House Panel Unleashes Barrage on Environment Laws

WASHINGTON – Under the guise of promoting military readiness, the U.S.House of Representatives this week plans to consider legislation with far-reaching and extreme provisions that gut key environmental protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). The FY 2004 Defense Authorization bill also includes a specific provision that would threaten the existence of Arizona's San Pedro River, exempting Fort Huachuca from any responsibility under the ESA for impacts of water use caused by off-base activities. The bill that cleared the House Armed Services Committee goes far beyond even the sweeping exemptions to these laws requested by the Pentagon, incorporating exemptions for other federal agencies and corporations that have nothing to do with national security.

"This hearkens back to the extreme attacks on bedrock environmental laws that were a trademark of the 1995 Gingrich Congress," said Rodger Schlickeisen, President of Defenders of Wildlife. "Today, it is laws that protect imperiled species, whales, dolphins and other marine mammals. What environmental protection will they target tomorrow?"

The bill would knock down what Schlickeisen called one of the Endangered Species Act's "pillars of protection" by effectively eliminating the requirement to designate critical habitat on all federal lands, not just lands controlled by the Department of Defense, an action that could make future recovery of endangered species in this country difficult to impossible. He also noted language in the bill, requested by the DOD, that would eliminate designation of critical habitat for species on all lands "owned or controlled" by the military, where some of the best habitat remains for more than 300 species on the brink of extinction.

"The Bush Administration and Congress are using the real threat of terrorism and the war in Iraq to lay down a bogus smokescreen in an ideological attack against our nation's most fundamental environmental protections," Schlickeisen continued.

The bill also undermines another landmark wildlife protection statute, the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The bill would allow the Pentagon to bypass many of the law's requirements to protect whales, dolphins, sea otters and other marine mammals and to renew the exemptions indefinitely. The Congressional language goes far beyond what DOD requested and would amend the MMPA to allow more actions by any ocean user - not just the military - that could harm or injure marine mammals without oversight by federal wildlife agencies, public comment, monitoring or mitigation.

The committee carved out another significant exemption to the ESA for Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ), exempting Fort Huachuca in Arizona from responsibility under that law for off-base groundwater pumping, threatening the existence of an ecological treasure, the San Pedro River. The San Pedro is one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on earth and supports habitat for hundreds of species. In 1988, Congress designated a 45 mile stretch of the river as the nation's first Riparian Habitat Conservation Area.

Schlickeisen noted that the military already can get case-by-case exemptions from these laws in the interests of national security. For the most part, the Pentagon hasn't even bothered to ask the president for these exemptions. He pointed to a June 2002 report by the General Accounting Office, which could not find a single case where environmental protections had harmed military readiness, and concluded that the exemptions already in place are sufficient.

In fact, close examination of the "cases" cited by Pentagon spokespersons involved in this campaign show a pattern of exaggeration, intentional mis-statement, and selective omission to make the military's case for ignoring endangered species protection. For example, the Pentagon's frequent claims that all 17 miles of coastline at Camp Pendleton in California are closed to amphibious landing training due to endangered species restrictions are simply false. In fact, the ESA limits only large-unit amphibious landings on less than three miles of coast, and only during the nesting seasons of the endangered Western snowy plover and California least tern. The Pentagon never mentions the main limits on its operations at Camp Pendleton, which include Interstate 5, an active railroad line, and the San Onofre nuclear plant. For the real facts behind Pentagon environmental claims, see They Can't Handle the Truth: The Pentagon's Myths about Why they Need Exemptions from Environmental Laws at www.defenders.org/newsroom/truth.pdf

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Defenders of Wildlife is a leading nonprofit conservation organization recognized as one of the nation's most progressive advocates for wildlife and its habitat. With more than 430,000 members and supporters, Defenders of Wildlife is an effective leader on environmental issues. For timely information on environmental issues, visit www.defenders.org and subscribe to DENLines, a free e-mail alert newsletter.