Bill’s environmental rules won’t affect Nellis

Jace Radke and Suzanne Struglinski

Thursday, Nov. 13, 2003 | 8:56 a.m.

The provision in the defense authorization bill exempting the Defense Department from complying with some aspects of the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act probably won't have much of an effect on Nellis Air Force Base.

The only endangered species on the 2.9-million-acre Nevada Test and Training Range is the desert tortoise, and that is only on the southern half of the range, Nellis officials said. The northern part of the range is more mountainous and doesn't have desert tortoise habitats, officials said.

Small fences about 8 inches tall have been constructed around targets on the range that are near tortoise habitats to try to keep the animals out of harm's way when aircraft are dropping bombs and ordnance, Nellis officials said.

One provision of the spending bill that many veterans in Southern Nevada will applaud is the agreement for retired veterans with a 50 percent disability rating to receive both retirement pay and disability checks.

As expected, the bill also includes $392.5 million for the Defense Department's share of the nuclear waste storage site planned for Yucca Mountain 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

That's almost $38 million less than originally planned.

A total of $580 million has been approved for the project for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., had pushed to cut the Energy Department's request of $591 million.

The energy and water spending bill conference report still needs a House and Senate vote.

Not included in the report was an effort to shift responsibility for parts of a workers compensation program from the Energy Department to the Labor Department and a push by DOE to restrict access to certain documents, including some related to the Yucca project.