Senators oppose any change in military land reviews

Wednesday, April 14, 1999 | 11:25 a.m.

Sens. Richard Bryan and Harry Reid, both D-Nev., argued for no changes Tuesday during a Senate hearing on how often military control of land must be reviewed.

The established procedure is to render certain land within the vicinity of an Air Force base -- 3 million acres in the case of Nellis -- under military control for 15 years. At the end of that time, that control is reviewed to determine whether another use should be designated for all or part of the land.

The 3 million acres around Nellis Air Force Base, for example, come up for review in November 2001.

Because the reviews involve time-consuming and costly environmental reports and public hearings, the Air Force was pushing for indefinite extensions on land it controls, or at least reviews once every 25 years instead of every 15.

During Tuesday's hearing, however, Reid and Bryan pointed out that a fast-growing state such as Nevada needs as much input as possible on how land is used, and that any review time exceeding 15 years would be too long.

"My biggest concern is that if these lands were allowed to be withdrawn on an 'indefinite' basis, the most likely scenario is that it would effectively become permanent," Bryan said.

Bryan asked the Senate's Armed Services Committee to allow Nevada's growing population to participate in any future planning decisions for use of the federal lands.

The public is concerned about environmental impacts of military training on the lands, Bryan said. Ranges at Nellis and at the Fallon Naval Air Station in Northern Nevada offer premiere training grounds for U.S. fighter pilots.