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Reach to be named monument today
The Hanford Reach will become a national monument today when Vice President Al Gore makes a campaign swing through the Tri-Cities, Republicans opposed to the federal designation said Thursday. Democrats would not confirm the announcement, but Washington's Republican congressional delegation leaked the information after being notified Thursday by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt of the Clinton administration's plan. Members were told Gore would make the announcement today in the Tri-Cities, and Clinton would sign the proclamation today also. The Hanford Reach National Monument would provide federal protection for what is often called the last free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River in the United States and preserve about 200,000 acres of undeveloped federal lands near its shores. The designation would include almost half of the Department of Energy's Hanford Nuclear Reservation - land that remained undeveloped because it was a security buffer around nuclear weapons production areas. Gore plans to tour the Reach by boat this morning, then go to Washington State University at Tri-Cities to discuss "local environmental issues," according to statements from the Gore campaign. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is expected to accompany him. "I am not at liberty to announce a federal monument," she said. "That's the president's prerogative. But I am very excited." Murray, who has championed federal protection of the Reach for years, said she had been working closely with the White House, Babbitt and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. Many Republicans, however, want more local control of the Reach along with protection of it. Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., in a telephone press conference arranged by Texas Gov. George Bush's campaign Thursday, stole the vice president's thunder and blasted the administration for acting hastily and not consulting local residents. The Antiquities Act of 1906 allows a president to create national monuments from areas of historic or scientific interest without congressional approval. But Clinton has been accused of using the act to circumvent a Republican Congress hostile to further federal land protections. "The only justification is if there is a threat for the Reach, but all land on either side is owned by the federal government, and there is no prospect of development," Gorton said. "The only emergency is President Clinton soon will be out of office." He said the anticipated announcement ignored the will of the community to "get a favorable editorial in The New York Times." "I'm really disappointed," said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. "We are left with something that is more extreme that anything on the table so far." Hastings had been working toward a local-state-federal management partnership to protect the Reach. Now the only assurance that there will be local input on management comes from a promise by Babbitt - "a promise by someone who is not going to be here next year," Hastings said. But supporters of the federal designation were delighted Thursday. "The administration's action would carry out what every scientific study and the overwhelming majority of the citizenry has supported for years - permanent protection of the irreplaceable ecological, scientific and historical treasures of the Hanford Reach ecosystem," said Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers, a national environmental group. Gore is expected to arrive today at the Pasco airport at Bergstrom Aircraft on Stearman Avenue about 8:40 a.m. He'll be greeted by demonstrators organized by Citizens for Medical Isotopes, who are calling for the restart of Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility to make isotopes for new medicines. He's expected to start his Columbia River tour from the boat launch on Snyder Street in Richland. The public has been invited to his next stop, his environmental speech at 10:45 a.m. on the lawn of Washington State University at Tri-Cities in Richland. The public has been told to show up at 10 a.m. and be prepared to show picture identification. He'll leave the Tri-Cities at 12:35 p.m. for Seattle and then Spokane, where he's scheduled to address the Washington State Democratic Convention at 9 p.m. Opponents of FFTF have announced plans to rally in Spokane for the benefit of Richardson, who also is speaking at the convention. Those who want to attend the WSU Tri-Cities event have been asked to call the Gore campaign headquarters at 206-239-9554 or the Franklin County Democratic Headquarters at 547-2299. "We've had a lot of complaints they couldn't get through" to the Pasco number, said Carol Sue Perkins at the Franklin County Democratic Central Committee office. "We were hoping for 200 people and will have no problem getting that." It was not clear Thursday if people would be admitted to the Richland event without reservations because security checks were being done in advance. The Hanford Reach is not the only environmental issue facing the Mid-Columbia that could result in federal action. Gore has taken no stand on breaching four lower Snake River dams - a proposal the Clinton administration is evaluating. "Equivocating on an issue that will affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, cost billions of dollars and have minimal if any impact on salmon is flat out wrong," Gorton said. Gore's campaign declined to make a statement Thursday. | ||