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A Paper for Peoplewho Care about the West One dollarandflfty cents I I .Oregon's Trojan horse l

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Tim JewettfThe Oregonian Protesters got their wish when the Trojan nuclear power plant closed tWs year at did Portland General Electric:;know?And when did it know it? That's what critics of the Oregon utility are asking as early closure of its Trojan nuclear plant rais- es questions of safety and financial accountability. The closure may also echo around the United States, because scores of nuclear plants apparently face the same problems that forced. PGE to unexpectedly close its half-billion-dollarplant. . Stories begin onpage 10. I I

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response to a question from 'staffer Steve Dear friends, Hinchman, he wrote to tell us that 3,000 Bosnian refugees will be admitted to the New intern barely managed to get her eyes off the United States. Those interested in the New intern Orna Izakson spent mountains and onto the computer. resettlement program, Ashley says, enough summers on the New England should contact the Bureau for Refugee coast for the brine of the Atlantic to get Odds and ends Programs at the Department .of State, _ into her blood, butsays she also fell in 202/663·1077, or 202/663·;048. love with the big trees of California. Orna Fonner internAshley Wills recently Visitors this rainy spring have includ- spent two years in Berk~ley doing stints wrote to say how much he enjoyed his.time ed Tom andJanet Stanwyck of Troutdale, as an art director and sometimes-writer at HeN. "You can't imagine what a different Ore., and Ann Christiansen, map editor for a small magazine and a free-lance world it was for me.There were days when I for the U.S. Geological Survey in Lake- designer, learning about trees, timber and thought Iwas living in a parallel universe." wood, Colorado. Native American issues on the side. He is now back in his universe, work- Apologies to Jean Drescher, the artist ing as Counselor for Public Affiars for the whose name we misspelled May 17. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Tired of the city, she spent last summer hiking, camping, swimming and talking U.S. Information Service in Brussels. In -the staff (ISSN/0191/5657) Is published with locals in the Rockies biweekly. except for one issue during July and one issue during January, by on her way to graduate the High Country Foundation, 119 schoo!. For the past nine Grand Avenue, Paonia, CO 81428. sec- months, Oma has pursued ond-clas s postage paid at Paonia, a master's degree at the Colorado. University of Missouri POSTMASTER: Send address School of Journalism and changes to HIGH COUNTRY NEWS, worked as an environmen- Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. tal reporter for the daily Subscriptions are $28. per year for individuals and public libraries, $38 Columbia Missourian. Her per year for Institutions. Single copies thesis, if she writes one, $1.50 plus postage .and handling. Spe- will be about objectivity cial Issues $3 each. and advocacy in environ- mental reporting, looking \ ~u at the role of the press in a \ emeritus democracy and-perceptions E,dMarston Publisber of media bias. Betsy Marston Orna - whose name Editor means pine tree in Hebrew Unda Bacigalupi - says she's tickled to be ASsoctats publisher' out of Missouri and back in Steve Hinchman Staff reporter the hills among the trees

Paul Larmer where she belongs. Since Cindy Wehling Assislmft editor arriving in Paonia she's Intern oma Izakson stands above the flooding North Fork of the Gwmison near Paonia Jon Christensen Great Basta regiortal editor

CoL Rawlins Poetry editor Diane Sylvaln Colorado passes-mining reforms Marlon Stewart - - c· i r- .- ProductioN/proofreading - ,.- -.- - ~ Colorado law;n"akers passed a'minirtf . bea'taking and what'kind ('jf·liability ttie',' wise-use lobbyistsii:f;t 'i:';:f, !:-,j ';""C11 't ~-,j::> vi; ... CliulyWehllna ) Deslllop publlsbhrg reform ~ilIthat some entironmentaJists state might have to pay. .Eny.i~QQ.lJl~ qtalWs "al;;0v(g~l'l\. -.UJJ;!" - selves in a- battle to keep..Amendment ..8, . Ann Ulrich say finally' changes' the staters attitude Colorado attorney general Gale Norton, Typesetting from "we'll clean it up later" to "let's a protege of former Interior Secretary James an open space initiative. passed .by voters Gretchen NlcholofJ make sure another Summitville never Wall, lobbied hard for the bills' passage, last Novernbervout of the clutches of ClrculatWlt rnalUl&" happens again." saying they would reduce burdensome regu- Amendment 1, which puts a cap on state Phyllis Becktell Circulation The bill requires mining companies lations and help the state avoid expensive spending. Senate Bill 74 originally said lawsuits. Environmentalists said the legisla- lottery funds which voters' earmarked for Meg O'Shaughnessy to pay higher bonds for reclamation, Promot1on allows state regulators to update mine tion gave industry a way to avoid public open space and park acquisition were. Greg_.MaIiPeterson permits at any time, requires companies health and environmental regulations. actually revenue subject to Amendment 1. OmaIzakson operating "high risk" mines to design and "The bills would put us in the bizarre The issue was decided by the state Illterns implement environmental protection position of saying we have to pay pol- supreme court. JUst days before the leg- Victoria Bomberry, Forestville, Calif. plans, and sets up a fund to respond to luters nol to pollute," says Jo Evans, who islative session ended May 12, the court Maggie Coon, seattle, Wash. lobbied against the bills on behalf of a ruled that lottery funds are exempt from Judy Donald, Wasblllgton, nc mining emergencies. It shot through>the Michael Ehlers, Boulder, Colo. legislature in less than two weeks. coalition of environmental groups. . Amendment l. Tom France, Missoula, MOfit. Driving the bill was the mining disas- As in most other Western states, the The legislature left a number of - Kari1 FrobtiOest; Par. Oty, [}lab sally Gonion. &fffalo, Wyo. ter at the Suminitville Consolidated Mining argument that prevailed was economic: defeated water bills in its wake. Lawmak- Judltb Jacobsen, Boulder, Colo. Co.'s cyanide heap-leach gold mine, high Takings legislation adds an expensive .ers failed to pass -r- for the third year.in a Dan Luecke. Boulder, Colo. Geoffrey O'Gan, Lander, Wyo. in the rugged San Juan Mountains. The layer of bureaucracy to state government, row - a water conservation bill allowing DIane Josephy Peavey, carey, Idaho company wiped out all life in a 17-mile says Carmi McLean, a tobbyist for Clean farmers to save and sell water. And West- James B. Buell. FlagstaJf, Am ern Farwell Smlth, McLeod, MOIIt stretch of the Alamosa River with spilled Water Action. Slope water interests narrowly defeat- Emily Swanson, Bozemmr, Mo.t. mine wastes and left a 170 million·gallon "We told legislators that the best way ed a bill that would have streamlined the Lynda S.-Taylor. AllruqMerqIfe, N.M. tailings pond leaking large amounts of to bankrupt a government is to pass a tak· legal process for the transfer of agricul- Mark Tnahant. sail La1Ie CIty, Utah Andy Wiessner, DerIVer. 'Colo. ' ' cyanide (HeN, 1/25/93). ings bill," says McLean, who helped tural water rights to municipal use. BoartI of DIrectors "This is the year the mining industry organiz.e a "best use" coalition to counter - Paul Lanner, HeN assistant editor ArtIcles appearing in HIgb Cotmtry News are had to come to the table," says Roger indexed In ElWtronme..1tJI Periodicals BlbUogra- Flynn, a staff attorney for the Denver- pity. Environmental Studks institute, SOO Gar· based Law and Water Fund who hetped den SL, Sui$e D, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. HOTLINE All rights to publication of articles in this issue negotiate the bill. "Unfortunately, it took are reserved. Write for pennlssion to print any articles or illustrations. Contributions (manu- a tragedy to make it happen." scripts, photos, artwork) will be wekomed with Flynn says the bill lays out a broad the understanding that the editors cannot be framework for reform, but the task of held responsible for loss or damage. Enclose a self-addressed staDlped envelope with all unsD- "putting some meat on the bones" i's left Ucited submissions COensure return. Articles and to the state Mined Land Reclamation Ieuen wUl be edited and published at the discre- don of me editors. Board. The board will write new regula: Advertisiog information Is available upon tions later this year. requesL To have a sample copy sent 10 a friend, send us his or ber address. Write- to Box 1090, Colorado lawmakers also grappled Paonia, CO 81428. can Higb Country News In with takings legislation. Both the House Colorado at 303/S27·4898. and the Senate considered bills that require.d- the state attorney general to examine whether new regul~tions would Printed on recycled paper: 75% poat-conaumer, affect the value or use of property or the 25% wood chips. operating costs or prof~ts of a business. Under the bills, the attorney general would then provide a legal opinion to a state agency on whether an action would

2 - High Country News - June 14. 1993

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I \ ~ t 'Farmers outgunned by the oil and gas industry

When people describe a recent politi- cal encounter as a learning experience, you suspect they emerged as the losers. That's what happened to 1,000 farm- ers in northeastern Colorado. The prosper- ous growers - who raise vegetables, grains and alfalfa on some of the most productive irrigated land in the West - found themselves trounced in the Col- orado Legislature. Although the farmers are a powerfulforce they were handily beaten by the oil and gas industry, which massaged a strong reform bill into a com- promise bill so weak the farmers finally urged its 'defeat. "We were outgunned by 50 lobbyists and an industry that spent $1 million," says Dennis Hoshiko, an onion farmer in Weld County and one of the founders of the Front Range Land and Mineral Own- ers Association. Hoshiko says the farm- ers' bill was rewritten until it "stunk to high heaven." Susan Cox-Wagoner, 3. Colorado director of the eight-state Rocky Moun- tain Oil and Gas Association, says indus- try sent at most five lobbyists, not 50. , Oil and gas equipment on a farm east of Denver, Colorado The farmers' original bill would have compensated landowners for damages , lerns underground. Some contamination : ' On Feb. 10, Smink, 58, was fired ana had a bill but it was 'reformed' past recog- caused by oil and gas drilling and added of the area's shallow, tributary aquifers escorted from his office by two state nition and so was- never voted on." Evans two 'farmers to the state's Oil 'and Gas has been caused by the ,iarmers, through ' patrol officers. The registered engineer says next year.the group may go' to court, Commission, ~ow dominated by industry. their use of fertilizer and chemicals. But has appealed his dismissal to the state get on the ballot with a constitutional initia- Hoshiko says the commission suffers the deep, non-tributary aquifers may have personnel board. Oil and Gas Commis- ~tive, and introduce yet 'another bill. This from a conflict of interest because its mis- been damaged by oil and gas drilling. sion technical secretary Patricia Beaver time they may have an ally from a neigh- sion - promoting oil and .gas and pre- In January 1993, David Smink, then would only say pf Smink's firing that it boring city. An oil and gas firm has just venting waste of resources ~ connicts <, secondzin-com"mand :aCthe Oil -and Gas was a personnel matter. She also said that announced that it will drill a well into open with a third goal, that of protecting health Commission, told the commissioners that methods of plugging dry wells depend on space owned by the city of Boulder. . and safety near oil and gas-ccellsf ....:·~;::h·'J.;:'l; their. regulatory practices had a serious geological conditions and what staff engi- For more information, contact Dennis . Qr{C5IDia()o; -a-landowner- cannot say hole in them - a hole that couid pollute neers reeemmend. Hoshiko, secretary of the Front-Range Land "kJ-ep out" tb'tlrillihg1 rigs·tf:a< company' aquifers." ,-;:-' ~', , Jim Kenney, senior engineer for the' and Mineral Owners Association, 303/353- owns subsurface mineral-rights. Under the: " -:According to Smink, an unknown state Oil and Gas Commission, says Gear 8780; Jim Kenney, senior engineer with the state constitution, the mineral owner's number of dry or no-longer-producing oil Drilling isthe only operator who illegally Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, rights are paramount. The result, says and gas wells had been improperly sealed. closed a well, and that he believes 99 per- 303/894-2100; David Smink, petroleum Ivan Grein, a dairy farmer in Adams As a result, he said, deep aquifers could cent of the others comply with the rules. engineer, 3,03/798-9973; Susan Cox-Wag- r County northeast of Drover, is often envi- be contaminated by migrating oil and gas "We don't allow dry cement and never oner, Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Associ- ronmental damage that a leasing fee of a or by salt water flowing into pure water. allowed poor engineering. I just can't ation, 303/860-0099. few thousand dollars fails to cover. In theory, all dry and abandoned wells believe it was condoned." - Betsy Marston, HeN editor Access roads criss-cross a field, he should be sealed by concrete. But Smink According to Kenney, "We have says'. Five-acre drilling pits filled with told the commissioners that .cornmission 15,000 producing wells and 40,000 to mud and a sealer, bentonite, are left on employees had found concrete seals so 50,000 dry holes. How many (improperly HOTLINE the property for up to six months. Most weak in one well that they could be swept sealed wells) there could be is speculation farmers get only a seven-day notice that a away by just "kicking the rig pump on." - you can't operate on that." driller is coming on the land. - The owner of that well, Gear Drilling, Kenney says that aquifer contamina- The battle in the state Legislature was was later fined. But Smink told the com- tion.does not necessarily occur even if a preceded by mediation. Grein, 61, was the missioners he feared that hundreds of other well is improperly sealed, and that a leak- Colorado Farm Bureau's representative improperly sealed wells exist. ing well might affect an area, no greater during some IS meetings with lobbyists "We don't know how big the prob- than a mile. An Emergency Response for the oil and gas industry, Hoshiko's lem is. Each of- these wells is a threat to Fund, which now contains $200,000 from landowner group, and a mediator. Grein the environment because each-is-a threat an industry tax, covers the cost of repair- says industry got an earful 'about damage to the water supply. We consider this to ing wells, with each job costing about caused by drilling.' And the farmers be a very serious matter." $20,000, Kenney says. So far, he adds, ,14 learned that drilling is booming in Col- -.According to Smink, a well must be leaking wells have been replugged; 44 are orado because of tax incentives and sealed in concrete where it,passes through ranked "high priority." because a new market is being opened up a porous layer that could seep oil, gas, salt Why would a drilling company prefer to by a new transcontinental natural gas water or fresh water, Unless all such lay- dump cement down a well ratherthan proper- pipeline under construction through ers' are sealed, he said, salt water, oil or' ly seal it with concrete? It's cheaper by some Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. gas seepiog out of those layers will $1,000 and a lot faster, says David Smiok. The activity is intense. The rich farm- migrate up or down the well and contami- ,Smink, who says the commission land, which is irrigated mainly by water nate other layers. . charged him with "poor performance, that flows out of the Rockies to the west, Sealing is cheap - about $1,600 per deliberate disobedience and making fraudu- is underlain by large amounts of oil and well - but Smink said that some firms lent statements," looks forward to hi's' gas. Grein said Weld County, located east simply dump bags of dry cement down appeals hearing. He says in his 30 years as of Denver, has become the most active the wells" file an affidavit swearing that an engineer he has never seen wells left in drilling area in the country. Regulatory the permeable layers have been sealed, worse shape than in Colorado. He cites ·changes have also increased the impact. and walk away. water taps that leak methane, water systems The state 'now allows a well for every 40 Such actions have. been discovered, 'serving 50 families that are now undrink- acres - in years past the limit was one Smink said, when salt water or oil and gas -able, and a lumber yard that burned up in well every 320 acres. flowed out of the well, or when a new 1985, when an improperly plugged well owner decided to redrill .a well, and dis- leaked enough volatile gases to ignite. The unknown: aquifer contamination covered that it had no seals. The drilling issue won't disappear. 'Smink, who calls the so-called "top Next year, the Front Range farmers will be Farmers are most immediately 'affect- plugging" of wells "the scandal of the back, according to their attorney, John ed by what happens to the surface of their decade," told the Oil and.Gas Commis- Evans. ''In 1990, we never got a chance to land. But there may also be serious prob- sion of the problem on Jan. 21. ' introduce a bill," he recalls. "In 1993, we

Htgh Country News 1June 14, 1993 - 3 HOTLINE Incineration plans bum up some Utahns

I For decades, three Army outposts in "The way people will find out what the vent nothing into the atmosphere." He and the West held a tightly guarded, deadly dangers of incineration are is they'll look other incineration opponents want arsenal. Now that the world agrees it is at our health 10 or 15 years down the road Congress to first order a crash program to time to beat weapons into plowshares, a and then we'll find out. We are, in a research alternatives before allowing the growing chorus of critics says the Army sense, guinea pigs." Tooele incinerator to begin burning. doesn't know how to do that without Cindy King, who monitors the issue "We don't know enough about those harming people the weapons were jneant for the Utah Sierra Club, worries that an techniques," Tischbin says. "We do know to protect. accidental release would quickly spread ·they've never been applied to chemical The stockpiles include rockets, downwind, to the heaviest population weapons:' To find out more, the Army bombs, land mines, mortars and spray centers. of Utah.' "Call me a hysterical asked the National Academy of Sciences tanks loaded with the deadliest chemicals housewife, but if there was an incident to evaluate alternatives. Its report is due the military could devise. Almost half the during the burning of chemical weapons it this month. weapons are locked in earth-covered con- wouldn't just affect the small communi- As for the "closed-loop process," Tis- crete bunkers at Tooele Army- Depot in ties of Tooele County, but will also chbin doubts it exists. "You're still going the valley immediately southwest of Salt impact Utah and Salt Lake counties." to wind up with a waste product," she Lake City. Another 11.6 percent of the The Army thinks incineration is says. "We can't make it all disappear." chemical arms are stored at Umatilla safest after trying to neutralize GB and The Army wants to get moving. The Army Depot in Oregon, and nearly 10 mustard gases with chemical treatments longer the chemical munitions remain percent are stored at Pueblo Army Depot during 1982 experiments at Rocky Moun- stored, the more dangerous they become. in Colorado. The rest are scattered at five tain Arsenal near Denver. It also ran a After 40 or more years in storage, casings smaller depots in the Midwest and East. small experimental incinerator at Tooele, are starting to deteriorate. Monitoring Chemical weapons such as GB and and selected incineration as the preferred equipment in'Tooele's bunkers indicates VX nerve gas can kill a human on con- alternative. "The Army wasn't happy with minute amounts of chemicals are begin- tact. It is an arsenal no one wants, includ- . the results at Rocky Mountain Arsenal," ning to leak, although at levels not con- ing the Army, which is taking steps to get says Marilyn Tischbin of the Army's sidered dangerous. rid nf it. Chemical Materials Destruction Agency While incineration opponents lobby But some organized groups want to in Aberdeen, Md. She says in 1982, the Congress for delays, construction is on "halt current destruction plans and search Army chose incineration because it schedule at Tooele. The' incinerator for new solutions. Opponents living near releases only C02l water and trace should be completed by July 31, but test- Army depots holding chemical weapons amounts of organics. "It will comply with ing and training could delay burning met earlier this month and launched a the Clean Air Act and meet all state stan- weapons unti11995. campaign to convince Congress it should dards." Two advocacy groups working to freeze Army funding to destroy the The Boston-based Military Taxies find alternatives to-incineration are the weapons. Project disagrees. "The Army tried one Chemical Weapons Working Group at The Army plans to burn the weapons half-baked experiment 12 years ago and P.O. Box 467, Berca, KY 40403 ~ at each location in specially designed decided incineration was best," the pro- (606/986=7565) and the Military Toxics

"incinerators. It built one prototype incin- ject's Bob I Schaeffer says. "There have Project in Boston at 6171489-0461. The erator on Johnston Atoll in the South been technological advances since then, Army's Chemical Materials Destruction Pacific, and after trial burns began con- substantial improvements have taken Agency is in Aberdeen, 'Md., telephone . struction of its $300 million twin at place ... but the Army is locked into incin- -410/671-2583 . Tooele, pronounced two-ilia. The Army eration and doesn't want to hear alterna- then plans to build similar incinerators at tives." - Larry Warr~!l ~ Sc'haeffer says t~ech.9icL~es.like tr.t:~t- Pueblo, Umatilla,, and- the bases "farther- east to eliminate the risk of an accidental ment with biological enzymes, -superheat- release of chemicals during transport. ed water, high temperature plasmas and Larry Warren is environmental That makes some people nervous. chemicals deserve consideration, "as long . reporter for KUTV News in Salt Lake Tooele County resident Chip Ward says, as they're closed-loop processes which City. Group formulates a new vision for Yellowstone

WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. - chances for success this time around. The Greater Yellowstone Coalition began Coalition program director Louisa Will- developing its goal of a unified approach cox said the Clinton administration's to land management around Yellowstone recent decision to sign the international Park during a back porch conversation in biodivers ity treaty, which requires a 1981. national policy to preserve plant and ani-. A dozen years later, the coalition mal species, is a positive sign. hopes to make the region a model for a A Yellowstone ecosystem plan could policy based on ecosystems instead of also get a boost from the Pacific North- bureaucratic boundaries. The 300 pages west's spotted owl, which has been of detailed recommendations ~' expected almost wiped out by heavy logging. That mid-summer - include a push for crisis, according to Miller, was precipitat- Congress to designate the Yellowstone ed by a federal policy that intervenes too region ~s a "National Sustainable Ecosys- late in environmental conflicts. tem." That would mean logging, mining "You can no longer just draw lines and grazing take a back seat to sustaining on a.map," Miller told the conference. the ecosystem in any federal management "We're going to have to start asking ques- decisions. tions that have never been asked before in The plan, titled Blueprint for the land policy .... What's going on upstream Future, calls for protecting all remaining and what's going on downstream? If we roadless areas in the ecosystem's 20 mil- don't start asking those questions, we're Lang Smith lion acres. It recommends 3.6 million Rep. George Miller at the Greater Yellowstone Coalition annual meeting going to find ourselves in crisis just as the additional acres of wilderness on national Pacific Northwest or Southern California forest and Bureau of Land Management Blueprint coordinator Dennis Glick. finish line." . I find themselves in crisis today." lands as well as over 2 million acres of The broad approach drew support at The coalition spearheaded a similar For more information about the new wilderness within Grand Teton and the group's annual convention in May from attempt in the mid-80s that urged unified Greater Yellowstone Coalition's Yellowstone parks. a powerful congressional ally, Rep. George management of public lands around Yel- Blueprint for the Future, write the coali- The Blueprint also pays attention to Miller, the Democratic 'chairman of the lowstone. That effort ended with the Park tion at 13 S. Willson, Box 1874, Boze- maintaining the viability of communities. House Natural Resources Committee. Service "Vision" document, which was man, MT 59771 (406/586-1593}. The It calls for everything from land-use plan- Ecosystem management "is coming scuttled by the Bush administration and a publication is free. ning to changes in tax law to keep agri- no matter what. We're not going back to coalition of Western, senators (HeN, cultural lands from being subdivided. old ways of doing business," Miller told 1/25/93). - Michael Riley "We have to recognize that people occupy ~ crowd of 500 at the coalilio."'s 10th But spokesmen for the group said most of the ecosystems on earth and annual conference. "We've just got to they hope to take advantage of a new The author reports for the Casper they're not about to disappear," said -drag the last few (opponents) across the mood in Washington that increases Star-Tribune from Sheridan, Wyoming.

4 - H.tgh Country News - June' 14, 1993 I \ '" . I.. I I!' ( Idaho ranchers finally get their man After years of controversy, public Oman was awarded the Wilderness Soci- Sen. Larry. Craig, R-Idaho, to ask for help. lands ranchers on the Sawtooth National ety's Olaus and Margaret Murie Award in "We trust that if you cannot assist us Forest in southern Idaho are getting their 1991. The annual award is given to feder- in having Ranger. Oman removed, perhaps wish: The Forest Service plans to transfer al employees who show outstanding dedi- something can be done to at least bring District Ranger Don Oman. cation to natural resource protection. this tyrant against grazing on public lands Oman gained national recognition Tbis is the second serious attempt to under control," Pickett wrote. several years ago, when he stood up to oust Oman. In 1989, the Forest Service Sen. Craig replied April 14 that he local ranchers - in spite of threats secretly promised complaining ranchers that hoped "this matter can be-resolved soon." against his life - and insisted they abide Oman would be transferred within one year He repeated a promise to discuss the issue by grazing regulations. (HCN, 5n190). Oman filed a whistle-blower with Regional Forester Gray Reynolds. But Forest Supervisor Jack Bills said complaint when he learned of the deal and Bills, however, insisted he made the Oman has become the issue in rangeland has kept his job as district ranger. decision to transfer Oman. disagreements. By transferring Oman, he In August 1990, the controversy went "The decision was made righ_t here, will remove an obstacle to getting deci- national when The New York Times quot- essentially between Don and I," Bills-said. sions carried out, he said. ed Oakley rancher Winslow Whiteley as Oman denied it was a mutual deci- "There's some things I want to put threatening Oman's life. The White sion. He agreed to move only reluctantly, behind us if we can," Bills said. House called Oman to offer protection. and only if it meant a move to a "decent Oman was surprised by the decision, Ranchers, undeterred by the national job in a decent location." He would like he said. Last fall Bills had assured Oman attention, continued to insist on Oman's eventually to return to his native Montana, that he could stay on the district for at transfer. As recently as March of this he said. Oman will remain as district least another 18 months to complete pro- year, Oakley rancher Don Pickett wrote to ranger in the Twin Falls District until a jects he has started. location is found for him. Environmentalists accuse the Forest Brian Hunt, spokesman for Associa- Service of giving in to ranchers. tion -of Forest Service Employees for "When push comes to shove, the For- Environmental Ethics, said of the move: est Service caves in and lets private ranch- "If the Forest Service won't protect ers treat public lands like their personal its good employees, then there is no rea- feedlots," said Craig Gehrke, the Wilder- son to'believe they will protect our nation- nessSociety's Idaho representative. al resources," Hunt -said. Oman has been the center of contro- _J~mPrunty, a retired Forest Service fire versy nearly since the day he started on management officer and supporter of Oman, the Twin Falls Ranger District six and quoted former AFSEEE director Jeff DeBo- one-half years ago. Ranchers have nis: "It's unfair to. blame Oman for not accused him of being heavy handed and learning to get along with ranchers, when biased against livestock grazing. getting along with ranchers means bowing But Oman said he has simply tried to , to their whims and looking the other way protect the land and hold ranchers to (( when forest resources are damaged." promises made when they signed their· - N.S. Nokkentved grazing permits, u,,'j For his efforts to protect public lands @J? N.S. Nokkentved reports for the Twill resources from poor grazing practices, f Falls Times-News in Idaho. More Clintonappointees are confirmed , ; J • Jim Baca was confirmed May 18 as The National Parks and Conservation Wildlife Service. BAliBS director of the Bureauof Land Manage- Association, a non-profit Park Service President Clinton also announced the ment. The former New Mexico lands watchdog group, said Kennedy would nomination of Ada Deer as assistant sec- commissioner 'had earlier won unanimous bring needed emphasis to the historical and retary of Interior for Indian Affairs. Deer, approval from the Senate Energy and Nat- cultural assets of the Park Service, but is a member of the Menominee 'Nation of ural.Resources Committee. but only after "somewhat of an unknown" with regard to Wisconsin, gained prominence as an Indi- being roughed up a bit by Western park management. _anactivist and tribal leader when she -led Republicans. Kennedy does not need· Senate con- the struggle to.restore federal recognition Sen. Malcolm Wallop, R-Wyo., ques- firmation, but Clinton's choice to head the to her tribe, reports Indian Country tioned whether Baca would be unbiased in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Mollie Today. Last fall, she made an unsuccess- light of statements he made about the lead- Beattie, does. Beattie, a veteran natural ful bid for a seat in the House of Repre- I ers of the wise-use movement. Baca said he resource official from Vermont, would be sentatives. regretted that he once compared those lead- the first woman to direct the Fish and - Paul Larmer ers to former Ku Klux Klansman David, , Duke, but assured senators he would be fair-minded to all public-land constituents,· reports the Casper Star- Tribune. In addition to Baca, the Senate Glacially slow sewage study angers tourists approved a number of key Interior "Reopen. the chalets now," some _ National Park Service was committed to 1992, announced the chalets' temporary . Department assistant secretaries, includ- . 150 people told Glacier National Park reopening the chalets once "the prob- closure. "We probably operated the ing Bob Armstrong, who will oversee managers in Kalispell, Mont., May 24. lems are fixed." chalets longer than we should have," Baca, and Elizabeth Rieke, the former The occasion was the first of two The 80-year-old national historic Peterson said. director of the Arizona Department of scoping sessions that sought solutions to landmarks, complete with flush toilets No one in the audience spoke in Water Resources, who will guide the toilets and other problems that forced and daily fresh linen, accommodated favor of permanent closure or ques- Bureau of Reclamation. Former president the closure of two popular backcountry nearly 4,400 visitors in 1992. Yet the tioned the necessity for full service of the Wilderness Society George Framp- chalets for the 1993 summer season. remote, high-altitude chalets frequently hotels in the backcountry, ton, nominated by Clinton to manage the "They are a singular experience. violated health and clean water regula- Park administrators expect to have a National Park Service and the U.S. Fish They should be open now," said Doug tions. For years, park mairitenance draft environmental assessment com- and Wildlife Service, is still awaiting Hetrick of Kalispell. The overwhelm- workers simply opened a valve each plete by October. The public will then committee confirmation. ingly pro-chalet crowd responded with fall, dumping hundreds of gallons of have 45 days to comment before the The Senate also confirmed Dan applause and cheers. human sewage over nearby cliffs. The agency makes its final recommendation Beard as commissioner of the -Bureau of The reopening of Granite Park and Sierra Club threatened a lawsuit, claim- on the chalets' fate. Reclamation. Beard is the former staff Sperry chalets could be two to three ing the waste attracts grizzly bears. Comments can be addressed to the director of the House Natural Resources years away - longer if an environmen- Then last October, the Montana Superintendent, Glacier National Park, Committee. tal impact statement is needed. Park Water Quality Bureau cited the facilities Box 128, West Glacier, MT 59936 The Clinton administration picked his- officials estimate upgrading the chalets for improper gray water disposal and (406/888-5441). Save the Chalets can be torian and museum' director Roger could cost $2.5 million. A Helena surface discharge of septic effluent, giv- reached at 704 Birch, Helena, MT Kennedy to head the National Park Ser- group, Save the Chalets, fears the "tem- ing the park 60 days to develop a plan to 59601 (406/449-2103). vice. Kennedy, director of the Smithsonian porary" closure could become perma- correct the problems. - -s--Lean Emery . Institution's Museum of American History, nent, and vacant chalets easy targets for Park officials said that wasn't was once an NBC White House correspon- I' vandalism. But Pete Peterson, Glacier enough time given the winter inaccessi- Jean Emery reports from Missoula, dent and an Eisenhower administration assistant superintendent, insisted the bility of the chalets and. in December Montana. official, reports AP. A spokesperson for

HlghCountiyNews-June 14. 1993-5

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- ,= ''J .... <'*'~~~~~~~~:, _: - :.,~·r;. :;-,. =_~. ..;;:.,_k~,_ . ,-~, ~_ .-;:.~_. .. _ :-....- ~; Supervisors ask: Was it coincidenceor treachery? Two Montana national forest chiefs care of our own problems as quietly as vinced in my mind it's linked to something Sholly, who Was questioned but not say the U.S. Forest Service ended their possible, for the sake of the agency and else ... We mayjust be the tip of the iceberg." accused in the 'probe. "Curt was always a careers based on allegations from a cryp- the person involved." The 1989 letter to Robertson, named good, cooperative friend of the park. He's tic government investigation that targeted In a May 3 letter, Sen. Max Baucus, the "Sunbird Leiter" after the Arizona as honest as the day is long." .. them - in one instance for following D·Mont., asked new Assistant Agriculture resort where foresters gave it to him, "did Senteny, who retired from the Gunnison orders. Secretary James Lyons to revisit the trans- not get a favorable response from the Natonal Forest in western Colorado, was the Custer National Forest Supervisor fers of Bates and Nunn .. chief at all," said Bates. The letter said the only one charged in the horse probe. He Curt Bates and Helena-National Forest "Both enjoy broad-based community. Forest Service must -better balance log- received a year of unsupervised probation Supervisor Ernie Nunn, who are both ging- demands with wildlife and recreation for conflict of interest in an unrelated horse leaving the rarest Service to avoid forced needs.'That still hasn't happened, said sale. U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock, transfers, asked whether a bidden motive 'Bates. who sentenced Senteny, said the horse probe drove the two-year probe, which Bates The investigation Nunn said that while he hopes the "smacks of personal vendetta." The judge called petty and vindictive. 'seemed unrelenting, action against them is not retribution for apologized-to Senteny for the ordeal, calling And a Forest Service employees' the letter, "it's hard to believe and under- it "overkill in the extreme." group said the investigation, denounced it seemed vindictive stand" otherwise. Jolly said government rules prohibit any last year by a Colorado judge, was a polit- The departures of nearly three- federal employee from engaging in private ical device used to maintain control by at times, it seemed fourths of those Northern Region supervi- business without the approval of superiors. those who favor intense logging. sors who signed the missive appeared Bates said neither he nor park staff felt Both Bates and Nunn noted they were trivial.' above-board "but awfully coincidental," there was any conflict "because it was not my among the 13 forest supervisors in Montana -Curt Bates Bates said -,"I don't know what could be agency, it was people that I didn't have any- and Idaho who signed a1989 letter.to Forest Former supervisor, made of that." rhing to do with in any capacity." He com- pared the one-time horsesale to selling a cat. Service Chief F. Dale Robertson complain- Custer National Forest In Bates' case, he learned in Novern- ing that the Service hadstrayed from its land -ber 1992 thai he faced a 30-day suspen- When Bates appealed his punishment to stewardship mission, and become an organi- sion and forced reassignment to a range Washington, D.C., officials dropped the 30-

zation out of control. I management job in Washington due to day suspension, but-insistedon the transfer. With their departure, only four of two conduct allegations. So many rules govern federal service those 13 supervisors remain in their jobs, support and engender professional respect," lane focused on a 1990 letter he that civil servants probably break rules thr: ~w>osaid. The rest have retired, trans- Baucus wrote: "Many Montanans were sur- signed seeking donations to pay the way whenever they act independently,Bates said. fen;ed or been reassigned to new posts. prised, and more than a little suspicious, for a Forest Service pack string to the Someone intent on' proving any employee's "Most of people on that list have when the Forest Servic_e announced t~at 1991 Rose Bowl parade -. Mumma had wrongdoing could probably find a way. been affected one way or another since these two individuals were being transferred instructed all forests in the region to solic- ~'I think that's what was done in this then," said Bates, who has run, the for disciplinaryreasons." it that support, and the regional office in case. Why? That's something I don't have Billings, Mont.-based Custer Forest for The departure of Bates and Nunn, both Missoula provided a model letter for an answer to in my own mind yet. And I five years. "And now when Ernie and hired by former Regional Forester John forests to copy onto their letterhead. Nunn doubt I ever will." . myself have done whatever we do, then Mumma, cernes almost two years after faced the same charges. Nunn retired June 11. June 1 was the· that's two more off the list." Mumma was reassigned to Washington, Other forests followed Mumma's last day for Bates. He had joined the For- Regional Forester David Jolly in Mis- D.C., when the Northern Region failed to directive; only Bates and Nunn were est Service as a firefighter out of college soula, Mont., said there was no effort to meet logging quotas. Mumma retiredinstead charged . 30 years ago. His superior performance .dismiss those who signed the letter, which and denounced political pressures that led The second charge against Bates cen- ratings continued through this year. he admitted "created a lot of consternation the agency to cut more timber than forests tered on his private sale of horses to the Although he said he could beat the alle- within the outfit." Any personnel moves could tolerate (HeN, 10/7/91). National Park Service. -gations, Bates said, he had already run up 'a were routine, he said. Mumma told Congress that an inves- Since he knew Bates. owned Missouri big legal t~b."By retiring, "I'm out of this Bates and Nunn both have taken tigator probing the agency's hor\se pro- foxtrotter horses, Yen~wstone~ Chief 'and I don'thaveto·deal~~i~~tmo.r:e::~! early retirement after being ordered to gram told .hirn he was sending weekly Ranger Dan Sholly in 1989 had .his-staff ' "It is something tRat I'm no> pleased new jobs in Washington, D.C., following reports to Sen. Conrad Burns,_ R-Mont., ask Bates for help locating affordable ever happened and I don't think it ever an investigation of the Forest Service's and Sen. Larry Craig, R-1daho. Neither steeds of that breed. should have. But I guess I'm not going to pack-horse program. senator admits to initiating the probe. In turn, Bates contacted Paul Senteny, a let it destroy the rest of my life. I'll go One allegation w"'i that, at the direc- The two- year investigation, which retired Forest Service employee and Col- forward anyway." tion of then-regional chief John Mumma, touched on most national forests that keep orado horse breeder. Senteny obtained eight the two solicited private donations to send horses fot backcountry work, Bates said, horses and sent. them to Bates, who sold - MichaelMilstein a Forest Service mule train to the 1991 "seemed unrelenting, it seemed vindictive them to the park for a small profit that did Rose Parade in California. at times, it seemed trivial." not even coverhis costs, Bates said. Michael Milstein reports for the Federal prosecutors considered cases The decorated forester said, "I'm con- "We initiated the whole deal," said Billings Gazette in Montana. against Bates, Nunn and Mumma, but did not find enough evidence to charge them, said Assistant U.S. AttorneyRobert Brooks. Bates and Nunn are both 30-year Forest Washington doesn't get it,officials say Service veterans known as progressive lead- The Billings, Mont.-based Custer "It is a big ticket item,'? Bates said. there is on producing timber." ers in their agency. Batessaid they were told National Forest has been under intense "The emphasis (on mineral leasing) Helena National Forest Supervisor by their superiors "thatwe should not, would pressure from Washington:n.c., in recent h~ been high in the Forest Service, just Ernie Nunn, who is also retiring in the not, go to the public withthis." years to resume oil and gas leasing, said like interest in producing a certain face of a forced transfer, said F_orest Ser- Jolly said no such order was given. retiring forest supervisor Curt Bates. amount of timber volume has been vice brass must remember that logging However, he declined to discuss the alle- The Custer supports a major part of high," he said..The forest struggled to is a management tool, not an objective, gations, except to say the charges the oil and gas leasing program in the U.S. meet the time demands from Washing- "Sometimes 'we let other wants and involved the men's conduct, not perfor-_ Forest Service's Northern Region, which ton, D.C., and did so, Bates said, despite needs get ahead of good, sound forest prac- mance. Jolly said the transfer order came coversMontana, Idaho and theDakotas. a limited staff. tices," said Nunn, who, in 1991, was asked from Robertson' s office, After the Forest Service was required Bates first issued an oil and gas to leave the Helena Forest. Nunn said he A Forest Service employees' group said by the courts to do ·an environmental decision for the grasslands in the Dako- thought thai· directive came because the .Bates and' Nunn are-victims of "political review of oil and gas leasing plans before tas. Another, for its Beartooth District, is forest fen short' of its logging quotas. cleansing" by Forest Servicebrass before the permitting new drilling, the Custer came due out soon. The 1991 directive was withdrawo Clinton administration can get on its feet. under pressure to complete environmental In a draft decision issued earlier this as a result of a public outcry in support There is a Clinton moratorium on impact statements' quickly, year, Bates placed 30 percent of the of Nunn. . . high-level personnel shifts. But the agen- "Oil and gas is a-top priority. in the Beartooth area off-limitsto oil and gas leas- Bates said that despitethe investigation cy has used an exception that permits dis- region and has become such for us ing. It was a ''balancedapproach," he said. that prompted his resignation, he felt good ciplinary action to target 23 top personnel because we carry 'the brunt of that pro- Sierra Club RepresentativJ Kirk about his 30 years in theForest Service. But for transfers, said Brian Hunt of the Asso- gram," said Bates. Instruction's carne Koepsel said while Bates' decisions did he said the Washingtonoffice, which is buf- ciation of Forest Service Employees for from the office of Forest Service Chief . not always please environmentalists, the . feted by political pressure, cannot always Environmental Ethics. F. Dale Robertson to renew oil and gas supervisor was open to new opinions tellwhat's best for the forests. "This is a midnight massacre to move offerings as soon as possible, and compromises. "There's a gap-between us on the good people out and replace them with Custer oil and gas leasing has "It looks like the Forest Service- is- ground and the Washington office as to supervisors who are'more aligned with an drawn intense interest both from envi- just trying to get rid of any dissent or what's going' on and what's right and old rather than a new outlook on forest ronrnentalist s and the oil industry any open-minded people in the agency," wrong," Bates said. 'There doesn't seem to management," he said. because the Custer .and the national Koepsel said. be enough recognition'givento the fact that Nunn said other forest supervisors grasslands it manages in North Dakota No bosses ever told him to expand we can only do so much out here, and that face hushed reassignments, indicating a and South Dakota contain more oil and mineral development, Bates said; "even sometimes falls shortof the expectations at disturbing trend, but Forest Service gas reserves than any other unit in the spokesman Chris Holmes said internal though there's a lot of emphasis. placed the Washington office level." forest system. - .-M.M. tFansfers are common: '"We try to take on producing oil and gas leases just like

6 - High Country News - June l4, 1993 \ " . I

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Ladendorf Family ----ASSOCIATE Mi,wt, North Dakota Robert and April Hiller David Lavender TIICSOII, Arizona Ojai, Califomia

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Dr, and Mrs, Iohn H. Joseph P. Schmidt John A, Wayne Mary L'Poss Thomas Harter Morton Payson, Arizona Albuquerque, New Mexico Seattle, Washington Tucson, Arizona Rnchester, New York Russell Schreiber Hal Weaver Jim Roberts Laura Jackson Ray and Joan Mosser Basalt, Colorado Baker, Orego1i Redding, California Phoenix, Arizona Portland, Oregan Grant Wiegert John Segar William R. Rohtert Clay Johnson Valentine, Nebraskn Ellgene, Oregon Thomas Mottl T~lIckee, Catijomia Jensen, Utah Taos,New Mexico Shan Sethna Tanja Wilcox Teresa Jordan Vail, ColoradtJ Seattle, WashingtOlI Anne K. Ruggles AnthonyMusci Elko, Nevada Salt Like City, Utah Fairbanks, Alaska Doug Shaffer . Susan Wilcox Keith Karoly Tina Naugle MerrimJlck, New Hampshire lAkewood, Colorado Steve Schumacher Norwood, Colorado Lisbon, North Dakota East Setauket, New York Joe Williams 'r Freda Sherbondy Emma Neiweem Akron, Ohio Santa Fe, NC1.v Mexico Debra Scott Karla Knoop Arlington Heights, Illinois Milwaukee, Wisconsin Helper. Utah - W. Michael Shuster CEo and M]. Wtlliamson Dean Neprud Denver, Colorado Walsenburg, Colorado TIm Smart Keith Kopischke Big Timber, MOlrtana Moab, Utah Boise, IOOho Ruth Siemer .Loren Willson Scott Norris Ouray, Colorado Tacoma, Washington Marit Snow Sawyer KJ. Kostolecki AlbuqJlerque, NeW Mexico Lander. Wyoming Palmer, Massachusetts Ralph D. Silkensen Frank W. wilson Longmont, Colorado Lafayette, Colorado Doli S. Obee Angela Sondenaa Barbara Landgraf Boise,Idaho Duton, MOlltallh E.B. Silver Geordie Wilson _ Grangeville"ldaho Ann Bond Santa Fe, New Me,xieo Seattle, Washington Peter Landres and Dura'!go, Colorado D.C. Spencer Mazu rski Larry Simon and Gladys Wmblad' Durango, Colorado Madeline Stuart·W. Olbrich Susan Aitken AlbllqllerqJle, New Mexico Missol/In, Montana Mountain Home, Idaho Hayward, Califonzla Robert J. Squier Bob Witters Portal. AdZOlla Donald E. Lane Sarah P. Orr Gene Simon Goldell, Colorado Olympia, Washingtoll Phoenix, Ariwna Faywood, Neur Mexico Ron Steffens Ruth C. Woods State University, Avkaneae J. Laughlin Rowland M. drum Herva Simpson DemJeJ~'Colorado Nederland, Colorado Eugene, Oregon Bozeman, Montana Dorothy A. Stiles Robert Woodward Deming, New Mexico Jeffrey Leich Rob Osterburg Howard Sklar Round MOllntain, Neiada "forth COllilJtlY, New - Denver, Colorado Cupertino. California , Mark Stromberg Hampshire Thomas Wozniak Carmel Valley, Califonlia Scott T. Smith Sheridan, Wyoming Frances Ottesen Brian and Janet Lloyd North Logd1l, Utah Las Cruces, New Mexico·· Albuquerque, New Mexico Hugh D. Young Tom Sullivan Bouldev, Colorado Jean Palmer-Moloney Brad Snyder Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Breckenridge, Colorado Boulder, Colorado Robert B. Loren Michael K. Young Jenny Tollefson Sitter City, New Mexico Nic'"and Joyce Patrick Mark Solomon Laramie, Wyoming New London, Connecticut Cody, Wyoming' Moscow, Idaho Laurance A. Lyons Judson and Pat Zenzic Hawtuome, Ne'l'ada Stewart Cassidy Jan weido l Anct;'pearce Chuck Sowards McCall, Idaho Stallford1.lilIc, New York Ben ,al'egon . Pierre, South Dakota Lauric Matthews and Lee de laHoussaye Greg and Amy Welden Whale Szczepanewski Stephen Phillips RonSpoon and Jodie Canfield Dallas, Texas jerome, Arizona Moscow, Idaho Poniand, Oregon Townsend, Montana Greg Pavelka Tamara Wiggans Clyde S. McConnell ntributors, Chris Pierce Julie St. John Ri1.1e1~dale,North Dakota Bluff, Utah Calgary, AlbeHll Dolores, Colorado,. Tl/cliP!J,Arizona Joe Pepi Cheryl M, Wold Karen McCracken Ken and Linda Pierce J6hnStansfieid Zephyr Cove, Nevada OroIlO, Maille ~ctive Golden, Colorado MOlwmeJZt, Colorado Cambridge, MassncJwsetts Joni T. Quarnstrom George L. Steele Mazama, Washington Boise, ldnho lesbler James Lockhart rlins, GDlorado Colorado Springs, Colorado Fred and Marge Quist Joe B. Stevens , BOl/lder,Colorado Corvallis, O"egon dser Ross Loevy en, Colorado Ogdelt, Utah Paul Rea Hope B. Stevens Cednr City, Utah Bozeman, Montana IKelly , Rudy Lukez CoWraiio S,aIt LAke City, Utah Eric M. Resiche' Terril K Stevenson Aspen, Colorado Boise, IdaJw

Don McConaughey " L Kysely Niobrara, Wyoming Mike Riley Nonna Sullivan :arbarQ,California Seattle, Washington Sail Diego, CalifOntia Mike Med1?erry .aDuke Ketchum, Idnlw Ray Ring Donald M. Sutherland Ridge,Colorado Tucson, Arizona Keizer, Oregon Vicki Mercer Rock Palisade, Colorado Karen L. Risch Tory and Meredith Taylor n, CoJomdo Lakewood, Colorado Dubois, Wyoming Michael Merrifield Laemmle and Colorado Springs, Colm'ado Darrell Robinson Paul Thiriot :;etzl~r Portland, Oregon Salt w~ (in), Utah lweI,California Mary Sue Miller Westlake Village, California . Marcel Rodriguez Ste.ve Thompson 1Y U. Leitner Springdale, Utah Knlispell, .Montana iollywod, California Alan Mitchell Clackmas, Ol'egall Bii'rbara Rose Dwight E. Thornton and Catherine Lentz \ Baltimore, Maryland Idaho Falls, Idaho ento, California . Mary A. Moore Cmwford, Colomdo Lee Rozaklis E.W. Tisdale Lewis and Ball/del; Colorado Moscow, I~ho Newton Scott A. Moore /le, Colorado Hines,Oregolz Carol Patterson Rudolph Helen M. Tollefson Winslow, WashingtOlt Missoula, MOIitalla 14, Lindahl Robert B. Moore e, Wyo#Iing E"glei~lood, Colorado Jeffrey M. Sanders Eme Trimmer Billings, Mo\ntana Magna, Utah and Lynette Steve Rosenstock and ..Lucas Susan MacVean Barbara Sarantitis Wm. J. Vorkoeper Stewart cassidy nd Hills,"Califomia Phoenix, Arizona Po/tland, Oregon flagstJ1.ff,Arizona Mountain goat nanny and kid f t Fatally / flawed f / l nuclear 1/ /'; power -'I" , plant is shut

by Jim Stiak

'Like the. release of hostages min- utes after Ronald Reagan's inau- guration or a tax cut in an elec- tion year, the timing was suspicious. Six days after Portland Oeneral Electric (POE) defeated two ballot measures that would have closed its Trojan nuclear power plant, it closed the plant forever. POE, Oregon's largest utility, had spent millions to defeat the' measures, even promising to close the plant early, in 1996. But last Nov. 9 those plans changed. A cracked steam tube released radioactive gas into the plant, and Trojan was temporarily closed for repairs. Two months later the temporary shutdown was made permanent. New information had arisen, PGE explained. Trojan's steam tubes were discovered to be more corroded than pre- viously thought. Inexpensive replace- ment power had become available from California. It would be cheaper to close Trojan immediately, POE decided. Trojan's nuclear fuel rods now sit submerged in a pool of water a Geiger counter's toss from the Columbia River. Most of the plant's 1,300 employees have been let go to search for new liveli- hoods in the shrinking Job markets• of the rural Northwest. And POE is squaring off against anti-nuclear activists in what will surely be a lengthy legal battle to determine who gets to pay for Trojan's early demise. This, encounter is being watched by a nuclear power industry that faces many suqhbouts in the future. For -the same . corroding metal that killed Trojan is also used in almost. two-thirds of the nation's commercial nuclear reactors. The Nucle- ar Regulatory Commission recent! y loos- ened its regulations to keep these reac- tors open, but there are some who hear, in Trojan's silence, a dirge for nuclear .I Doug Bechterffha Oregonian power. Geese cross the street near Trojan When it was built on an ancient Indian burial groundoverlooking the Political winds also shook the plant. millionaire owners of the Soloflex fit- omrnendation to close Trojan perma- Columbia River inthe early 19705, Tro- Originally, the Eugene Water and Elec- ness-machine company, de c ide d to nently. One week later, the board unani- jan was part of the euphoria of atomic tric Board, the utility serving Oregon's launchan effort more mainstream than mously approved that recommendation. power that had seized the nation. Mind- second largest city, signed on as one- that of the bearded, blue-jeaned Marbet. Critics accuse both the NRC and ful of the fabled promise of "electricity third owner of Trojan. But, after Although POE beat both ballot mea- POE of devious spin control. 'More than too cheap to meter," regulatory agencies Eugene's citizens expressed disapproval, sures, the plant's closing raised new a year earlier, points out anti-Trojan swiftly approved construction of Ore- the utility traded away its share to the questions. activist Greg Kafoury, NRC scientists gon's first - and, as it turned out, only Bonneville Power Administration. POE says that it had slowly learned, were raising red flags. On Dec. 23, 1991, - nuclear power plant. Bechtel Corpo- In 1980, after the Three Mile Island along with everyone else, that Trojan's while Trojan was down for repairs, Dr. J. ration erected the massive concrete -accident, Oregon's voters passed an ini- -, problems were serious. Last Nov. 23, the Hopenfeld, an NRC safety issues expert, tower that greets motorists driving 1-5 tiative banning new nukes in the state. In Union of Concerned Scientists, a watch- wrote a memo stating that it was "essen- between Portland and Seattle. Westing- 1986, Lloyd Marbet, a long-haired war- dog group in Washington, D.C., began tially impossible" to detect cracks in the house installed the reactor. rior who had dedicated his life to the releasing internal documents obtained steam tubes. Such cracks, Hopenfeld In May 1976, Trojan began produc- anti-nuclear cause after reading Richard from the Nuclear Regulatory Commis- wrote, could lead to a break in the main ing electricity. But problems were close Curtis' The Perils of the Peaceful Atom sion through an anonymous source. steam line, triggering a chain of events behind. Two years later, POE announced in 1972, placed a Trojan shutdown initia- Some NRC scientists, according to these that could cause the worst nuclear night- , that Trojan did not meet federal earth- tive on the state ballot. • documents, quesiioned the safety of mare ....:...-a core meltdown. quake-protection standards. For nine Although POE defeated the initia- tubes in Trojan and othernuclear power Over the next several months, months in 1978, the plant sat idle while tive, Marbet came back four years later plants. Hopenfeld and another scientist filed changes' were made. Over the next 14 • with a similar measure. POE also beat Discussions between PGE and the more memos detailing the dangers of years, defects and deterioration in Tro- that move, but anti-nuke' forces. were federal commission ensued, and on Dec. . running a reactor with cracked tubes. jan's various components kept the plant growing. By 1992, they had split into 28, PGE staffers asked their board of Nonetheless, in February 199;!, the com- _ closed almost as much as it was open. two camps as Jerry and Marilyn Wilson, directors how they would react t~ a rec- mission allowed P~lE to reopen Trojan. I 10- High Country News - June 14. 1993 \ , 1

PGE claims it wasn't told of the dis- Tubes that were supposed to last 35 senting opinions, and the NRC backs up years in Trojan failed after 16 years. this claim. "So far as we know, no out- This prompted the NRC to loosen its side agency was notified," says NRC safety regulations. Robert Pollard, the 'spokeswoman Sue Gagner. "Dissenting Union of Concerned Scientists opinions are not uncommon here, and 1 . researcher who made the NRC's internal know of no requirement that the public dissension public, explains the proce- be notified of everyone." dure. Marbet says, "PGE claims they Under old NRC criteria, Pollard didn't know about this dissent, but I'm says, if the tube wall's thickness was convinced they did." reduced by 40 percent, the tube would Whatever the truth, the Nuclear have to be lined or thickened. But this Regulatory Commission's actions puzzle cuts down the flow of water to the reac- some observers. "Why," asks Greg. tor, and when too many tubes are Kafoury, "was Trojan licensed to operate repaired, it can't fun' at full power. when NRC scientists had shown that the That's why Trojan asked for a relaxation likelihood of a catastrophic accident was of the 40 percent criteria, Pollard said. , 300 times greater than allowable federal Although the relaxation didn't keep standards?" Trojan alive, it has "Why," asks enabled four other Oregon Rep. Peter reactors in the -, DeFazio, D, United States to "weren't we told 'When the keep operating: about these can- Farley units One cerns?" and Two in, Alaba- In February judge asked to ma, Catawba in 1992, DeFazio says, South Carolina, both he and fellow see those- and Donald C. Oregon Rep. Les Cook in Michigan. AirCoin, D, received NRC is now an NRC briefing on documents, considering relax- Trojan's safety. The ing the rules for a congressmen were they dropped number of 'other told that no safety reactors. And concerns existed. the case like a according to the Two months NRC, 71 of the ago, on April 21, nation's 108 com- DeFazio met with radioactive mercial re.ac ors NRC officials for use the Incanel another briefing, at potato.' 600 tubes. his request, to learn NRC defends' why he'd been kept its rule changes. in the dark. Although "We have lots of the briefing was not data to support this -lead to' 'the worst kind of nuclear acci- .employees from entering. Police arrested ,public, a Defazio aide called .it a "two- decision," says spokeswoman Gagner. 27 of the protesters and brought them "hour, incredibly technical, mind-numb- "The staff believes it's reasonable to per- dent: a meltdown." before District Judge Rick Roll. Judge ing" session that left the congressman mit operation with these smal-lcracks." It was these concerns, says Marbet, that led to some time behind bars fOf him Roll released them on the condition that "utterly unsatisfied." Pollard has his doubts. "I asked they never return to Trojan. Three days DeFazio says public hearings on the NRC what valid technical basis they and a noteworthy legal maneuver by later Marhet and six others returned to matter may be the next step. have for relaxing the rules," he says. PGE'slawyers. the plant and were arrested again. , At the heart of the matter is what "They haven't answered yet. I don't When he discovered the possibility Marbet spent 12 days in the could be the Achilles \heel of nuclear know if these plants are unsafe, but of a meltdown at Trojan, Marbet says, he Columbia County Jail before posting bail power: the steam generator tubes that there's a lot of uncertainty. In the mean- wrote to every relevant public official he and awaiting trial. But before the seven carry cooling water through the hot reac- time, they're letting them operate." could think of: Getting no satisfaction cases came to trial, PGE dropped tors. The walls of these, tubes are only Lloyd Marbet sounds a stronger that way, he 'd~cided to commit what he charges. Like so many acts in the Trojan" 1/20 of an inch thick; to 'make them alarm. "They're stripping awa-y one of says was his first act of civil disobedi- drama, the reasons for this are a matter strong, Westinghouse and other reactor the layers of defense against nuclear ence in two decades of activism. of dispute. manufacturers used a metal alloy called accidents," he says. "It could lead to a On Dec. 1, 1992, Marbet and dozens loss of coolant, which, combined with of other protesters formed a human bar- Inconel 600, a chrome-nickel-iron alloy continued on next page that has corroded faster, than expected. the possibility of an earthquake, could rier in ,front of Trojan's gates, preventing

High Country News - June 14: 1993 - II

..... ' ~ .>~_< ..... -"-0" L ~,_":-_-'!:;:~{~{- 'J. Fatally flawed nuclear plant ... continued from previous page

PGE says it simply didn't want to spend the money to bring all the cases to' trial. "It would have cost more than $120,000 just to find and identify the documents the judge says he wanted to inspect," says PGE spokesman David Heintzman. "POE wants to save money for its customers and stockholders, so we sought dismissals." Kafoury, who is Marbet's lawyer, scoffs at the explanation. The real reason POE wanted to avoid the trials, he says, is that they would h'ave had to produce documents that would have proved they knew all along that Trojan was in "far worse shape than they ever let on." PGE photo "They wanted us prosecuted," Kafoury says. "They wanted us convict- An aerial view of Trojan ed. But when the judge asked to see r those documents, they dropped the case The decomissioning costs are easiest repaid by its customers for the rest of the pledged for conservation over the next like a radioactive potato," to understand. When Trojan came on cost of the plant. Better, says Meek, that five years is less than 3 percent of its While Marbet and fellow protesters line in 1976, a retirement fund was set the people who own PGE's 47 million annual revenues - far less than a post- avoided trial, the legal wrangling over up. Some money was to be added each shares foot this bill out of the $54 mil- nuclear utility in Sacramento is spending Trojan is far from over. Trojan's owners year, gradually swelling the account over lion in dividends they receive each year. (see story below), Energy activists are are suing Westinghouse for damages the nuke's anticipated 35-year lifespan "This isn't money PGE had to pay clamoring for more. from the failed steam tube. And PGE is . until it reached more than $400 million. out; this is money they expected to come However PGE replaces Trojan's moving through the state regulatory pro- But when Trojan died at age 16, in that didn't," Meek says. "It's basically 1,100 megawatts, it will tread a road cess to collect from its customers the there was only $46 million in the lost profit for PGE." What's more, he soon to be traveled by many other utili- costs of Trojan's premature death. account. Estimates of total decommis- adds, Oregon voters passed a ballot mea- . ties. Three U.s. nuclear plants have shut In the suit against Westinghouse, sioning costs now range from $400 mil- sure that prohibits a utility from charging down in the last year, and the amount of PGE claims that the lion to well over $1 ratepayers for a project not in service. U,S. electricity generated by nuclear reactor builder billion. Even thelow~:"~~"f-he :PUC is expected to rule in '~.~..pp,;we~r---.J.abeur20 ,p~c~litl~~as begun, «misrepresented" figure, spread over PGE's favor. If that happens, Meek says, to slip. New York invesrmenrtbrokers the longevity of the PGE's 600,000 cus- "we'll appeal it." Sooner or later, pretty Shearson Lehman Brothers last year pre- dicted that 25 nuclear plants in the nation .,: . Inconel 600 tubes. torners, means that "much everyone expects the issue to wind (The Eugene Water 'This isn't each customer will up in ~ourt. may shut down within the decade and Electric Board have to pay $667 As it slips into a post-nuclear future, because of soaring maintenance costs. has filed a similar moneyPGE each. The rest will PGE is promising major investments in While the industry tries to rescue suit for the 30 per- fall on other North- conservation, efficiency and renewable itself, drawing up plans for a second gen- cent of Trojan it west ratepayers, cus- resources. The utility is planning new eration of simpler and safer nuclear power still technically had to pay tomers of Bon- cogeneration plants powered hy industri- plants, the nails in the coffin of the first owns.) The cases neville Power al steam, and dynamos driven by natural generation are being hammered home .• are still in early out; this is Administration, gas. Trojan itself, POE has said, may "be "evidence gather- who, under~. the turned into one of these natural gas Jim Stiak reported this story from ing" stages, says money they agreement with the plants. Eugene, Oregon. He recently moved to PGE spokesman Eugene Water and Still, the $125 million that PGE has Maui, Hawaii. Heintzman, and the Electric Board, took amount of damages expected to over 30 percent s_ought is still financial responsi-_ unspecified. come that bility for the plant. PGE may have The PUC, a tough time win- according to chair- ning. The warranty didn't.' man Ron Eachus, on the tubes has little choice but expired four to allow PGE to pass months after the plant came on line - these costs on to its ratepayers. "It's not about three years before the first cracks something we do just for nuclearplants," appeared. And while some eight other he says. "It's the way we'd treat any utilities have filed similar suits against kind of equipment." Westinghouse, the only two that have Even Trojan's foes agree, although been settled have been settled in West- they want POE to commit to energy con- inghouse's favor. servation and renewable resources before Whatever the outcome, POE's suit being given the green light. against Westinghouse is a sideshow to a Those same foes, however, bristle at bigger circus. The main event is occur- the other costs PGE wants to charge its ring in the Oregon Public Utility Com- ratepayers. Portland attorney Dan Meek mission (PUC), the agency that decides has identified more than $850 million in ~ how much utilities can charge for elec- "unrecovered costs" that he thinks tricity. sbould be paid by PGEshareholders Through a series of requests filed rather than ratepayers. with the PUC, PGE is paving the way to PGE spent about $450 million to colleet hundreds of millions of dollars build the plant, Meek explains, and. put for Trojan's closure. There are two big about $20 million a year into it. Those price tags here - the cost of decommis- construction costs were to be depreciated sioning Trojan, and the money tbat POE on a straight line basis until the year will no Jonger be able to make on the 2011. Now that Trojan has closed less nuke's operation. tban halfway there, PGE still wants to be

12-IDghCounlryNews-June 14,1993

\ I II\

'lion plans to resume nuclear testing. Citi- -, cost _$'6.5 billion next 'year, a billion notable exceptions, advocates of change by Jon Christensen zen Alert recently declined to participate dollars more than this year. Together, in energy policy generally praise the in a panel the agency has formed to eval- they absorb more than half the nation's appointments. azei O'Leary, the new secre- uate the Yucca Mountain project. The energy budget. The new deputy secretary for ener- tary of Energy, has hit the group is holding out for an independent . ground running. O'Leary has The inertia is daunting. Most Ener- gy programs, -the number two position H in the agency, for example, will be "blue ribbon" panel to be convened by shaken up the bureaucracy, restructured gy Department watchers temper their William White. A former House energy the White House.. the chain of command, brought fresh enthusiasm for O'Leary and the new staffer and Houston lawyer who spe- Nevertheless, on a recent visit, faces to key posts, and proposed a bud- DOE with cautions, about the bureau- cialized in commer.cial fraud, antitrust, Brown was impressed by some "big get that would sharply alter national cracy's track record, Clinton's propen- and oil and gas litigation, White raised changes" at Energy Department headquar- energy policy. sity to compromise, and the need to money and campaigned for Clinton. ters. Visitors are no longer treated like But the Department of Energy is measure rhetoric against reality. criminals, he says, by being thoroughly still besieged bynuclear partisans and "What is discouraging is the way But those qualifications should not be searched by armed guards before they are Cold War warriors. Observers say it 'the administration has already respond- held against him, says AmoryLovins. al·lowed in and then accompanied by may take years for O'Leary to trans- ed to pressure," says Scott Denman. "Just because nets from Texas one shouldn't assume he comes covered in escorts at all times. O'Leary sat with form the agency from a bastion of The nuclear industry is still being sub- hydrocarbons. He 'has got a good grasp Brown and a group of activists from secretive nuclear scientists and engi- sidized, Denman says, even though of what needs to be done .... around the country in a circle in her office. neers to what she envisions as a O'Leary has said she believes nuclear Another key nominee is Tara "She is a very warm and open per- "responsible, accountable and cost- power has no future. O'Toole, an analyst with the congres- son," says Brown. He wonders if she can effective" Energy Department that puts Amory Lovins is critical of the impart those qualities to an organization the public's interests first. money being spent on nuclear fusion, sional Office of Tec.hnology Assess- with a 40-year record of "secrecy, con- O'Leary describes her work as which has "no prospect to be com- ment, who Was named assistant secre- tamination and lying to the "reinventing DOE." She public." promises a historic change O'Leary has taken some from nuclear and coal to ener- important steps, Brown con- gy efficiency and developing cedes, including declassifying markets for renewable documents such as a recent resources. safety analysis report on the The DOE's fiscal year Can Hazel Pantex nuclear weapons plant 1994 budget request for $19.6 in Amarillo, Texas. And there_ billion reflects these priori- has been a "dramatic change' ties. It asks for less money for O'Leary in the way public meetings') nuclear weapons production are run," Brown says. Citizen and more for cleanup. The Alert, for instance, has been details, however, do not 'yet reinvent invited to budget briefings on add up to the sweeping the Yucca Mountain project changes promised during the and the Nevada Test Site .that presidential campaign and the the Energy it was never privy to before. State of the Union address, "The biggest job for when President Clinton said, activists is to keep her feet to "We're eliminating programs Department? the fire. There. have been that are no longer needed, some changes," he acknowl- such as nuclear power edges: "She's having some" research and development." impact. But I'm withholding But the administration judgment." f.i1Jhas _(stgnate~dDa)!fbJ!I}g.~dAn- 1 Bob Schaeffer of the c.directlon. "lr's a good first Military Production Network, a coali- step forward out of the dark ages of petive," and what he calls the "clean-coal tary for environment, safety and health. tion of citizens groups that watch-dogs Reagan-Bush energy policy," says boondoggle." Overall, Lovins says, the A physician and author of two critical the nuclear weapons complex, agrees. Scott Denman of'the Safe Energy Com- department could do a lot more with less. reports on managing cleanup and work- "People are pleased 'with the openness, munication Council, a Washington- "If they spend their money wisely, it's er health and safety at the nuclear but they're waiting to see what's done based coalition of 11 -energy and envi- likely to do some good," he says. "But . weapons complex, O'Toole is respected about substance," he says. ronmental groups. the devil is in the details. The department in Congress and by watchdog groups. "We were never invited to talk to "They're moving in the right direc- is trapped by dozens of years of hostility Her nomination was welcome news, the secretary or high-ranking officials tion," agrees energy efficiency guru to sensible energy ideas. It will take says Daryl Kimball of Physicians for in recent years," says Safe Energy Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain years to rebuild." SOcialResponsibiltty. Even more gratify- Communications Council Director Institute. "The early changes look Lovins and some other critics go so ing was the new power given to her post. Scott Denman. "They couldn't have promising. They seem to understand far as to suggest that the Energy The position was elevated to report cared less about our positions. We have the need to demilitarize, to take eco- Department jettison its nuclear directly to O'Leary, and the assistant sec- an ear now. We are frustrated with nomics seriously, to make the best and weapons complex, perhaps to the retary was given the authority to shut backtracking on the budget but we're cheapest energy buys first, and to open Defense Department or another agency. down hazardous facilities. At thesame pleased with the dialogue. And that's up the culture. But O'Leary has her -But they are pleased by 0' Leary's time, O'Leary agreed to submit the tradi- the nature of dialogues. You do-n't work cut out for her." "restructuring of the department into tionally autonomous DOE weapons com- The pace and size of change will be three distinct "mission teams": energy plex to oversight by the Occupational always get everything you want." determined in line-by-line budget battles supply and demand programs, the Safety and Health Administration. Denman also says it is a good time in the trenches of Congress, the White nuclear weapons complex cleanup, and Kimball and others were astonished to call President Clinton and the Energy House, and the Energy Department science and technology research and to see these changes, which have been on Department. "They're listening now." bureaucracy. The old-guard nuclear development. their wish list for many years. If someone To express your views, write to cadre appears to be losing ground, but it had predicted the Energy Department President Bill Clinton, The White still holds a significant stake in energy CHARTING THE NEW COURSE would volunteer to let OSHA in a year House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Wash~ ington, D.C. 20050, or call the White policy. ago, says Kimball, "people would have Hard oumbers tell the story. The Most of the new directors of these laughed you out of the room." House comment line, 202/456-1111, or administration's budget proposal backs teams have been named or nominated DOE critics were less than thrilled at fax your message, 202/456-2461. Com- research on commercial-fission nuclear by Clinton, although none have been other appointments. The Office of Civil- ments can also be sent by -computer reactors to the tune of $230 million, confirmed by the Senate. In the mean- ian Radioactive Waste Management, electronic mail on America Online to down only $30 million from this year's time, career civil servants are running which is in charge of building a reposito- [email protected] or on CompuServe budget. the ship with "special assistants," who ry for spent reactor fuel and other high- to [email protected]. Research into fusion power will do not require Senate confirmation. level radioactive waste at Yucca Moun- You can write to Secretary Hazel receive $348 million next year. At the Dan Reicher, for example, formerly of tain, Nev., appears destined to be over- O'Leary, Department of Energy, 1000 same time, research on solar, wind and the Natural Resources Defense Council, seen by Daniel Dreyfuss, a close ally of Independence Ave. SW, Washington, other renewable energy resources will is 'a special assistant for weapons Sen. Bennett Johnston. Likewise, long- D:C. 20585. To report fraud, waste, get $327 million, a 30 percent increase. cleanup and waste policies. time insider Victor Reis has been named abuse or environmental problems at And programs to promote energy effi- Appointments to top DOE positions assistant secretary for defense programs DOE facilities, call the DOE Inspector ciency and conservation will rise 35 per- appear to be coming from three centers responsible for nuclear weapons research, General hotline, 800/541-1625. To cent to $789 million. of power, according to agency watchers: development and testing. make a comment or get information These figures will still be dwarfed the White House, O'leary, and Senate Chris Brown of the Nevada group about DOE programs, call the public by defense spending in the energy bud- Energy and Natural Resources Commit- Citizens Alert says he is still wary of the inquiriesoffice,202/586-5575 .• get. It will drop 18 percent but will tee chairman Bennett Johnston, D-La. work....at Yucca Mountain, where workers nonetheless add up to $5.9 billion. And None of the nominees appear bound for have begun to dig a five-mile' tunnel, and Jon Christensen is HeN Great cleanup of the weapons complex will any trouble in the Senate. And with a few of the news that the Clinton administra- Basin editor.

High Country News- June 14, 1993 ~ 13 Responses from Denver and the hinterland:

BILL HORNBY: echoes of today's reactions to Denver's city and countryside. Ed Quillen in HCN May dalliance with national and international What value the educa- 3 provocatively asserts that markets. tional, financial, govern- These chips on rural shoulders are mental, cultural and com- Denver is abdicating as eco- created in part by the age-old, peasanty munications services nomic capital of the Moun- emotion of the dislike' of the simple coun- that only a metropolis tain West region. "The most tryside for the complex city, the revulsion can organize and dis- at finding what 40 Marx calls a "machine tribute? It is highly probable scenario for the ih the garden." This gut emotion has ignit- improbable that future of the Mountain West ed writers from the poet Virgil, who hated rural Colorado, for is that Denver will continue Rome, to Thoreau and Twain, who feared example, would the Industrial Revolution's citification of really like to to decline in relative impor- 19th-century America. depend on Santa Fe tance while Los Angeles Most modern environmentalists sali- for the Broncos and the continues to organize its new vate over Quillen's question, "Is Denver Rockies and the communications Necessary?" and with the blessing from systems the city provides to carry them to - province." This should be a such now-above saints as Wallace Steg- far corners. Or for the education and wake-up call for the Greater ner, would wish the West's growing health-care systems that only a metropolis Denver Chamber of Com- cities away. But metropolian cities with can create. Or for the tax revenues from established populations of almost 2 mil- the populous city that subsidize the spars- Denver and its hinterland ini ti al ly merce to redocument- and lion people, and with no rival of their er countryside's schools and roads. New depended on each other. One was impos- rel?air the still-vital sccale within hundreds of miles, don't economic research could demonstrate that sible without the other. They were an metropo litan links to the wish away easy. These big cities now the metropolis is still necessary to its rural integrated whole (which itself was inte- have the critical mass to grow despite hinterland, though in less immediately grated within the Chicago regional city- countryside. rural curmudgeonry. Questioning their visible ways than in the past. hinterland relationship). On the expand- Quillen admits his safari through the necessity as if viable alternatives exist But if the urban-rural link is still . ing frontier, the interaction was local and jungle of grievances that rural Colorado only lures serious management of urban- necessary, is the affection that will save place dependent.' nurses toward its nearest big city was too rural problems away from the real world. the marriage still alive? Here Denver Capitalists such as Charles Boettch- thinly equipped. He found no factual As in Quillen's concluding wail that "if leaders do need to take a hard look at er well understood that their livelihood study or "Great Formula Book of Urban- r Denver doesn't want to meet this chal- themselves. In these past years of woo- demanded the economic integration of Hinterland Interactions." OUT intrepid lenge, if Denver believes it is now a ing global and national sirens, metropo- that region. Their concern with the hin- investigator was .reduced to rounding up world city between Munich and Tokyo, lites have been taking their regional part- terland was an economic necessity. the usual anecdotal suspects, the staple too sophisticated to concern itself with ners for granted. The Great Denver _Chicago capitalists had to-organize bitches of Western Slope curmudgeons the Bozenrans and Chamas of this world, Chamber has latterly organized goodwill the hinterland so as to make their (urban- - about modem Denver. we can only hope that Santa: Fe will missions to regional neighbors; hopeful- based) capital work, as histbri~n William ' Thus Quillen has the entire metropo- return to its roots and take the job." ly it-will keep these up. . ' Cronan describ'es.Y.Yetas tht¥frontierwas! r, lis attempting to "destroy" "the San Luis Perhaps CU Boulder's pOsingotthe , But the rrfore impb-rblrif task is to '"!' settled; 'ana' tl1e';ifI'8'rk~lektended lnto-f anr!~(I Valley through unsuccessful groundwater rural-urban question as "Can This Mar- collect and distribute the facts about reaches' of the region, -the particular transfer proposals, though these were the riage Be Saved" is a more useful formu- rural-urban interdependence tbat will places within the region curiously -~ schemes of a few private developers. We lation. If, in the real world, metropolitan rekindle tolerance- if not passion in that enough became less important. -

revisit the old battle, over Two Forks Dam Denver is not likely to hand its wedding old marriage. Denver has nat divorced Boettcher again illustrates this point. and the ancient truculence of the Denver band to Santa Fe, it must still realize that the Mountain West, but it has been flirt- H-isGreat Western Sugar Company created Water Board, though this has been far too many of its rural neighbors think ing around, and it needs to remember a profitable agricultural landscape on the demonstrably reduced by the regional sen- that it should. Where does Denver think whom it came to the dance with .• - plains of Colorado. But Great Western was sitivity of the Webb administration. Again many of the anti-urban votes in favor of incorporated in New Jersey, most of its thefearful pitch that the big city's big air- Amendments 1 and 2 came from? From BILL HORNBY is a former editor principals were capitalists based in New port and convention center will be of little the dyspeptic rural view that most of the of The Denver Posi who has been York, and labor was procured both from or no importance to the rest of Colorado; world's unwelcome changes in both eco- observing rural-urban political battles in the region and from Mexico. Great West- again the nostalgic yeaming for the good nomic and social values can be charged Colorado since 1957. ern Sligar was part of a national and inter- old' Clays when Denver business leaders to the sprawling monster-city. national economy, in which Denver was presumably "controlled" their own des- The point for Denver leaders and for incidental rather than integral. tinies and attended to -regional relation- rural civic leaders as well, is not that • • • With the development of the market ships. Though we forget that those old Quillen describes the real world, but"that throughout the West by the end of the 19th leaders such as the much-mentioned his scenario is widely believed. We must century, the heavy work of organization Charles Boettcher were also beat up by challenge this astute newsman by calculat- DON MITCHELL: was finished. Hierarchies of places had rural critics for dangerous liaisons with the ing and publishing the facts about the con- Ed Quillen tries to hold been established and local economies inte- national railroads and foreign investor~, tinuing and very necessary links between the West to a 19th century grated with the whole. But with the devel- opment of advanced transportation and 1 standard when communication, capital is no longer tied to he judges Den- the region. The steel mining work of ver (HCN, Pueblo, for example, can just as easily (and more cheaply)" be done in South Korea. 5/3/93) and Industrial capital is "footloose" these days. finds itsrela- Even for a steel mill or auto plant, access to tion to its hin- materials and markets and location at a transportation. "chokepoint" are far less terland lacking. important now than they once were. Con- It iF not so tainerized transportation, telecommunica- much that Den- tions, and air travel have changed the loca- tional equations. To a degree, any place ver has failed with a road network, telephone lines, elec- the surrounding tricity and an airport is equivalent to any r- rural areas as other place with those infrastructures. _ The on-going struggles over the for- that the world -mation of the European Community or has changed in the North American Free Trade Agree- the past centu- - ment are indicative of the new scales at . which economic cooperation and compe- ry. tition are organized .: As Quillen shows Today, capital is free to roam the in his excellent and globe, playing largely equivalent locali- - Denver Public Library Western History Department Early miners in Teller County, Colorado. provocative article, ties off each other as they decide where 14 - High Country News- June 14, 1993 GEORGE SIBLEY: _. to locate production facilities, corporate headquarters, or hack offices. Corpora-' Ed Quillen's essay on tions and investors now operate in a Denver and the city-hinter- global-scale market of places, anyone land relationship is another 7 exchangeable for the next. Like deciding between breakfast cereals, investors .can outstanding High Country nOW choose between towns and cities. News contribution to articu- Within this system of footloose capital, lating the still-evolving West. elites in cities like Denver strive to make their cities "competitive in the global mar- The research alone puts a ket place." Places, to be competitive, must solid foundation under the provide inducements to footloose, global- kinds of intuitive discourse scale capital, and they (and their residents) must be disciplined to accept the dictates of that have been evolving on the market. If, to one way of thinking, the the streets and in the bars - Denver International Airport seems foolish, and evenin the halls of gov- to another it is absolutely necessary. Its value lies in its symbolism. It says to the ernment - in the non-metro managers of the market that Denver resi- parts of the Rocky Mountain dents and companies are ready to .be play- region for years. But Quillen ers in the global economy. Denver is a good place for business. Because Denver doesn't just "say it like it is"; residents (and the rest of us!) are so willing he goes on to show why it is to pay for this new world-class airport, like it is. global capital should understand tbat it is Stili, there are a couple of-areas of wanted. Denver is better than Salt Lake Colorado Historical Society contention one wants to address with City (or Albuquerque, or Phoenix, or Farmers at the Denver market Quillen: One a question of "degree" and Kansas City) because its government and the other a question of "kind." First, 1 people are ready to make any sacrifice to STANLEY CRAWFORD: where we live. When everyone inhabits question the degree of benevolence that become a world-class player in the capital virtually 'interchangeable dwellings, Until recently, northern Quillen imputes, a little nostalgicallyvto market. Proposals for tax inducements to moves through identical airports" drives the relationship between Denver and its' United Airlines or to Ziff-Davis are indica- New Mexico has always up and down identical strip develop- hinterlands in the 19th and early 20th tive of this willingness to undercut com- been somebody else's out- ments, and carries aroun_d a world vision centuries. My perception was forged in petitors and to improve "market share." forme~ by images on a TV screen creat-: post except for the Tanoan Crested Butte, where I caught the rem- Denver is the place being sold - the com- ed by ..a global commercial culture, a nant oral history concerning that rela- modity - and if the way for it to be sold is tribes that considered it to be sense of place ceases to exist, or tionship from the las! .of the coal miners to undercut the competitors, then so be it. the center of the universe. becomes largely scenic and decorative. abandoned by General William Palmer's The rest of the region does not mat- In ecological terms, I would argue, The question was probably railroad-and-coal-and-steel empire. ter to Denver in this world of footloose vast segments of the urban-suburban From the "industrial hinterland" per- capital, because the places within it are first asked in Seville and population no longer know where they spective, there did not seem to be much competing for the same investments. Madrid, later in Mexico City, live - .and perhaps don't care. This is benevolence at all tojthat relationship. They too are part of the marketplace of one way to_account for the massive and then in Washington: Is it The Chicago-Denver. money that under- places. If the various regional centers despoiling of the planet -c and the great lay the ";Rocky Mountain Empire" gave and small towns are connected to each really worth it? migrations to populate the less despoiled as little as it possibly could, in taking as other, then it is through the scale of glob- _ Denver's sphere of influence, as Ed backwaters that still retain a sense of Quillen points out, never)extended very . place, and which are largely defenseless much as it possibly could, .as quickl y as al "!!pit,'!hr,~J!e.Uh»~,bY_c'!,I',l.\!»g"eaC,~"1-.J ,_. 'i' -'-- it possibly could; and then it left, taking otheLb£ef-lo~al" If Denver interests- strongly into northern New Mexico, and .in theface of the onslaught. show concern about mountain communi- never for very long (HeN, 5/3/93). The For this state of effairs..perhaps Los every machine, building and rail, and . ties or other outlying areas, it is only Denver and Rio- Grande Western's Chile. Angeles is the most compelling model' a. -leaving behind tailings and leaking tun- because they can be advertised as a fea- line from Antonito down to Santa Fe lost city perpetually on the move, centerless, nels. The pittances in wages were given ~.. ture of Denver itself. Look at the cover money from the beginning to the end, which suburban, living off of imported water grudgingly at},est, and every effort was . of the 1993 Denver Directory Company carne in 1940. A couple of its old stations. and food and energy, unable to dispose made to recapture even those. pittances phonebook. Skiers in Denver! Denver is now serve as restaurants. Another branch of of its wastes within its political bound- through company-store policies. And skiing. The good life is here (in Denver). the D&RGW survives as the Antonito to aries, which i~-to