House launches new airport

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, March 9, 2000 | 11:26 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The House today passed legislation that lays groundwork for a new airport to be built south of Las Vegas.

The bill, which still faces Senate passage and President Clinton's approval, would transfer at fair market value about 6,500 acres from the federal Bureau of Land Management to Clark County. The land is about 30 miles south of Las Vegas in the Ivanpah Valley.

County officials would like to construct a second airport on the dry lake bed to handle a predicted rise in tourist traffic in the coming years. They say McCarran International Airport could reach near capacity by 2008. The Ivanpah airport would open by 2010 at the earliest, officials say.

The state's House members, Democrat Shelley Berkley and Republican Jim Gibbons, said their staffers worked behind the scenes in recent days to craft a compromise with concerned environmental groups in an effort to seal the bill's passage.

Gibbons originally introduced the bill, which passed the House today overwhelmingly, and has been fighting for it for several years.

A collection of environmental groups has said the airport threatens the Mojave National Preserve, about 15 miles from the site just inside the California border. They say sprawl created by the airport could disturb wildlife.

Berkley and Gibbons, a pilot, today introduced several amendments to the bill aimed at easing those concerns. One change would require that a thorough environmental impact study be completed before any construction on the airport begins.

Another change requires that the land would be handed back to the BLM if the federal study found the airport would greatly harm the environment. The BLM would get the land back if the airport had not been built within 20 years. The county would get back the money it paid for the land.

"We've been able to marry and blend the economic needs of our community with the environmental needs as well," Berkley said, arguing for the bill's passage on the House floor today.

Gibbons added, "We have finally found a common ground among all."

Later Gibbons said, "There is no attempt to skirt the environmental process."

At least one environmental group believes that the environmental study will kill the airport project.

"There is an agreement that this bill is significantly better than what came out of the Resources Committee," said Kevin Collins, a spokesman for the National Parks Conservation Association, a Washington environmental group.

"For the record, our position has always been that there would be serious impacts on the park, and that is what the EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) is supposed to determine," he said.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., a strong environmental advocate, offered a cautious endorsement.

"A detailed EIS will be critical in determining whether the airport should be built in the Ivanpah Valley," Miller said. "This bill is not perfect, but it is certainly an improvement."

Gibbons argued that air traffic from Southern California already affects the preserve and that studies have proven that aircraft have not harmed tortoise or bighorn sheep.

He stressed the explosive population and tourism growth rates in Las Vegas.

"As Las Vegas continues to grow, a greater demand is put on its facilities," Gibbons said. "That is why this legislation is so critical to the future of the Las Vegas Valley, indeed, the economy of our state."

Clark County Aviation Director Randy Walker, who was in Las Vegas today anxiously watching the vote, told C-SPAN that planes would be flying a mile over the preserve. He added that the bill also directs the FAA to try to direct flights around the reserve.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who introduced a similar Ivanpah bill in the Senate, said he likes the changes the House members approved today and will advocate those amendments to the Senate version. His staffers plan to meet next week in Las Vegas with FAA officials to talk over air routes.

"We'll work it out. We need to get the administration on board, and I think we can do that," Reid said in an interview today. "The Ivanpah Airport is not critical right now, but in 10 or 15 years it will be critical to the economy."