Congress mulls keeping lid on military land

Wednesday, Oct. 14, 1998 | 11:08 a.m.

Nevada holds the key to training U.S. armed services aircrews how to fly, fight and survive in combat, Air Force officials say.

It is the 3 million acres of land withdrawn for the U.S. Air Force and other military branches for combat training, electronic warfare, intelligence flights and practicing the stealth capabilities that provide the ability to deliver a power strike quickly at an enemy over great distances.

Will the Department of Defense get an OK to keep the land withdrawn for another 30 years?

That is the question Congress will have to answer before Nov. 6, 2001.

The Air Force has launched its bid for renewing the land withdrawal in a two-volume draft environmental-impact statement released for review.

The draft statement looks at the potential consequences of the Air Force continuing to use the Nellis Air Force Range under the current land withdrawal. The public comment period runs through Dec. 31.

The Nellis Air Force Range sprawls across three counties: Clark, Lincoln and Nye.

The air training range extends from Indian Springs, 35 miles northeast of Las Vegas, to Beatty and Tonopah north and west of Las Vegas.

The statement includes five alternatives and an analysis of each, Nellis spokesman Mike Estrada said. The first four alternatives cover continued withdrawal of all or most of the existing land for 25 years or an indefinite period of time. The fifth examines the consequences of returning all the land to the Bureau of Land Management.

The draft statement examines the impact from air pollution and on water resources to the birds, animals and insects that live on the range as the military aircraft zoom overhead.

For military watchdog Grace Potorti, the draft statement offers some hope that the Air Force is listening and showing some sensitivity to the people.

"I am pleased, but a little bit cautious," Potorti said. "Nevadans are not going to buy off on 3 million acres of land locked up for 30 years."

Potorti heads the Rural Alliance for Military Accountability, based in Reno.

The alliance is urging the Air Force to withdraw the land for 15 years at the most. "We need to find out what is going on out there environmentally every 15 years," Potorti said.

The group is pleased that some land will be open to multiple uses, not just military training.

Potorti said the decision on withdrawing the land rests with Congress. "It's not a decision by the Air Force, it is not a decision of the BLM," she said. "Congress is the decision-maker here."

The land also includes the Nevada Test Site, which is operated by the Department of Energy. The statement addresses the plan to clean up radioactive contamination from years of nuclear weapons experiments.

Indian tribes, particularly the Shoshone and Paiute nations, are particularly interested in that part of the study because they have for decades been upset with the federal government's failure to consult with tribal governments. The two nations claim the Great Basin, including most of Nevada, as tribal territory.

DOE has allowed the tribes into some Test Site land to reclaim sacred burial sites. However, the Indians cannot have access to areas that still may carry radiation.

The DOE is analyzing how radiation traveled through the ground, perhaps along earthquake faults, and through ground water. But the DOE studies are complex and cover a large area. They also are expensive -- DOE expects to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in Nevada for the cleanup over 70 years.

The languages of the Great Basin Indians have no words to explain radiation or radioactive materials.

Instead, the Indians describe such radioactive grounds as "angry rocks."

Indians believe that breaking or disturbing a rock without explaining the need for the action -- as is done when atoms are split -- releases the rock's power. This action "angers" the rock and upsets the natural balance. The Indians believe that radiation or the power released by the "angry rock" can hurt, damage or kill plants, animals, people, water or the air.

Besides radiation, the Air Force has spilled ordnance residues from explosives, fuels and oil and the radiation from nuclear testing, primarily plutonium.

The contaminants are not expected to spread outside the Test Site through the water table because the area receives less than 6 inches of rain a year, the draft environmental statement says.

Ground water is available from 25 wells totaling 4,713 acre-feet a year. The Air Force, the DOE and the BLM currently hold 94 percent of that water in 22 wells. The rest is privately owned.

Indian tribes have asked the Air Force to conduct future studies of surface water to check the safety of mineral hot springs they consider sacred.