Letter: Don’t take risks with lands bill

Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2002 | 8:59 a.m.

The Sun's Sept. 8 editorial, "Lands bill too close to lose," was right-on in its emphasis. However, your comments on reasserting the state's rights to ground water, already provided in the Wilderness Act of 1964, miss the mark.

Prior articles in the Sun have made it clear that environmentalists will seek to kill the bill over this water rights deviation in the House bill, a point reiterated in a Sept. 12 article, "Compromise may be near on public lands bill."

This kind of off-topic agenda puts the primary legislation's purpose at risk. I urge our members of Congress to focus on reconciling the House and Senate versions of this bill to identical language, with no political special agendas or riders.

This excellent assimilation of the key needs of open space stakeholders should be constructed to pass for its primary purpose alone. There are too many issues in Congress this session to take any risks with this legislation.

Let's not have another Las Vegas Sun headline like the one in 1996 -- "Land bill's death mourned in LV"!

GEORGE REYLING

Editor's note: The writer is a member of Citizens for Northern McCullough Open Space.