March 29, 2001: Gas exploration may threaten Reach

Gas exploration may threaten Reach

This story was published March 29, 2001

By Les Blumenthal
Herald Washington, D.C., bureau

WASHINGTON - A new U.S. Geological Survey report that says significant deposits of natural gas may lie beneath the Hanford Reach is almost certain to raise the temperature of the debate over the area's designation as a national monument.

The report comes as congressional Republicans are considering whether to overturn at least some of the 21 national monuments created by President Clinton and as the Bush administration is calling for increased oil and gas drilling on public lands as the cornerstone of its national energy policy.

It also comes as there has been increased interest in drilling for natural gas not only in the Columbia Basin, but also in Western Washington. In January, the state held its first lease sale in three years, auctioning off rights to more than 110,000 acres, or 11 times more than in 1998.

The USGS report was requested by the House Resources Committee, whose chairman, Rep. James Hansen, R-Utah, is the leading critic on Capitol Hill of the monument designations.

"Our public lands must play a role in a national energy policy," Hansen said in a statement. "This report underscores the contribution these lands can make in helping us meet our energy need indefinitely."

Two Washington state lawmakers, however, vowed to fight any effort to undo the designation of the Hanford Reach as a national monument or to allow exploratory drilling or development.

"It will not happen on my watch," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who fought for more than five years to protect the Reach, said Wednesday. "I will not let it be undone. I worked too long and hard on it."

Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., said he is prepared to attach an amendment to an appropriations bill, known as a rider, that would block any move to remove the monument designation from the Reach or to allow drilling. In the past, such riders have been very controversial.

"I have great respect for USGS, but sometimes, they are under pressure and Congress has to step in," Dicks said. "Riders are OK if they are pro-environment."

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., whose district includes the Hanford Reach and who has been a strong opponent of the national monument designation, said through an aide that he was waiting for more information before deciding how he would proceed.

"Doc won't plant a flag on either side until he sees what the situation is," said Todd Young, a Hastings spokesman. "He's not saying drill away, and he's not saying don't touch it. There isn't enough information."

Interior Secretary Gale Norton, meanwhile, sent a letter Wednesday to state and local officials and members of Congress asking them for their thoughts on how to best manage the new national monuments.

"My department is committed to bringing common sense and balance to the decision-making process by listening to the people who were most affected by the sudden designations," Norton said. "The Interior Department is opening up lines of communication with local people who were not always properly fostered in the past."

While the Bush administration so far has shown no interest in overturning the designations outright, the Interior Department will develop management plans for each new national monument. Norton has made it clear she would like to see increased oil and gas development on federal lands.

Environmentalists denounced the possibility the Hanford Reach could be opened to gas drilling and said the USGS report was politically motivated.

"On a basic level, this is loony," said Bill Arthur, head of the Sierra Club's Northwest regional office in Seattle. "I am very skeptical."

Last June, President Clinton designated 195,000 acres in Central Washington as the Hanford Reach National Monument. The designation protects a 51-mile free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River that provides important spawning grounds for one of the healthiest salmon runs in the Northwest. All the land has been or is part of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

Clinton designated 21 national monuments between 1996 and when he left office in January, many of them in the waning days of his administration.

The USGS report said the Hanford Reach is part of two geologic formations, or "plays," where large quantities of natural gas may exist. The two overlapping areas, known as the Northwestern Columbia Plateau Gas Play and the Columbia Basin-Basin Centered Gas Play, are capped by thousands of feet of basalt rock, where only a handful of exploratory wells have been drilled.