Threat May Quiet Hanford Reach Waters Talk Of An Executive Order Spurs Adversaries To Reach Consensus

The battle for protection of the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River may be heading toward a compromise, in part because of a Clinton administration threat.

Local politicians reacted strongly Friday to the Clinton administration’s warning that it might use an executive order to keep the Hanford Reach and the Wahluke Slope under federal control.

“Now comes that legislative period when you try to find some common ground,” U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said Friday. “I certainly hope we can still work out something. I have always said I will sit down and talk.”

Benton, Franklin and Grant county commissioners drafted a letter to Clinton on Friday in hopes of warding off an executive order.

“I hope President Clinton will take a look at our draft management plan and realize the citizens he also serves have spent countless hours preparing it,” Benton County Commissioner Max Benitz Jr. said.

Hastings and the commissioners support a bill Hastings has introduced that would place most control of the reach in the hands of local officials.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is sponsoring a rival bill that would protect the reach under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

In their letter, commissioners say Hastings’ bill is a “solid and responsible approach to managing the fish and wildlife of the area, protecting cultural resources and preserving important access areas for recreation, education and interpretation of the many Hanford Reach values.”

The Hanford Reach is a 51-mile undammed stretch that is the last free-flowing part of the Columbia in the United States. It contains prime salmon spawning habitat.

The administration’s intentions caught Hastings by surprise Friday.

Benitz said commissioners fear a repeat of Clinton’s move last year to create the 1.7 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah over the protests of many of the state’s legislators. He said such a move would cost Murray her Senate seat.

“If she wants her opponent to win over 90 percent of the vote in Eastern Washington in next year’s election, this is the perfect way to do it,” he said.

However, Bob Wilson of the Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Society said the national monument was a good thing for tourism and the economy in Utah - and the reach has the same potential for the Mid-Columbia.