Environmental issue delays action on cargo-airport bill

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Oct. 21, 1999 | 10:56 a.m.

Benjamin Grove

WASHINGTON -- The proposal to build a cargo airport 30 miles south of Las Vegas is in a holding pattern.

A House committee Wednesday morning approved a bill that directs the Bureau of Land Management to sell 6,395 acres in the Ivanpah Valley to Clark County for the new airport. The committee sent the bill to the full House for a floor vote.

But a Senate committee Wednesday afternoon set a similar bill aside, due in part to concerns raised outside committee hearings by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. She is worried about the environmental impacts the airport would have on the nearby Mojave National Preserve, which lies in California.

Feinstein does not oppose the airport but wants to be assured the project would not endanger the environment, Feinstein spokesman Howard Gantman said today.

"It's a particularly sensitive area," Gantman said.

Feinstein wrote letters to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Harry Bryan, D-Nev., about the issue.

Bill supporters, including Nevada's congressional delegation, have said the airport would have minimal effects on desert plants and wildlife, including the tortoise. Environmentalists and a few Congress members have been skeptical.

For now the bill's future is up in the air.

"The only question that remains is will we get another mark-up before the end of the session?" said Reid spokesman David Cherry, referring to the committee practice of amending a bill and preparing it to be sent to the full Senate.

Congress was scheduled to adjourn for the year by month's end, but it may be delayed until November. If the bill is held up in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the committee could pick it up again when they return next year.

"It would only be done for this session," Cherry said. "We wouldn't have to start over."