[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 52 (Monday, April 22, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3753-S3755]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               EARTH DAY

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today marks Earth Day. It is a day to

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celebrate our past achievements in protecting the environment. It is 
also a day, I hope, to rededicate ourselves to environmental 
protection.
  I think, without question, over the last 26 years since the first 
Earth Day in 1970, we have made enormous environmental gains. We have 
taken steps to clean up our air and our water, cut toxic emissions from 
factories by 50 percent--that is in half--and we have taken steps to 
prevent pollution that threatens our children's health.
  I remember when my own city, San Francisco, used to pollute the bay 
and the ocean through 40 different outlets all around the city. The 
water in the San Francisco Bay has been cleaned up. Dungeness crab has 
come back to the bay. And I know that this is appreciated by all our 
citizens: Lead levels in children's blood has been cut by 70 percent. 
We have worked to protect our remaining wild places and to wisely 
manage irreplaceable natural resources. But in spite of these 
accomplishments, much, much work remains to be done.
  According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 50 million 
Americans every year drink tap water which fails to meet at least one 
Federal health standard. About 1 million people each year become ill 
from drinking unsafe tap water, the Centers for Disease Control 
reports.
  Toxic air pollutants need to be regulated to protect public health. 
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to 
particulate matter may result in as many as 70,000 premature deaths 
each year. In my own State, in Los Angeles County, children actually 
grow up in Los Angeles with reduced lung capacity because of pollution.
  There are 1,290 toxic sites on the Superfund national cleanup 
priority list, and they include 96 in my own State of California. One 
in four Americans lives within 4 miles of a Superfund site. These sites 
must be cleaned up. So we need to move forward. Instead, our past 
environmental achievements are being threatened often by this very 
Congress, by efforts to roll back existing environmental laws.
  Of immediate concern is the omnibus appropriations bill which 
contains more than a dozen riders, riders which would roll back 
existing environmental protection. Many have proposed cuts in funds 
that assist States in providing clean, safe drinking water to 
Americans. They have proposed cuts that would affect the Environmental 
Protection Agency's ability to enforce the Clean Air Act and to issue 
new standards for toxic air pollutants. They have proposed cuts in the 
Superfund Program, which would jeopardize cleanup of over 400 of the 
worst toxic waste sites around the country.
  One of them is Iron Mountain mine in Redding, CA. This is an old 
vacant chemical mine with a huge hole in it. The hole is as big as a 
30-story office building, and when it rains the water and the air 
interact with the metals within the mountain, and it throws off 
sulfuric acid, which then drains into the river and metallizes the 
river banks. This is one of California's urgent priority Superfund 
sites that needs cleanup.
  Also of particular interest to me and to the people of California is 
the rider on the Mojave National Preserve, the newest unit of our 
National Park Service System. The conferees on the omnibus 
appropriations bill have agreed to a revised rider for the National 
Mojave Preserve that, like the earlier versions, is intended to 
overturn provisions of the California Desert Protection Act and strip 
national park protection for the Mojave National Preserve. The new 
rider reinstates multiple-use management of the east Mojave, management 
which allowed open pit mining, cross-country motorcycle racers, and 
other destructive activities to occur in the area.

  In 1994, Congress overwhelmingly approved the California Desert 
Protection Act, which I authored, and which established the Mojave 
National Preserve. That national preserve was already a compromise. I 
would have had it a national park, but Congress agreed that the Mojave 
qualified as a national park and should be managed by the National Park 
Service under park, not multiple-use, regulations. The Desert 
Protection Act transferred management of the Mojave from the Bureau of 
Land Management to the National Park Service so the area would receive 
the protection and the care that it deserves.
  The National Park Service opened a new visitor center and improved 
law enforcement. It actually made arrests and shut down a 
methamphetamine lab, and it improved resource protection. Visitation to 
the area increased substantially and motels, restaurants, and other 
businesses in the nearby communities flourished as a result.
  Now the Mojave rider on the omnibus appropriations bill seeks to 
reverse that decision. The omnibus appropriations bill appropriates 
funding for the National Park Service to manage the Mojave National 
Preserve, but it requires the agency to administer the area as a 
multiple-use area before passage of the California Desert Protection 
Act. In other words, it pretends that the Desert Protection Act, 
overwhelmingly passed by both Houses and signed by the President, does 
not really exist.
  This multiple-use management permits a wide variety of development 
activities which degrades the area's outstanding natural and cultural 
resources. Specifically, the new rider requires the National Park 
Service to manage the Mojave under the historic management practices of 
the Bureau of Land Management rather than under the policies and 
regulations of the National Park Service.
  This establishes a dangerous precedent.
  While early language that attempted to transfer control of the Mojave 
to the Bureau of Land Management has been dropped, the new rider could 
be interpreted to require the National Park Service to approve 
resource-damaging activities that were previously allowed within the 
Mojave before its designation. That would include off-road vehicle 
races, open pit mining, garbage dumps, and uncontrolled use of 
firearms.
  Many are particularly concerned that one of the reasons for this 
rider is to permit this kind of open pit mining in the New York 
mountains.
  In my legislation, we very carefully maintain that existing mining 
uses, those with existing permits, would be able to continue, so that 
no jobs would be lost. But apparently there are those who even want to 
go in and open pit mine some of the more fragile areas of this 
preserve.
  This new rider could be interpreted to allow unlimited use of 
motorized vehicles in wilderness areas. The new rider sets the stage 
for litigation over its interpretation, and the new rider limits 
funding for the Mojave to less than one-half what the Park Service 
estimated would be required in FY 1996.
  The statement of managers accompanying the rider requires the 
Appropriations Committees to approve the preserve's general management 
plan. This gives authority to committee members to dictate provisions 
of a park management plan for the first time in the history of this 
kind of legislation. In sum, it leaves the east Mojave a national 
preserve in name only, and no one is fooled by that.
  The Mojave has been discussed and debated in the House and Senate for 
8 years now. The California Desert Protection Act, which passed in the 
last Congress and was signed by the President, as I have already 
stated, was a substantial compromise. Rather than carrying out the 
intent of the legislation, which was to have a national preserve under 
National Park Service management, we see in the omnibus appropriations 
bill further efforts to erode and destroy the Desert Protection Act. 
This, frankly, is unconscionable. It is absolutely contrary to the 
wishes of the people of the State of California.
  A Field Institute poll, an objective poll, conducted in December of 
last year, shows continuing, overwhelming support; 85 percent of 
Californians support keeping east Mojave a national park--85 percent. 
In every region of the State, people overwhelmingly support keeping the 
Mojave as a national park.
  As we celebrate Earth Day, Congress, I believe, should strip all 
environmental riders, including the Mojave rider, from the omnibus 
appropriations bill. That is what Congress can do right now to continue 
our commitment to environmental protection.
  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Brown). Who seeks recognition?

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  Does the Senator note the absence of a quorum?
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I note the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The absence of a quorum has been noted. The 
clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from South Dakota is recognized.

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