Environmental Groups

DENVER -- After years of analysis and pitched debate, federal officials are planning to announce today an ambitious plan to develop national forestland beside Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona that environmentalists are calling a model for future development around national parks.The proposal, to create Canyon Forest Village on 272 acres at the south entrance of the park in the town of Tusayan, represents a compromise that appears to have something for everyone, making it a rare example of cooperation between two forces -- environmentalists and developers -- who rarely agree on anything in the West.

DENVER -- After years of analysis and pitched debate, federal officials are planning to announce today an ambitious plan to develop national forestland beside Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona that environmentalists are calling a model for future development around national parks.The proposal, to create Canyon Forest Village on 272 acres at the south entrance of the park in the town of Tusayan, represents a compromise that appears to have something for everyone, making it a rare example of cooperation between two forces -- environmentalists and developers -- who rarely agree on anything in the West.

FROM GREENPEACE to Motorless Otsego, the latter opposed to boat pollution in the New York lake atop the Chesapeake Bay's watershed, I get newsletters of every environmental stripe.But my recent favorite has to be the Green Elephant, from a fledgling group called Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP).Republicans badly need to set about restoring the bipartisanship that characterized the environmental movement for most of its modern history.Republicans come most frequently to mind when thinking of origins of the current Chesapeake Bay restoration effort some 20 years ago.They include stalwarts such as former Maryland Sen. Charles McC. Mathias; former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Russell Train; the late Arthur Sherwood, a founder of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation; and former Pennsylvania Gov. Richard L. Thornburgh, who involved his state in the cleanup though it owns none of the bay -- just a huge portion of its watershed.

Environmental groups endorse Glendening, slam SauerbreyFour leading environmental groups endorsed Gov. Parris N. Glendening for re-election yesterday, warning that "the choice couldn't be clearer" between him and Republican challenger Ellen R. Sauerbrey.Against a backdrop of the Chesapeake Bay at the City Dock in Annapolis, the groups held a news conference to praise Glendening's record of fighting pollution and to slam Sauerbrey's "abysmal" record on environmental issues during her 16-year career in the General Assembly.

Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit seeking to block a key permit for Chapman's Landing, a controversial 4,600-home development planned on a wooded stretch of the Potomac River in Charles County.The Friends of Mount Aventine and Friends of the Earth asked the U.S. District Court in Washington on Wednesday to block a wetlands permit issued last week so that the development's environmental impact can be studied more thoroughly.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted Legend Development Co. a permit to disturb 3 acres of nontidal wetlands on the southern portion of the Chapman's Landing property.

Navy Secretary John H. Dalton has suspended a controversial proposal to send warships overseas for disposal, a plan that had come under increasing fire from members of Congress and environmental organizations.Capt. Craig Quigley, a spokesman for Dalton, said the secretary has ordered the Navy to immediately suspend consideration of sending ships overseas. Dalton also directed subordinates to work with the Defense Logistics Agency, which handles the sale of ships for scrap, to evaluate the Navy scrapping program in the United States before considering sending ships abroad.

WASHINGTON -- For environmental groups, success in the 1990s means giving up the fight to save the world and instead battling for what Americans really care about: things in their own backyard."

Charging that Maryland is making it too easy for developers to destroy the state's wetlands, environmental groups threatened yesterday to sue the federal government for turning over protection of marshes and bogs to the state.The National Wildlife Federation and four other groups served formal notice that they will sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 60 days for delegating to the state most of its responsibility for safeguarding Maryland's 600,000 acres of tidal and freshwater wetlands.

ASK ANYONE to free-associate with the terms "environmentalists" and "development," and it's a good bet most would think of "against" or "opposed."It is a simplistic and increasingly outdated assumption. Consider the ways leading environmental groups have handled two competing visions of how to preserve the bay region's heritage and natural resources.First was Disney's America, a giant new theme park, residential and commercial development proposed near Civil War battlefields around Manassas, Va., in the Prince William County countryside.

In a recent campaign flier, Western Maryland Republican Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett appears strolling along the C&O Canal with one of the nation's best-known environmentalists, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.State environmental groups say there's something wrong with this picture.The flier, they say, implies that Bartlett is a strong defender of natural resources, a notion they find absurd. Bartlett, according to the League of Conservation Voters and Clean Water Action, has the worst environmental voting record of Maryland's eight House members and two senators.

More than 60 environmental groups from the six states whose rivers drain into the Chesapeake Bay have formed a coalition to press for stronger federal government efforts to clean up their local waterways, it was announced yesterday. "Clean, healthy water is vital to the health of every one of the nearly 17 million people that live in this region," Jan Jarrett, executive director of Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, said in a statement announcing the formation of the Choose Clean Water Campaign.

Nearly a decade ago, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation decided that the best way to save the bay was to extend a hand to its biggest polluter - the crop and poultry farmers who apply large amounts of fertilizer to the land. The alliance between the region's largest environmental group and the powerful farm lobby has helped bring millions of dollars in new anti-pollution funds to the bay watershed - and, the foundation says, improved the odds that the Chesapeake will one day be restored. But many environmental advocates question the foundation's friendly approach.

Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele unveiled an environmental platform in his campaign for Senate yesterday that centers on cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and promoting clean air and open space. But some of his promises and stated accomplishments -- linked to his position in the Ehrlich administration -- were met with skepticism from some of the state's leading environmental groups. "Sounds like he's kind of touting the governor's record as his own, and to date the governor has a poor environmental record," said Dawn Stoltzfus of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters.

SUPREME COURT nominee Judge John G. Roberts Jr. hasn't generated a lengthy paper trail revealing his views on environmental law, but he's left the equivalent of a few Post-It Notes. Scrutinizing his handful of opinions and articles, environmental groups are getting nervous about his potential impact on environmental law, especially given his long career at the center of the Republican legal establishment. If confirmed, Mr. Roberts could tip the balance on a closely divided court in cases involving the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, control over private property and other hot-button issues.

WASHINGTON - President Bush's surprise decision to nominate EPA Administrator Michael O. Leavitt as secretary of Health and Human Services yesterday opens the way for renewed battles over the administration's health care and environmental policies. Although he dealt with some health issues as governor of Utah, the job he held before taking over the Environmental Protection Agency post a year ago, Leavitt's experience in the field is limited. Before becoming governor, he was head of an insurance brokerage.

To spur cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated industrial properties, the Ehrlich administration is drafting legislation that would enhance Maryland's voluntary brownfields program. The proposal would significantly increase application fees charged to developers and would enable the state to impose harsher penalties on property owners who fail to follow through on cleanup orders. To win developers' support, state officials want to speed the process of review and approval by the Maryland Department of the Environment - enabling projects to move forward more quickly.

WASHINGTON - On a series of well-choreographed outings this month, President Bush sniffed sagebrush in the Santa Monica Mountains and inspected a fire-ravaged forest in Arizona. He hiked rocky ridges and dug unwanted dirt from irrigation ditches. Bush, aides say, is taking his environmental agenda directly to the people, sweating and muddying his presidential boots as he explains how his policies to improve the nation's air, water and public lands can make a difference to their communities.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush tapped Republican Gov. Michael O. Leavitt of Utah, who has fought to limit the reach of federal environmental regulations so they do not infringe on states' rights, to head the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday. Bush, making the announcement before he appeared at a political fund-raiser in Denver, said Leavitt "has gained wide respect for handling environmental issues in a spirit of openness and bipartisanship." "He understands the importance of clear standards in every environmental policy," Bush said.

The state's leading environmental organizations announced yesterday that they will try to block Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s nominee to head the Department of the Environment, saying she lacks the experience needed to head the agency. Ten environmental groups wrote a letter to Ehrlich yesterday asking him to rescind Lynn Y. Buhl's nomination before the Senate takes up her confirmation. Ehrlich immediately rejected the letter and vowed to vigorously fight to get her confirmed by the Senate, which plans to hold a hearing on Buhl on Monday.

Pentagon officials say they will return to Capitol Hill this year to seek legislation exempting the military from key environmental laws. The military will renew arguments that laws protecting the air, endangered species and public health are hurting its ability to train troops for combat. Last year, a skeptical Congress rejected all but one of the nine proposed exemptions. But with Republicans in charge of both houses of Congress and the White House, the Pentagon is expected to have an easier time making its case.