Park Service sued over ‘inequitable’ Grand Canyon rafting plan

Tuesday, March 21, 2000 | 9:26 a.m.

Nine residents of New Mexico, Maryland and Colorado who have been on a 20-year waiting list for a rafting permit filed suit March 7 in Albuquerque, N.M.

The lawsuit claims the National Park Service favors commercial outfitters over private boaters when allocating river permits, a point long under contention.

Rob Arnberger, Grand Canyon National Park superintendent, said last week he has been working to improve the system. Currently, some would-be rafters wait 10 years for a permit while others get immediate opportunities.

Commercial outfitters have objected to changes. Sixteen of them get about 70 percent of the available slots now. Private boaters claim the $27 million commercial rafting industry put pressure on Arnberger. They also said the waiting list of private rafters contains 6,500 names.

Arnberger already was under fire from environmentalists for having scrapped a long-term environmental study that was to help meld a Colorado River Management Plan and the park's Wilderness Management Plan.

Albuquerque attorney John Wells, who filed the lawsuit, said the private boaters were tired of waiting and that Arnberger's decision to dash the long-term study brought the issue to a head.

The lawsuit asks the court to reallocate the percentage of permits between commercial outfitters and private boaters. It also asks that the Park Service be barred from negotiating new contracts with commercial rafting companies until a more equitable allocation system is established.

The suit is backed by Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association, which has been critical of Arnberger's decision to suspend work on the management plan. That plan had been expected to include regulations protecting wilderness values. Environmentalists hoped that would result in banning motorized river craft.

The Park Service has 60 days to respond; no trial date has been set.

Arnberger has said he's caught in the middle with his hands tied until Congress passes legislation establishing wilderness areas in the park.

"Until there is a law that legislates whether there are going to be motors or not, it is going to be everybody's opinion ... and the National Park Service is not going to legislate a decision through a management plan," Arnberger said.

Arnberger said negotiations with both groups produced what he called workable ideas toward providing more days on the river for private boaters without hurting commercial rafting companies.

However, Mark Grisham, executive director of the Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association, said the lawsuit halts such efforts.

"One of the consequences of the lawsuit is that it will be almost impossible to do that now because of the polarization that someone filing a suit causes," Grisham said. "Whatever opportunity there might have been has been postponed for now."

He also denied the commercial outfitters had pressured Arnberger and said they were shocked when Arnberger suspended the management plan.

Meanwhile, The Wilderness Society is considering filing suit against the Park Service to force Arnberger to resume work on the management plan, said Rose Fennell, a society spokesperson.

Fennell said Arnberger is violating National Park Service policy that requires him to manage proposed wilderness areas despite the pending wilderness designation.

Grisham, meanwhile, said the commercial outfitters are testing a new electric motor that would be far less noisy than the current gasoline motors used. An electric-powered raft is to set out April 3 from Lees Ferry for the 275-mile trip down the river.

Outfitters argue that banning motors would reduce opportunities to run the river since doing so with oars alone takes about twice the time needed for a motorized trip.