Hearing dampens activists” Earth Day
There was the sun, the river and the green grass of Riverfront Park. The only thing clouding Earth Day on Friday was today’s hearing in Spokane on the federal law that has become the bedrock of U.S. environmental policy.
The timing of U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris’ review of the National Environmental Policy Act was not lost on a group of citizens who gathered in the park to stress the importance of public participation in government decisions affecting the environment. Both Earth Day and the act are 35 years old this year.
“Any changes to NEPA should be considered with great caution,” said Spokane City Councilwoman Mary Verner. “It makes sure the local community is not left out of decisions, and it provides us the opportunity to base these decisions on good information.”
She and four other community activists said Friday they fear the six nationwide hearings of the Congressional NEPA Task Force are a prelude to weakening the law, which requires federal agencies to study and disclose the environmental impacts of federally funded projects.
Today’s hearing at the Phase I Building on the Riverpoint campus is the first of these hearings.
The Sierra Club’s Chase Davis criticized the review, which he said came with little notification and no clear agenda. He suggested it was designed to minimize public participation.
“We don’t really know the intent of these hearings,” Davis said. “What are their goals? It is the lack of information that is a concern for us.”
McMorris’ chief of staff, Connie Partoyan, said the goal is to get a broad perspective from a variety of experts on how NEPA is working. “How is it working, and how can it work better?”
She said the structure of the task force is determined by Congress. Both Republicans and Democrats were allowed to choose who can testify, and the hearing itself is open to the public.
Though Partoyan stated that McMorris is entering into the review with “no preconceived ideas as to what’s going to happen,” her description of the federal act, which was signed by President Nixon in 1970, offers some clues as to what Republicans think of it today.
“NEPA started as a one-paragraph statute that has grown to 25 pages,” Partoyan said. “It has resulted in 1,500 lawsuits since 1970, with a couple hundred more pending.
“An environmental impact statement can take up to two years and cost between $500,000 and $2 million.”
But Jim Kolva, a public policy consultant on land-use and environmental assessment issues, said the National Environmental Policy Act actually saves time and money by including the public early in the process.
He and others who gathered Friday cited examples of how NEPA has benefited the region, how it still could and how it would have helped had it been used:
• In the 1990s the NEPA process probably prevented the U.S. Department of Energy from diverting Hanford cleanup funds to build new high-level radioactive waste tanks.
• For the first time in a century, the Avista relicensing process ensures that decision-makers will understand the impact of the utility’s dams on water quality, fisheries and recreation.
• Had the Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail refueling project been subject to the NEPA process, the leaking depot may never have been built over the region’s sole source of drinking water, the activists said Friday.
“In cases where damage to public health, the environment or quality of life from a major project is possible, NEPA requires that alternative designs and solutions that could reduce or avoid damage be investigated and presented to the public,” Kolva said.