,'~ while inparts of Nevada "famine sits en-throned." Proof lay in the 'immigrantsstreaming eastward past Greeley'sstagecoach. They had pitted themselvesindividually against nature and broKentheir bodies against the realities of thearid West. Instead of this laissez-fairegamble, Greeley advocated homesteadlaws" that would grant families .uffi-cient land for their needs.A believer in orderly development,

Greeley urged settlement by colonies,which could cooperate to build the irri-gation prOjects necessary for successfulWe.tern agriculture. GreeleY, Colo.,- founded along, such lines with theeditor's support, was an example of asensible but rarely followed alternativeto predominantly .lapdash settlement.The editor pointed to the reckless

search for gold as typif'ying the mista-ken attitudes toward the West.Thousands of treasure hunters wereblasting the West's mountai~s with theidea of striking it rich and returningEast In a few months for a life of ease.Greeley cautioned his readers that «the ....hardest way to obtain gold is to mine forit ...a goOdfarmer o~mechanic wi~l.usu-. ally make money faster."Destruction" accompanied the tom-

foolery that paid most adventurers indisillusionment and heartache. ToUr-ing the gold-fields of California, Greeleylam~n~ed the consequences of Hyd-raulic mining, which used.powerfuljetsof water to· eat away mountains. Theresult was l'watercourses torn up andgo.'ugedoy~, and rivers, once pure crys-

. . .

soared at the giants bea uty. He ended'his-eulogy to them: "I am sure they willbe more prized and treasured athousand years hence than now, shouldthey, by extreme care and caution, bepreserved ...." A few years after, youngJohn Muir arrived in the area to takeup the theme and begin his long cam-paign for preservation.These and similar issues of steward-

ship Horace Greeley, blinking innc-cently behind his thick glasses, echoedin books and editorial. throughout hislong public career. However, though hegrasped the basic complexity of eeologi-cal cycles long before the public evencared about them, he harbored some petideas that now strike us as curious, ifnot wrongheaded:. h, 1853, Greeley bought a farm nearChappaqua, a village thirty-fiv.e milesnorth of New York City. It was a run-down'place, more a hobby than a payingp'ropositi9J1 for the harried news-paperman, a refuge where thenineteenth-century romantic could.withdraw on weekends.to dabble in ex-perimental farming. For some reason,the boughs of hemlock trees irritatedGreeley. 'lThere was something.la.ughM'

rAci<t?IYC~ ~~·rolJrli,!u<, durabla .~ - b;;:tt',;"s,iri5tll"i!l$ or"aM<Zrd;'f>,

, ~L'l,sakJPUi'&l£.~, miNo~

wholt:.aL-z or.-cl'alL5r.nd 5o¢ ~ b<bcJw,r1Z. t s2>mpllZ.·

'b::>:3o<.05o.ta."j"a .•51:Ju\ll..f'O'''t \1)8~"'1~.. "

April 3, 1981 - High Country News-7

able," comments biographer VanDeuse-r, "about the editor of America'smost powerful newspaper ...climbingthirty 'feet up a hemlock, ax in hand,bent on trimming off all its branchesfrom there td the ground," In What IKnow of Farming, farmer Greeleysang the praises of spreading swampmuck over fields asfertilizer, a labori-ous undertaking of dubious value.. Yet'tn the main, there is-an oracular,modern ring to Greeley's warningsabout man-caused desertiflcation..-.to

- his fears concerning overpopulationand pollution. Unless society acts, "ourgreat cities wIll be destroyed hy theirown physical impurities," he predicted.Hfa apprehensions over clearcutting, -and -overgrazing, over erosion andfloodingbrought on by reckless abusesto nature, ushered in the massiveawareness in America's largest met-ropolitan area that a few decade. laterled to Creation of New York's hugeAdirondack State Park. He loved ani-mals and, at a time when fanners wereslaughtering birds as enemies, recog-nized them as insect controllers par ex-. celience. "I have no doubt," he declared,"that our best allies ...are the Birds." He.urged stiff laws and formation of bird:-protection associations, prefiguring thefounding of the National Audubon Soc,iety and other organizations.On a visit to England, Greeley ex-

pressed the emotive Power behind-hisecological view of the future. Ponderinga land where wildness had long since "vanished .. he considered: his OWl) de-veloping country and enjoined his fel-low citizens: "Friends at home! I chargeyou to spare, preserve, and cherishsome portion of yeur prfmitive forests;for when there are cut away I ap-prebend they' will not easily be re-placed."

,

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••

EIC speaksfor those. who can't ~peak for themselves.·

Join the·Montana" Environmentallnformalion Center

PO BOx 1184Helena, "Montana 59624

B-High Country News - April 3, 1_981

r t."'- '.....- - ...... .

by Mel McFarland

Tliis es®y is based on the author'sbook, The Midland Route, PruettPublishing, Boulder, Colo.; 350 pages;$44.95. -

Imagine yourself on the platform ofthe- Santa Fe station in ColoradoSprings in 1908, tbe twentieth year ofthrough-service on the Midland. A tic:ket in your hand will deliver you toLeadville, Aspen, Glenwood Springs oreven Salt Lake City. A long train with

'"'heavily varnished maroon passengercars, each trimmed in gold i~waiting-.Two large, bHghtly polished steam en-gines will pull the csrs. A porter in astarched white uniform stands by to

help. . " .,The interior of thecar is cherry and

.white oak. The seats are large and com-fortable, The .upholstery 'is plush ma-roon, the carpet a heavy Wilton pat-tern. A room at the end of the car is setaside for those who wish to smoke."I'he dining car, one of the railroad'srecent additions, has. been convertedfrom a large' first class coach. Until lastyear passengers had to leave the trainand eat in railroad Eating Houses,strategically. located along the route.Now, you can dine on lovely linen andheavy, sparkling china, with ornatesilver. For dessert,~ the Pullman 'obser-vation; car opens a window en some ofQoloraao's finest 'scenery.But tlie dream is shsttered. The Col-'

orado Midland died in 1918 and. nolonger makes its six daily westboundruns. Like most modern railroads, theCo~orado Midland was standard gauge- four feet, eight-and-one-half inchesbetween the rails. Its connections witheastern railroads allowed' the Midlandto run some of the finest Pullman carsavailable, pulled from large easterncities through th"eMidland to Salt LakeCity. The alternate routes werethrough Wyarning on the Union Pacific,or New Mexico on the Santa Fe.At: Its 'zenith, the Midland covered

over 260 .miles and served many of thestate's early boom towns - BuenaVista, Arkansas Junction, Basalt, Sel-,lar and Newett, Divide and Florissant,' '\..-------------~-----'---as well as a chain of tiny stops such asPeach Blow, Busk, Wild Horse, Pisgahand Sweet's Spur.The remains of the railroad are scat- .

tered across Colorado. Three man-madelakes cover sections of the worn grade,as do dirt roads and four-lane high-ways. Old railroad buildinga survive asbarns, homes and even a bank.• The trail of the Midland is fadingfrom the map every dsy, Both the work-ings of nature and the hand of man are rerasing the route. Nature works slow- Iiy, eroding long fills and f!lling deepcuts, while Eleven ,Mile, Sugar Loadand Ruedi dams have brought quickchange.- The Colol1l,do Midland is well re-membered, however. Enthusiasts of therailroad can be found aeroaa the nation,from employees of modern railroadslike the Union Pacific, to doctors,lawyera and the like. A few remnantsare left behind to remind us ofwhat wasa very line railroad: ~

A passangsrtrain cllmbs tip Ute Pass, just west oftfifteen yeara after the last train rolled through it.

"A cherrY and whittrail is fading fast."

Basalt,Aspen. T,Colora<

"Divide,oIhel~,cu,lnthe.railroadstravel fill

UMfl~T. LRT.aE4-V2

:ePass.just weat ofColoradoSprings. Hanging Rock Cut waaatill blackened with soot, rolled through it

rY and white oak dream, the Midland'sIlding fast:' '

Basalt, Co!~<above right), waa the Western heaaqu..rte;" and the connection toAspen. TodaY!!lheold depot is a bank, and the yards are a park. 'Colorado.lana engine 1 (above right center) a tIvanhoe, near the Cllntinental

'Divide, oft;eD ~lped 'push haavy trains over the ateep pass. A two mile tunnelhelpid, cut dI>9rn on the work at 'the turn of the,century.' t,,', Inthe wiJIt,R'of1899 'a Storm closed tha Colorado Midland and other mountainrailroads {oJ ~rly two months. This anow plow kaio tooll nearly tw~ weeka totravel fifl3"DIiIes., ,. , . ' .

~~, .... ~.' , .....

10-High Country News - April 3, 1981

Oil shale.(continued from page 1)

fossils. These fish thrived in the fresherportions of the lake, near the incomingstreams, and in the higher waters.,The bottom waters were putrifyingoozes that lay ~there year after year,century after century. In Wilmot Brad-ley's 1929,geologioalreporton the form-ation, he estimated it took over 8,000'years to accumulate a foot of oil shale.MultiplYing by the number of feet of oilshale, and adjusting for the richness ofeach section. he calculated that the lakehad existed in roughly the same statefor 5 million to 8 million years.TWo lakes, and sometimes, three. co-

vered an estimated 30 percent of thelarger basin. The southernmost lake •.

. - which contains the richest oil shalezone in the west, was sometimes di-vided into two parts, now called theUinta and Piceance Creek Basins:

STAGNANT WATERS,~

The most widely accepted iheorY isthat the lakes were very shallow, .nomore than 100 feet deep, but that theywere 'strongly laminated, the upperwaters not mixing with the lower.Plankton growing" in the fresh upperwater died and sank to the stagnantlower waters, forming fetid layers onthe bottom. Stream sediments settlednear the lak'- edges, and only the finestclsys floated to the middle, where theysank -to form embryonic marlstone.Perhaps the most remarkable image

is of sedimenta accumulating for mill-ions of years in pervasive, putrifyingstillness, a true geological feat tha t ac-counts for the uniqueness of the GreenRiver Formation. In layers less thanone-hundredth of an inch thick, the sed-iment layers, like tree rings, show sea-sonal variations.Another unique aspect of the Green

River Formation is the occurrence ofcommercial quantities of various salineminerals. These sodium-rich mineralsarose from the chemical combination ofsodium with other elements in thestagnant waters of the lakes, concen-trated year after yeai' by evaporation.The trona industry of SweetwsterCounty, Wyo" is today's prime exampleof such, commercial potential,There are now plans to extract nahco-

lite, a mineral with a chemical formulaidenticsl to bakin'g sods, from thePiceance Creek Basin of Colorado. Anddawsonite, a sodium-aluminum carbo-nate, msy yet prove to be a substitutefor bauxite as a llPuree of sluminum.Oddly, trona is restricted,to Wyoming,while dswsonite and nahcolite are re-stricted to the southern lake - primar-ily the Piceance Creek Basin portion.This may rel1ect differing waterchemistries or c1imaticconditions in thetwo lakes.Though Wyoming to date has de-

veloped the only true indUstry based onthe' Green River Formation, it is thePiceance Creek Basin in Coloradowhich wins the prize for kerogenouswealtli. Over 85 percen~f the richestoil shale lies inOolorado, much of it inthe Mahogany Zone, though there aremany other reeognized rich layers. Thethickness of the oil shales may be 250feet around the perimeter of the basin,but it increases to 2000 feet in the ba-si~'8interior.·

UNTAPPED,pOTENTlAL?

, lndustry has been long aware of a po-

~~ GF~J±NRIVfR BASIN

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CRAIGo

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GRANDJUNCTION

COLORADO. -

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2.5,

~ \ '\ unassoJed 0,.. low jeld oi.lshale

~ oil shale mat-e ~ /5' l:hIcl<...and .!JiLldi"'J 25 r.llons oiLjl:k.j shD.1e, (or /t'Ult"e) . -.

5°ImileS

tential bonanza in oil shale, but to datenothing has come of it.When federal leases of oil shale lands

were proposed in 1968, no one even 'bidfor them. The government insisted on,public access to research results, a de-mand which fueled a financial boomamong government and industrylawyers. Perhaps the prime reason forthe lack ofinterest, though, is stated bya government engineer quoted in ChrisWelles' The Elusive Bonanza (1970):

situ (underground) retorting.Gulf and Stan darn of Indiana

(Amoco) leased the C-a tract, callingtheir project the Rio Blanco Oil ShaleCompsny. Ashland, ARCO, Shell, and. The' Oil Shale Company (Tosco) com-bined to lease tract Cob, calling theirproject Cathedral Bluffs Shale OilCompany. Phillips, Sohio, and Sunoco(actually Sunedco) formed the WhiteRiver Shale Broject on the Utah tracts,No one bid on the Wyoming shales.Wyoming's Green River Formationseems destined to remain only a pro- .ducer of trona, and of excellent Eocenefish fossils.

nanced a $4-5 billion pipeline., Back on the drawing 'board, the gov-ernment drafted a more attractive.pee-kage, involving local governments andindustry in the site selection process.Then OPEC played its band, the price ofcrude soared and available foreign oildeclined. The 1974 lease sale was aroaring success - to the tune of $447million.Two 5.000·acre tracts were nomi-

na.ted from 'each of the three oil shale IEntering an experimental oil shale mine

with high'pillared ceilings, one reclamationofficial felt "kind of like a hobbit." PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS

--_ ........ _.

/

"

-..-,

"Of course, the real interest of oil com-panies in shale is inversely proportionalto their crude reserves ..." ,In 1966, 25 oil compsnie~ had 'paid

$60~ million to les se over360,000 acresof federal outer continental shelf in theSanta Barbara Channel; in 1969, theindustry dropped $900 million forleases on Alsska's North Slope and fl-

I

states - about twice the size of thetracts allowed-in the 1968 sale. The Col-orado tracts, imaginatively dubbed C-aand .C-b, by fa~ the richest, werede-signed to encourage deep mining, withsurface retorting. The leaner 'Utahshales were leased on contiguous tracis,to allow development by one operation.The Wyoming tracts would require in

t

But by 1976 all the federal lesseeshad applied for suspensions' on theirlease payments, which had been spread.outover five years.The Utah' tracts were tied up in liti- c'

gation between the feds and the stateover jurisdiction of the lands.. G·bwas running into serious geologi~tal problems. The shales proved to be sothoroughly fractured as to preclude the

. -, .~. '.' , ,

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economic use of a room and pillar min-ing method. To support the crumblingroof, the pillars would haveto be too fat.The lessees of C-a wanted to surfacemine its resource, a proposal whichwould make recovery five times more ef-ficient. But the Department of Interiorrefused to grant the additional land thecompanies felt would be necessary foroff-tract retorting, and waste disposal.Everything was back in limbo in

1976. Rio Blanco changed its strategyto in situ. Cathedral Bluffs crumbled; ofthe original partners, only 'Ashlandlasted out 1976. Occidental Oil signedon 'but then Ashland dropped out; itsplace has now been taken byTenneco.The Utah tracts remain snarled in

litigative webs. The state issue was re-sorved in favor of federal control of the ~land, but now the Ute Indians claim.rights to the land, and a"goodnumber ofmining claims, filed before the 1920federal leasing act took effect, mayhave -been taken to patent; if so, itwasnot federal land.Despite these problems, the various'

companies continued to develop their. oil shale technologies on lab benches,then pilot plants, then semiworksplants. ,

Exxon entered the fray, purchas- f

ing ARCO's 60 percent interest in Col-ony Oil Shale, a development on privateland in Parachute Creek, for $300 mill-ion down, $100' million later. ARCOexplained that it had capital commit-ments elsewhere. ..The "moral equivalent of war" also

has had an explosive effect on the in-dustry. The Department of Energy

An8million barrel. per-day oil shale indus-try would increase the population ofWesternColorado from 75,000to 1.5 million and re-quire the disposal of a Panama Canal worthof spent shale every ten days.

granted the Union and Tosco portion of'the Colony project $3 billion worth ofloan guarantees. Although the ReaganAdministration is trying to cancelDOE's synfuel commercialization prog-ram, the Synthetic Fuels Corporationwill continue.

CRESCENDO OF CHANGE

Colorado's Governor Dick Lamm (0),called it a crescendo of change, as he

_ narrated a slide show put together by12 states participating in the WESTPOcoalition. He wondered about good ver-sus cancerous growth. He was dis-mayed that the Reagan axe had not fal-len as heavily on synfuels as the. press·had been led to believe. Economics, hesaid, ought to drive the system.

Shale Country, a publication.funded by industry, but with a certaindegree of editorial-autonomy, is back onthe press after a five year hiatus, sayingthe "on-again, off-again shale saga isvery much on," and that the 1981 con-sensus "seems to be that this timearound oil shale will 'go'."

Exxon, one of very Jew oil shale com-panies which did not apply for a sh,areof

OIL SHALE (above) stands up to the harshest weathering, resulting instratified stone cliffs like these above the Colorado River.

PILOT-SIZE OIL SHALE PLANTS, like the one below on the federal e-atract in Colorado, may pave the way for commercial-size operations thatwin rival the largest industrial facilities Q! the ~~st.

federal synfuels aid is vigorously atwork on its 47,000 barrel-per-day Col-ony"Project. Its Battlement ·Mesa com-munity, sited across the Colorado Riverfrom the mouth of Parachute Creek, isbeing built with. projected 20,000 reo'sidents in mind. Massive concrete head-frames for production ana service

\shafts are now complete on the Cathed-ral Bluffs Cob tract, towering 313- and178-feet respectively over the silence ofthe Piceance Creek Basin interior. Thecompanies hope to be on their way to-ward a 30,000 barrels-per-day produc-tion goal by 1987.

On the other Colorado federal pro-totype lease tract, C-a, RioBlanco (Gulfand Standli~ "f Indiana) continues totest a modified in situ process. Thecompany has applied for permission todemonstrate a combination of open. pitmining and Lurgi-Ruhrgas surface re-torting. The goal is 47,000 bpd.·Chevron, the largest private land

holder in the oil shale country, with43,000 acres in both Parachute andRoan creeks, is running experiments atits California labs, with a possibletarget of 50,000 bpd by 1990.

Union Oil 'is fully permitted on poi-vate land in Parachute Creek, and iscurrently developing the first of five10,000 bpd modules, to be fired in 1983.Tosco, on top of being a partner with

Exxon on the 'Colony project, will besinking a shaft. later this year on itsUtah Sand Wash holdings. .Paraho, with the longest record of

shale oil production to· date (most of.which was sold to the US Navy), is now_testing Israeli and Morrocan oil shalesat the Anvil Points facility, which it -leases from the government. Parahomay soon develop a Utah lease tracttoward an eventual 10,000 bpd produc-tion.

600 BILLION BARRELS

Of the currently estimated 2 trillionbarrels of oil shale crude oil equivalent,some 600 bilhonis considered commer-. cially mineable. A "unit sized" plantwould be 50,000 bpd, and would cost'upward of $1 billion. One such plantwould be the largest industrial facilityin the West to date.Good oil shale will yield over 20 gal,

Ions to the ton, so it takes two tons ofrock to get a barrel of oil (42 gallons).This means 50,000 bpd is equivalent tomining 100,000 tons ofoil shale per dayor 36.5 million tons a year - largerthan the biggest coal strip mine in theWest.What would a mine look like? If un-

derground, it would be an immenseroom-and-pillar mine; the roofs wouldbe 60 feet liigh, the pil1ars 40 feet indiameter. Jim McArdle, who coordi-nated the review process for the Col-orado -Mined Land Reclamation divi-sion.on the Colony proposal, said thatentering even the experimental minepunched into the Roan cliffs made himfeel "kind of like a.bobbit," If the minewere one room, 60 feet high and 60 feet

, "".' wide,it>w"uld.hav~ tobe ~tiveh backI the iength of'a football field every day to

supply the needed raw shale.

April 3, 1981 - High Country New.. ll

Spent shale win have to !!!' storedsomewhere after the oil is cooked out ofit. Most present mine plans call for fil-ling in draws and valleys near .themine. _Depending on who you talk to, the

industry will produce between 200,000bpd and 8 million bpd. This last esti-mate, considered high by most, is fromExxon's 1980 "white paper," a docu-ment that sent chilla down plannersspines. An 8 million bpd industry wouldrequire 160 unit-sized oil shale plants,would increase the population nf weslrern Colorado from 75,000 to Ls million,and would require the disposal of. a.Panama Canal worth of spent shaleevery ten days. There would be airquaJ-ity problems and a drain on water sys.-tems.

, .-It takes on the order offour barrels of

water for every single barrel producedby the plant: Says Steve Richardson.the Colorado Mined Land Reclamatior·division's oil shale expert: '~There isprobably enough water in unappmp-.;iated stream flows and undetgroundaquifers to support a 400,000 bpd in-dustry.-Beyond that, I don't know ..."

• (Coming next issue in PartU: Ho1l'oil- shale retorting processes wol'llJsocial iinpacts of oil shale -develop-ment; and reclamation problemsthat lie abead.),

NOPARKING

This space reserved for the HighCountry News Research Fund.Without it, we couldn't pay re-

porters for stories like the ones onoil shale, bUdget cuts and geoth-ermal energy in this' issue,If you' think this is a waste of

Space,why don't You sepd a tex-dedu~ible contribution to theHCN Research FunC:? Then wecould reserve this space for astory ..Pl8ase make checks payable. to Wyoming

EiMronmentar Institute-:HCNAF. and mail toWEI. Box 2497. Jackson WY 83001. Thankyou.

..

12-High Country News ~-April3,1981

Jemez. • • •SClmtinued from page 5)

companying the landmark status reocommendation identified geothermaldevelopment activities as the majorthreat to the integrity of the landmark.

Valle Caldera. was_ originally prop-osed aa a National Park in 1911; in 1979H.L. Ross, deputy secretary of the De-partment of Interior, informed DOE,'We regard this area as a potential fu-ture unit of the National Park System.Until the Congress acts, we cannot sup-port any federal action which couldcompromise the exiat ing value ofarea's natural ecosystems or its poten-tial value for public use and enjoy-ment."Two routes for the transmission line

are under consideration. The northerncorridor would traverse twice as much _of the National Natural Landmark asthe southern corridor, but the southernroute would be 20 percent longer over-.all, crossing three times as much publicland, including Bandelier NationalMonument.The Baca Ranch is surrounded by the

Photo by JIlcMeI McClure

Santa Fe National Forest except for' anarrow strip of Santa Clara Puebloland. It is very unlikely that the SantaC1aras will grant a transmission lineright-of-way. Therefore, such a right-of-w,,¥ will have. to cross national forestlands and be cOvered by a permit oreasement issued by the U.S. ForestService.The Forest Service Regional Office

argued that "the transmission line sys-

~said the geothermal fieldcSn be fully'developed "while protecting the visihil-ity and the health and welfare of thecitizens of the state of New Mexico,"and he stressed PNM's "continuing ob-ligation to see that the environment of .New Mexico is protected."Members ofthe Savethe-I emez group

question both PNMs assurances andthe professed-need 'for the project. In itsbrochures, STJ asks why the project is

\

"The situation is comparable to operatinga jackhammer in the interior of a Catholicchurch."

- James M. Hecker

tern of the future willlikeiy be an into-lerable spiderweb in one of the state'smost scenic areas."PNM hopes to minimize the visual

impact of the power lines by maintain-ing screens of timber, limiting right-of-way clearing to topping or removal oflarge trees, and reclamation of roadbuilding damage aftel- construction.C.D. Bedford, a PNM Vice President,

Havea spring fling w.ith an, ,

I~I FLymlAccurate. maneuverable and a great cure

for spring fever!

White with pine green print.$3.00 each. postege paid.(Wyoming residents add three percent se/es tax.)Mall your order to HCN, Box K, /.Bnder WY 82520. ~~~

Please send .:.;.•.. flyel(s) to:

NlJIr1e -•••: .

Address ·..··..·•·CIty : : .

.~ State .,.-Dp ;;on;;."C.:.: ..;;.i.;.'.;; ..;:;;:.: .

=:;::.::::::::::::::~:.::::~:~::::::::~~:::City : : .SllIte·a Zip "', <••••-

\

called a "demonstration" plant when innorthern California's Imperial Valley,a similar government-sponsored50-MW plant and smaller surroundingplants are cur-rently under constructionand should be complete -like the Bacaproject - by 1982.The 'primary alternative sites

examined by DOE are 6 locations in theImperial Valley, Roosevelt Hot Springsin Utah and Beowawe in north centralNevada. The EIS stated, "More en-vironmental conflicts arise from geoth-

Clivu.s.M.ultn.'r.mAn envlronment.ally sound, water-less wasle Irealmenl syslem forhomes, cabins and campgrounds.Composts toilet wastes and or-ganic garbage Inlo a rich terllllzer,conserving nutrients, water andenergy.

FOR INFORMATION AND NAMEOF NEAREST DISTRIBUTOR CON·TACT:Clivus Multrum Norlhern Rockies.205 Meadows Rd.Whilefish, MT 59937(406) 862-3854

classffieisClasstfled ads cost 10 cents a word.They must be prepaid.

BUSINESSMANAGER forHigh Countr'YjNews. Job includes bookkeeping, administ-ration and financial planning. Begins May15 at latest. Salary $650 per month pIushealth benefits. Opportunity to steer a grow-ing business. Send reeumevto Geoffrey ,.--O'Gars, HCN, Box K, Lander WY82520.

MYHISTORICALBOOKSand novelsaboutWyoming. Send for ·list. Mae Urbanek.Lusk, Wyoming 82225.

SUMMER IN YELLOWSTONE. Join us inYellowstone National Park this summer forfield seminars on a wide variety of topicsincluding large mammals, 'c:arnivoresandraptors, pology, plants, wateroolors,photo-graphy, fiBhing .mIl history, Most ............may be taksn tI. ... acIomil: cnodiL A_m-modati.m. in a Park Service llf"ililY: Frilecatalog. TheYellowotonelnstituf:e,,&x6HlYe\lowslDne Natio~ Park. Wyo.82190.

,

ermal development at the Baca Loca-tion than. from development of any ofthe other sites considered ...Problems atthe other alternative sites are largelytechnical and therefore are more read-ily.solved than the general problem of "industrial intrusion in the scenic and,environmentally valuable location."During testimony given at a state

Public Service Commission hearing onSeptember 20, 1980, Bedford acknow-ledged that the power to be generated isnot necessary to meet the needs ofNewMexico rate payers. The project would,however, reduce the state's reliance onoil and gas, and add diversity to thestate's energy sources, Bedford said.In spite of the controversy surround-

ing the issue, PNM and Union Oil areconfident the power project will proceed .as planned. "If PNM's plans are re-jected, it will only put a bigger delay ongetting this project on line," said Unionrepresentative Stephen Lipman.Seve the Jemez remains equally de-

termined to stop the project. ~nWe favor geothermal development

in general," said Theodore Davis, "but,we believe that the unique cultural andenvironmental issues at stake in theJemez preclude industrialization of-that area ....Too few places with thequalities of the Jemez are being pre-served for the generations to follow."

Jack Kutz is a free-lance writer basedin Albuquerque, N.M. This story waspaid for by the HeN Research' Fund.

2ND ANNUAL NAVAJO COUNT~YTRAILRIDE. Bring your horse and ride theLukachukai Mountains and legendary Ca-nyon de Chelly, June 1·5. Sponsored byNavajo Community College. "Master'sLevel"in difficulty. Limited openings. Marci-Matlock, Box-295, Tsaile,' Arizona 86556.602-724-6227.

RURAL NETWORK: growing group forsingle, country-oriented people. "Going italone" is easier with cooperative efforts-social support. Information and samplenewsletter for $1 (refundable with member-ship). Rural Network, Rt. 1, Box49B,Dept.HC, Avalon,Wi. 53505.

FARM HAND- seeks summer work in S.Montana - N. Wyoming. T. Robiso~,4229Clark, Great Falls, Montana 59405.

HIGllcOUNTRY NEWS needs blsck-and-while pbotograll1\ers. Energy-relaled topics,resources,.n\dW8 in t1w&eky Mtn. region.Ability·lo,do· __ to on. oboIt notice'an4-or accompany reporten on. 8Iories hielp.CuI. PIeose sand _r.,9I'c""",,ulo iK.atJ\y!Bopn, HCN, BoxK, Lander, wy 82620.

April 3, 1981 - High Country New&-13

~BillliiifBDarRECREATING GRAY REEF

The Water and Power Resources Service,wants your ideas on how to increase publicoutdoor recreation services at Wyoming'sAlcova and Gray Reef reservoirs on theNorth Platte River. Contact the agency's-Land Management Branch, P.O. Box 1630,Mills, Wyo. 82644.

MOVING COALCoal transportation is the subject of a May

4 and 5 conference in Washington, D.C.sponsored by Coal Week and the industrycoalition, the Energy Bureau. Topics includemoving synthetic fuels, the 1980 StaggersRailAct, railroads, slurries and coal export.markets. The fee is $550. Contact NancyJones, EB, 41 East 42nd St., New York10017.

CONSERVING WATERFor a bibliography .ofpublications dealing

with water use, water conservation andplanning, contact Wanda Phelan, U.S.Water Resources Council, 2120 L. St., N.W.,Washington, D.C. 20037.

STATE INVOLVEMENTCongress should amend existing law to

,give state legislatures a greater voice inmanaging federal assistance programs, theU.S, General Accounting Office recom-mends. The agency's report, 000-81-3, De-cember 15, reviews the federal grant prog-ram as well as historical state Involvement,and is available from GAO, DocumentHandling and Information Services Facility,P.O. Box 6015, Gaithershurg, Md. 20760.

TOXIC HELPThe Sierra Club, using Environmental

Protection Agency funding, has produced atwo volume 600-page tome covering the-gamut of toxic substances issues. The. publi-cation is intended to equip citizens with theskills to' design a comprehensive toxics con-trol program in their community. To obtaina copy, contact Judith Kunofsky, SierraClub, 530 Bush Street, San Francisco, Calif.94108.

AUDUBON. CONVENTION"Pressures on the Land" is the a11-

encompassing theme for the National Au-dubon Society's 1981 convention July 3-5 inEstes Park, Colo. Registration is $25, andthere will be several conference field trips,Contact the convention organizers at P.O. 'Box 3557, Boulder, Colo. 80307.

IDAHO WASTE STATEMENTThe Department of Energy has decided to

write an environmental impact statementon the radioactive waste stored at the IdahoNational Engi~ering Laboratory, _accord~ing to an annouricement in the FederalRegister. The Transuranic waste nowstored in pits and barrels at the 144~acre sitein southeastern Idaho has raised fears ofgroundwater contamination. Offi~ials mustdecide how to dispose of the waste, and how. and where to process it before moving it to anew ·storage site. Public comment is wel-comed to help DOE decide on the scope of theEIS. Comments should be sddre..l.d to IdahoOperations Office, Department of Energy,550 W. Second St., Idaho Falls, Idoho. Adraft. statement is eched:wed for next fall, tobe followed by public comment, and, a yearl.th iliultld8.tedlitJc"" wee ~M!':t ,i!1.:C:'--'::.. ' Y'.1.!: 1::;bf~'f·}J: ':f:.# vr..3H .nM}ot!

COLO. GROWTHSome 450 Coloradoans met in Denver last

September to formulate a growth strategyfor the Front Range. The results of thatcaucus are DOW available in the Front RangeProject's "Conference" and "First Year" re-ports. Addressing such issues as land use,housing, agricultural lands, public transit,water, energy, and roles of government, theconferees agreed on a vision for the future inwhich people control their lives in a "humanscale," man-made environment, making de-cisions at the lowest level of government.Votes were tallied and positions taken on awide variety of issues. The project new pro-ceeds into its second year of policy de-velopment. For copies ofthe reports, contactthe Front Range Project, Office of the Gov~ernor, State Capital, Suite 124, Denver80203.

A.T.CANDOA variety of appropriate technology pro-

jects across the country hold the key to solv-ing a number of problems, including the lossof farmland, waste management and energysupplies, according to a report by the Officeof Technology. The agency examined anumber of these innovative projects, such asfanners' market cooperatives, in both ruraland urban settings. For a copy of "Technol-ogy for Local Development," contact OTA.,Wsshington, D.C. 20510.

IMINING WILDLANDS

The U.S. Geological Survey has foundlarge deposits -of ore in the Indian PeaksWilderness near Boulder, Colo., that "meritfurther exploration." The agency has disco--vered copper, gold and silver in the 130square mile area, which is dotted with 21patented and 700 unpatented miningclaims. The agency's report, titled "MineralResources of the Indian Peaks Study Area,"USGS Bulletin 1463, can be purchased-for$5.50 from Branch of Distribution, U.S.Geological Survey,· 604 South Pickett St.,Alexandria, V 8.. 22304.

BARB BUYSAntique barbed wire, to sell, buy or trade,

is the feature of the Northern Rocky Moun-tain Barbed Wire Collectors Association'sJune 13 and 14 show in Gillette, Wyo. Con-tact: Clinton Gleason 908 Fir, Gillette, Wyo.82716.

. RECREATING IDAHOThrough a series of public forums this-

month, the Idaho Department of Parks andRecreation is soliciting public views on re-creation in the state. The agency is lookingfor advice on what types of outdoor activitiesto spend i~ money on. It will incorporatecomments in its state recreation plan; Con-tact the agency at the Statehouse, Boise,Idaho 83720.

GROUNDWATERThe National Water Well Association, a

non-profit research and educational insti-tute, is offering free information on its publi-'cations and courses. It publishes GroundWater, Monitoring Review, lends becks,and holds workshops, conferences, and.courses covering groundwater problems. Forinformation about membership, contact theNational Water Well Association, Educa-tion Foundation, 500 W. Wilson Bridge Rd.,Worthington, Ohio 43085.

MONT. ENERGYFor a 200-page rundown of energy-related

issues, legislation, agencies· and organiza-tions in Montana contact the Energy Divi-sion, DNRC, 32 S. Ewing, Helena, Mont.,5~620,and ask for the "Montana Energy AI-~nac." It's free. The agency also has avail-able copies of the fourth edition, 1980, of'lHistorical Energy Statistics."

ENERGIZED SPEAKERSJ;'leed to fill a hole in your group meeting

agenda? The Solar Energy Research Insti-tute wants to help, offering some 270 exPerts 'in solar and other renewable energy topics.Call toll free, 1-800-525-5000; in Colorado,~,2...4i339 ..nlsaOJ;~woiJ.9Y 9~1 .,}ifAe.JJ:t.'),001Sa .o",-W .2"1uq J-r.liOd.eM. 9uo.t?;"';QfhY

MESSING WITH MOTHEROver two dozen Indian tribes from the

northem Rockies are gathering for an April13-15 seminar in 'Billings, Mont., on en-vironmental health. Both tribal dacision-makers and numerous federal agency rep-resentatives will discuss environmental andhealth impacts of resource development, andnon-tribal observers are invited to partici-pate. Contact Regis Pecos, Americans for in-dian Opportunity, Albuquerque, N.M_;505-842-0962, for more information on,"Messing with Mother Nature Can BeHazardous To' Your Health."

COUNTY HELPThe National Associati'on ofCounties says

it has a number of services to help local lead-en cope with energy problems, including aclearinghouse with a library (450 availablepublications), a hi-monthly newsletter, and -a hotline (800-424-9040). For more infonna-tion contaet the President's Clearinghousefor Community Energy Efficiency, 400North Capital Steet, N.W., Suite 185,washington, D.C. 20001.

BLM IN COW. "April 8-16, from Fort Collins to CoIorsdo

-Springa, the Bureau 'of Land Managementwill hold informal meetings to solicit ideason how to best manage public lands andminerals in northeastern Colorado. ContactDave HoIlo<k. BLM, 303-275-0681.

.ALBUQUERQUE COALIn an ongoing series of public involvement

exercises, the BLM is holding twobrainstorming sessions April 10 and 11 inFarmington, N.M., to discuss whether andhow to lease for coal development in theChaco-San Juan planning area. Contact JeffRadford, BLM, 505-766-2890.

ROCK SPRINGS OILThe BLM has begun an environmental as-

sessment of oil and gas leasing aethi-ties inthe Rock Springs District's Big Sandy andSalt Wells area, Sweetwater County, Wyo.Comments are being solicited. ContactChuck Reed, BLM, Box 1869, Rock Springs,Wyo. 82901.

INVESTIGATE YELWWSTONEThe Yellowstone Institute's new 1981

catalog is out and promisee a series of low-cost, natural history and recreation semi-nars. in the natiOnal park. Contact: RickReese, Director, Box 515, Yellowstone Na-tional Park, Wyo. 82190. The first coursebegins June 14. .

BEFORE THE WYOMING.INDUSTRIAL 81T1NGCOl:JNCIL

NOTICE-OF NORTH ANTELOPECOAL COMPANY APPUCATIONFOR PERMIT TO CONSTRUCTTHE NORTH ANTELOPE COAL

MINE

DOCKET NO. WISA·81-1\

Pursuant to provisions of the Wyoming Industrial Development Information and Siting ActCW.s.35-12-101 through 35-12-121; Wyo. Stat. Anno., 1977), NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT

• NORTH ANTE.LOPE COAL COMPANY, A JOI;NT VENTURE BETWEEN POWDER RIVERCOAL COMPANY AND PANEASTERN COAL COMPANY, flAB FILED AN APPLICATIONWITH THE INDUSTRIAL 8mNG COUNCIL FOR A PERMIT AUTHORIZING CONsrRUC.TION OF THE NORTH ANTELOPE COAL MINE, CAMPBELL COUNTY, WYOMING. ThePowder River Coal Company iswholly owned subsidiary of Peabody Coal Company, and P~88t.em Coal Com~ny is a wholly owned subsidiary of Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Company. Thecoalmine and processing facilities described in the application filed on March 6, 1981, will have acapacity of 5 million tons of coal per year. The North Antelope Mine will be a conventional surfacemine operation utilizing draglines and trucks and shovels. Thecael processing facility win consiatofcrushing facilities, storage and loadout facilities, and other ancillary fac.ilities.The proposed North Antelope Minewill be located entirely Within Campbell County:approKim~tely68 miles south of the City of Gillette, Wyoming. The .estimated total capital cost for the North

• Antelope mine is $82.737.700.00. The estimated cost of the proposed North Antelope Mine exceeds.the cost crttenon under W.S. 35-12-1 02(aXiiD(B), thereby.requiring that the pennit application befiled.

The North Antelope Coal Company will begin construction of the mine elll'ly in 1982 and shouldcomplete the primary operating portions by the end of 1983. The mine is expected to have anaverage of 169 construction workers in ·1982 and.an average of207 construction workers in 1983.Production will begin in January, 1984 with a workforce of60employeesduringthe fU'Stquarterof1984. The mine will employ an average of 104 workers in 1986 and an annual average of 140workers in years 1987 and 1988. The nunewtllbave an annual workforce of 159 people forthe years1989 and 1990. By the end of 1991, the mine will reach a peak average of165 production personnel.This is the expected avereee workforce size for the life of the mine.

The North Antelope Coal Company cenaiders that the local governm~ts primarily effec,ted by theproposed facility will include Campbell County, Campbell County School District No.1, and theCity of Gillette . The unincorporatedcommunityofWright, Wyoming will also be effected primarilyby the facility. Weston County and the-Town of Newcastle will also be secondarily iaflueeeed byconstruction o~ the North Antelope Mine.

Copies of the Application have-been filed with the C~tunty Clerks of Converse County, Cam~11County, and Weston CoUnty. Copies have also been forwarded to the Converse County Library.:iqoWalnut, Douglas, WY 82633; Campbell County Library, 412 S. Gillette Ave., Gillette. WY 82716;and Weston County Library, 23 W. Main St., Newcastle, WY 82701, and are available for pUbHe-inspection, - - . '\.

Persons desiring to be come parties to the permit proceedings may do 8O;tWSuant to W.S.35-12-112, by notifying the Off'u:e of Industrial Siting Administration in_ ~ oftheidnten~ tobecome a party. >T'

Limited appearance statements will be reeeiwd in the mat~r in ~rdance witli proviSionA'·,.t 'W.S. 35~12-1I2(c). These should be mailed to the Director. Office of Indastrial Siting Administij.-tiOD, Suite 500 Boyd Building, Cheyenne, WY 82002. .,.' ;i:'

Dated this 26th day of March, 1981.

Office of Industrial Siting Administration. Suite 500 Boyd BuildingCheyenne, WY' 82002(307) 777-7368'

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14-High Country News - April 3, 1981

-D~Dioll· · .by Thomas N. Bethell

MOst of tile people on Capitol Hill_m"tohave been bowled over by Pres-'idimt Reagan) State of the Union-speech. After' describing his plan, hechallenged his critics."Have they an alternative," he asked,

"wbich offers a greater chance ofhalancing the budget, -reducing andeliminating inflation, stimulating the'creation Of jobs and reducing the taxburden?"There are three striking things about

that question.It's reasonable.It's provocative: a simple straight'

forward challenge.And it seems to have terrified his op-

position. The response has been a seriesof muttered incantations evoking thedimly-remembered spirit of the NewDeal or the Great Society.We think it's time to answer the Pres-

ident's challenge. And we don't thinkit's all that hard. That's because wethink the President's "program" is acruel deception that happens to havebeen extremely we l l packaged. Itsounds good, tastes fine so far and goesdown well. But an elixir is an elixir. Thereality behind the program is that it's abum deal for a great many people. Sowhy aren't more people saying so?We don't know, but we thought we'd

try to give them a hand. We're glad toaccept the President's challenge. Sobere goes.

OK, LET'S BALANCE THEBUDGET

Ifyou get three economists together,you"1l hear at least four views on'whether budget-balancing is even agood idea: Reagan, however, hammersaway at an old appealing- theme:"Families have to live within their .means - why shouldn't the govern-ment?,' It sounds right, but ...when youtake out a mortgage (or any kind ofloan) you're defic1t spending ..Just likethe government.But, let's admit it - Reagan has

won this round, with or without logic.30 let's meet him on his own territory.Let's see ifwe can't cut down the deficitwithout gougin~ poor and' middle-income people.- Abandon the MX missile sy ..

;em, saving Utah and Nevada for someItheruse. Let's assume that we all want'UncIe Sam armed to ,the teeth and'Clldy for a fight. Ifwe really need all:hose nukes, put them aboard smallsubmarines, We could deploy 60 of:hem with much greater effectiveness:han the MX (you don't have to build"'ce tracks in the ocean) and the cost ofsuch a system has been estimated to be.t least $10 billion leas than the $40,illion MX program. That saves ...$10,illion.- Exxon owes us aU some money.I(ou probably remember that former. >resident Nixon impoSed price regula-:ions on the 0~1industry after the 1973)PEC embargo, and you may -re-nember that the go.vemment has iden· ':ified $11 billion worth of overcharges'y companies thai took the regulationsightly. Irs costing the taxpayers $60I illion a year to underwrite the gov-,,-nment's efforts to recover this moneyiom Exxon, Texaco, Gulf and the 31

Reagan wants alternatives? We got 'em

other companies -that stand. accused.Now we learn that President Reaganplans to cut 70 percent of the funds forthis project, a move that could guaran-tee that the culprits escape with the loot.The President, a dedicated foe ofmalefactors, should instead double theprosecutors' funds on the reasonabletheory that they would find considera-bly more than $11 billion missing fromthe Treasury and have a better chanceof getting it back. But let's not bevenge-ful. Let's just recover ...$ll billion.

- Shut down the Strategic Pet-roleum Reserve. The idea n~ver madeany sense to begin with - pumping oilout of the gound and then dumping itback, to sit there until who knowswhen. To fill the reserve at the rate of180,000 barrels a day-will cost us morethan $20 billion over the next fiveyears, according to the CongressionalBudget Office. And then, ifws actuallyhave to pump the oil up again, it's a fewbillion more. As Everett Dirksen usedto say: "A billion here, a billion there-before you know it, you're talking aboutreal money." Instead of operating thisgrandiose petropiggybank, we coulduse the Energy Policy and Conserve-tion Act of 1975, which gives the Sec-retary of Energy the right to' direct oilrefineries to hold excess inventories ,that can't be drawn down without gov-ernment approval. To meet "the equiva-lent of the current SPR fill rate, refinerswould only have to maintain an excessinventory of one percent. Thatshouldn't be a ghastly hardship and itwo-uld save ...$4.1 billion. .

- Give synfuels a sbot of Jree en-terprise. Reagan started out proclaim-ing his intention to get the governmentout of the synfuel subsidy business, aworthy objective which he promptlyabandoned. This president, who is sofond of asking for recissions - cuts in,Programs that have already been ap-propriated - should be willing tocrusade for the dismantling of theSynthetic Fuels Corporation, a federal

corporation which does nothing morethan sluice money from the Treasury tothe energy companies. They want- fed-eral help only because their synfuelsprocesses are too financially cumber-som to compete in the marketplace un-assisb.d. But if you're a true Republi-can, you're supposed to believe in themarketplace and its ability to weed outthe things we don't need. Stick to your. guns, Mr. President, and save ...$4 bill-ion.

OK, LET'S REDUCE INFLATION

- Pump gas. Natural gas, that. is.We've got much more of it than we usedto think. Mainly, this is because wedidn't do much deep drilling until highfuel prices made it profitable. Now,we're discovering enormous volumes ofthis relatively clean, versatile fuel.Let's use it. We can bring it into themarket quickly, use it to stabilize"energy prices and give OPEC a bigBronx cheer.The big oil-energy companies think

this is a terrible idea, because gas can'be produced efficiently by mom-and-popwildcatting operations: all it takes is afew people, a couple of trucks, a drill rigand a hook-up to an existing pipeline.Guess what we used to call this kind ofthing. You're right - free enterprise.'..:.. Outlaw fuel adjustmentclauses. "I'hose are the devices thatallow utilities to pass through (to you)whatever increases they have to pay forthe fuel they buy. Is this fair? Do youhave a fuel adjustment clause that al-lows you to bill Safeway for the gasoline.you used getting to their store? No, youdon't. That forces you to plan ahead be-fore you get into your car. We can im-pose the same discipline on utilities by:making them shop around for cheaperfuel. Nothing would act faster to controlthe cost of energy.- Make tracks. Instead of crippling

Amtrak and mass transit, we ought tohe increasing their funds and accelerat-ing their construction schedules, sincJ,

. .,.,..._.- .."" ....... ,.,-,-,-

l

. delays are inherently inflationary. Thebiggest single reason for supportingthem, 'ofcourse, is that they offer us re-lief from dependence on oil.In its first dismal decade, Amtrak

gave passenger railroading a bad"name,not because people didn't want 'to ride.trains, but because Amtrak's trainswere such rolling Gong Shows. Thismay have reflected the fact that Am--trak'e management knew as muchabout trains B;s a pig knows about Sun-day. But the sad paradox is that Reaganwants to jettison a program that is fi-nally beginning to work. The only thinggovernment needs to do now is acknow-ledge that every other ad;anced coun-try subsidizes its railroads liberally,, recognizing that the goal of immediateprofit is less important than the notionof long-term stability of transportationcosts.- Fight farms with farms. A gov-

ernment that wanted to do somethingabout food prices would start by en-couraging, rather than discouraging,family farms, fanning cooperatives andother alternatives to agribusiness.Instead of knocking 25 percent out of

the Fanners Home Administra tion, theWhite House would be looking for waysto stimulate more FmHA programs. In-stead of subsidizing highways at theexpense of railroads, the governmentwould be encouraging efficient ways ofmoving produce to markets. Instead ofcrippling the new National ConsumerCooperative Bank, the government'would be lending start-up money tofood-marketing co-ops. And instead ofsubsidizing agribusiness by payinggiant food conglomerates to maintain ;..-crop shortages, the government couldbe subsidizing the anti-trust efforts ofthe Justice Department and FederalTrade Commission.

I

OK, LET'S CREATE JOBS.

- Spend money on R&D NOTM&A. One way to create jobs would be

\

to devote more time and money toanti-trust action. Why? Becausebusinessmen spend mO~'emoney eachyear on mergers and acquisitions _some $40 billion in 1979, according toBusiness Week - than jhey do on re-searrh and development; The money~"-----:'spent on mergers can be shielded fromthe Internal Revenue Service, and itcan be used to give management moreLearjets and stock', options, but itdoesn't create jobs. Research and de-velopment does createjobs. Therefore, itwould be logical to encourage R&D and

. discourage M&A. This is not the type oflogic likely to be embraced by this Ad-ministration, but remember, the.Presi-dent challenged us to produce alterna-tives. We have them. It's notour fault if~he doesn't like them. The point is, theywould work. )- Let in the sun, And some coal.

And maybe some water. If we wantcheaper energy, we're going to have tospend some energy breaking up theenergy companies. It shouldn't be anyharder than unlocking the secrets oftheatom and the benefits would be muchgreater. When prices aren't fixed byc£rtels, coal is cheaper than oil. Whencoal's markets expand, coal minershave jobs. A grea ter degree of genuinecompetition would spur the develop-ment of alternative sourc'"es. If theycouldn't undercut the existing fuels, sobe it bid them farewell. But iffull-scalesolar systems (or hydro, or geothermal,or whatever) could compete, think ofthe jobs they'd create. And it wouldn'tbe such a terrible world if Mobil didn't, have enough surplus money to run allthose political ads.

OK, LET'S REDUCE THE TAX,BURDEN

In the final analysis, a fair tax bur·den is a little hard to descrilie. Reaganwill give business the right to depre-ciate its equipment faster, for instance.This will encoursge companies to putup new buildings,.which sounds.good,but if s company 'in Buffslo Clecides tobuild its building in Phoenix ~ becausethe tax write-off is more favorable thanrehabilitating its existing plant - the

o workers in Buffalo might not think thisis fair at all.. However you cut it, somebody carriesa disproportiQnate share of tHe tax bur-den. You won't find that mysterious, somebody lur.king in the corporateworld, which has done better than yO\!have at sheltering income from the IRS.Under the Reagan plan, corporate taxeswill account for iess than 16 percent oftotal federal tax revenues: This is downfrom;J5 percent in 1960.·Those figuressuggest that if Reagan really wanted an.a~lternative, we w~uld' know where tostart looking.If he wants an alternative, in short,

we're ready ..

(Ed. note: This article was:adapted froma much longer "alternative plan" firstpublished in the March 10, lsin issue ofRura.l Coaljtion Report, published bythe Rural Coalition; .I035 30th Street,N.W., Washington D.C. 20007. The co-alition is a national non~profit organi'-zation striving to influence public pol-icy decisions afThcting low-income andminority rural Americans and theircommunities.- Author Thomas N.Bethell ,w~s an editor for tlieWashington Monthly. He is currentlyworking on a boo$ about coal minersand coal mining.)

•

April 3, 198.1 - High Country News-15

lilers Dear HCN,I read with interest "Put Pub-

lic Lands in Private Hands (HGN 3-6-, 8.1). I wonder how much of our publicJands_ would be-retamed as natlorl1;ll market; nature is goods on a shelf-goparks, forest; wilderness and recrea- get some for yourself. But the fact 15,tiona 1areas ifall thepublic property had I nature is not "natural resources"; it isbeen placed in private ownership? I the totality and we are part of it. Anyagree that the government has increas- theories that ignore this unity areingly acted irresponsibly, in discharg- bound to be partial, half-theories at __ing their mandated responaibilities to best.protect public lands. But then Ivaink of If a revival of primitive capitalism iswhat has happened in .my own horne becoming intellectual ly respectable, wecounty, which is almost 10( percent may be in for interesting times.privately owned. Perhaps the mentality now is to try andAs long as human greed remains re-Live the "frontier era, the great

what it is, in respect to environmental _ 400.year boomthat has made us whatconcerns, neither capitalism, com-.,- we are. The problem with the nostal- "-munism, private enterprise, or schemes gists' scenario-is, there's no more fron-

• to make land owners more sensitive to tier. Their heroes pretty well strippednatural preservation will work. How the shelves.can -the land: if it is looked upon as acommodity by the vast majority of thepopulation, to be bought and sold for aprofit, have the right kind of protection,for present and future-generations? Dear HeN,-.IfMr. Baden can convince this huge JobnBaden certainly appears to be

tide of humanity, y.,}uchis insensitive an interesting individual with manyto environmental concerns, that it is to innovative and thought-provokingtheir best interest to b. good stewards ideas. As with all "thinkers," there ap-of the land, I say more ~wer to him. pears to be a chasm between intellec-We still need the power of the gov- - . tual exercise and the application of the

emment to arbitrate the disputes over thought process to the world at large. Ifpublic lands;" even if it isn't doing the _ everyone were as conscientious as Ba-kind ofjob some of us would like to see it den, entrepreneurial activity could welldo in protecting them from destructive, be a solution to resource management.exploitation: It still listens'to both sides However, Baden makes the assumptionof disputes concerning public lands-which innumerable economists havemanagement... " 'I'"made -economics will require and in-I sure management yielding the highestVan SjJipp

returns. He equates this with properVersailles, Ky. management. Unfortunate.ly, resource

management based nn economiccriteria maximized, but not optimized,theretum. Economics has led to the"'rape- and ruin" syndrome; develop aresource. exhaust it; move on to newand· virgin territory.There are "loopholes" in Baden's

thesis. Baden assumes that publiclands are free. According to Baden''Most people are resistant to the idea ofpaying for what they now have for free.'I always understood it that all Ameri-cans hsve an· interest in pubJic lands.My taxes are par,tial payment on myinterest held in common with millionsof others:

Dear HCN,Your article on John Baden's quest

for a natural resources policy based onthe rights and incentives of privateproperty raises some interesting ques-tions. But consider our case here on therural north coast of California.Two-dams, one owned by Pacific Gas

andElectric (PCl&E), a private utility,and the other by the Burea u ofReclama-tion~(Ed. note: The BOR is now theWater and Power Resources Service),sit astride the Eel and Trinity Rivers.PG&E's dam was constructed in 1922;the Bureau's Trinity Dam was built in1964. B~th dams divert .water fromNorth Coast riv:ers to irrigate out-of.county farmlands and to produce powerfor urban and agricultural customers.Both were opposed by coastal residentsat the 'time of their construction be-cause both caused the near total deci-~ation of their rivers' comm~rcial,sal-mon runs.In the last three years, inatreajn re-

leases from ,both dams have been in-creased in a belated attempt to restoresalmon resources. The restoration ofthe Trinity Riv~r's flows by the Bureauof Reclamation took 16 years from the ,time of the dam's construction. The re- ....storaticn. of flows from PG&E's EelRiver dam took 54 years, and'i;ven'thenwas accomplished ouly through the in-tervention of the Federal Power Com-mission. Which has better protected the .Dear HCN,environment, the private or public I'm not quite sure how much of Johnproperty owner] Baden's utterance (HCN 3-6-8.1,p. 1) isNeither public nor private resource really serious-. I have an impres,sion

ownership eneures wise use. The two that he simply en,ioysbeing outrageous.systems do, however, provide very dif- But if he is indeed to be taken seri-ferent opportunities for individusls to· ously, there are Iicouple of points that·affect decisions about their manage- ·should be msde. One is that intellectual·ment. As one local fisherman told a games enjoyed by professors msy havelegislstive committee discussing coas- real effects on people. I'm thinkingt~l fisheries, ".If you want to build a especi,!-Hy of poor people, who may suf-facility, you come here andaskmyopin. fer when Baden's heroic entrep~ne.ursion, and if you don't listen to me, l'\I try c go into action.to vote you out. But the stockholders Secondly, thebasle vision of Badenhave never invited me to their boar~ and company seems to be that nature isdroom yet" .,., . a set of commodities ..Thus, wilderness. Dan Ray advocates should buy some-wilderness,

Eureka, California ifthat'a what they want. The world is a

Tom LyonLogan, Utah

Greg NelsonTroy, .Idaho

,

What do you see when you pokeyour head out your front door?. . .

High Countl'yNews.can add to your perspecFve bybringing yOjlthe region's natural resource news every two.weeks. News of projects that may even alter'what's ac~ssthe road from you: proposed mining and_dam sites; oil and• gas exploration and wilderness reviews. And lookingfarther down the-roa.d, HCN covers the new angles ingovernment regulation, land-use planning and alterna-tive energy sources. _Take a good look at HCN - only $15 for one y'E!ar(25~

issues). It will broaden your view. . -

Name

Address '-------''-----'------~-_-'=

CityState & Zip

Mail to: HcN, Box K, Lander, WY 82520.

•16-High Country News - April 3, 1981

'-.Rw'Bl and Small Town Planmng

Judiih Getzels and CharlesThurow,. editors, American Plan-DingAssociation; Chic!!II!'.I98O; 326pages.

.i:.: Review by Michael Moss

So you want to be a town planner.Here's some advice. from those who'vesurv.ived.Ifyou're aiining for the Rockies, the

first smart move, after taking thoseCalifornia plates off.your vehicle, is tohide this book. Walk into your firsttown han meeting carrying this workand you're sure to lose the fight before itbegins.Second, forget about fighttftg. You'll

lose. Calling yourself a planner has al-ready earned you a room fun of am usedstares from citizens anticipating theslaughter.

Now you're ready, in the safety of your_home, to read-Rural anc\ Small TownPlanning. Prepared by a group ofChicago-based planners for the Old~st Regional Commission in Billings,~ont., this government-funded text fo-cuses on therural Dakotasr Montana,Nebraska and Wyoming, with a case-study in Colorado thrown in for its vis-ionary value. ..._An eight page appendix to the firstchapter puts the whole issue in perspec-tive: four of the five states do not re-quire local planning, and in the boldone, Wyoming, confusion and hostility.have kept most' efforts on thedraftsman's table. The rest of the bookisdevoted to helping you, the planner, dowhat is politically feasible ..An is not hopeless, by any means. At

least the book offers sharp, practicsladvice on shaping subdivisions, ensur-ing sound water" supplies-and wastemanagement, providing communityhousingand-aervices; and taking a stabat rural -public transportation. Thereare diagrammed instructions for test-ing soil percolation, charts charting

lRT-8E4-V2

daily water use, and a map explainingthe virtues of cul de sacs.The most refreshing counsel in

Rural and-Small Town Planning isin the first chapter, "Getting to knowthe people and the place." The editorsadvise against stormtroop tactics, butrather, encourage you to-slip into townquietly, .begin a few, simple projectsthat you can realistically accomplish(within your lifetime), and, listen tethe local folk.Tt is, after all, their homeand they do, for the most part, careabout their future. ~-Above all, tfte editors advise, be fiex-ible. In the case ofzoning (a word, inci-dently, that should not be prominent inyour vocabulary), such flexibility can-not be overstated. The new buzz word"inplanning is "development permit sys-tems," in which deals are cut with de-velopers to trade ofJ certain' factors,such as_housing density for public openspace. "Be crafty or be creative," they'suggest. - -The problem for the rest of us, how-

ever, is" figuring out when you, theplanner, are just pretending to play

.""

along with the devel.oper and whenyour flexibility has turned-you intospineless.jelly. This book will help youstay honest.