H-1930.1                  _______________________________________________

 

                                             HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 4020

                              _______________________________________________

 

State of Washington                              53rd Legislature                             1993 Regular Session

 

By Representatives Hansen, Chandler and Fuhrman

 

Read first time 03/03/93.  Referred to Committee on Natural Resources & Parks.

 

Asking Congress not to designate Hanford Reach a wild and scenic river or national wildlife refuge.


          TO THE HONORABLE BILL CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

          We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

          WHEREAS, In 1988 Congress asked the Secretary of the Interior to study alternative means of protecting the Hanford Reach, that fifty-one mile segment of the Columbia river stretching north from the Tri-Cities in Eastern Washington; and

          WHEREAS, In June of 1992, the National Park Service issued a draft environmental impact statement the preferred alternative recommendation of which is that Congress designate the Hanford Reach and the surrounding eighty-nine thousand acres north of the Columbia river as a national wild and scenic river and national wildlife refuge; and

          WHEREAS, Your Memorialists fully recognize the value of the Reach as a spawning habitat for one hundred thousand chinook salmon, a cultural resource of immeasurable importance, an environment for a great diversity of plants and animals, including threatened species, and a recreational destination for salmon and steelhead anglers; and

          WHEREAS, The United States government took said portion during World War II, when it hurriedly, and without compassion, displaced American farmers from their land to accommodate the government's production of nuclear weaponry; and

          WHEREAS, The people of the region have maintained, more than mere hope, the expectation that their patriotism would be rewarded, not with permanent federal ownership of this rich farm land following its nuclear-related defense and energy utility, but with its return to private agricultural production; and

          WHEREAS, In a Memorandum of Agreement dated February 27, 1957, between the Atomic Energy Commission and the Bureau of Reclamation, custody and control of these lands was granted to the Atomic Energy Commission with the provision that if the Atomic Energy commission ever determined that the lands were no longer necessary to its mission, custody would revert to the Bureau of Reclamation directly; and

          WHEREAS, It is the goal of the people of Washington to enhance and protect wildlife, fish, and archeological sites, and build our infrastructure, while creating jobs in an area of major unemployment.  The goal is to also increase our export of renewable natural resources and help guarantee food for our people, forever; and

          WHEREAS, At current land prices, the sale of fifty thousand to fifty-five thousand acres to private owners could potentially cover the cost of irrigation development, resulting in millions of dollars in capital investment that will produce additional property taxes and income tax revenues.  It would leave approximately thirty thousand to forty thousand acres next to the river for wildlife, fish protection, and Indian lands;

          NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that, for all of the above reasons, Congress refrain from passing legislation designating the Hanford Reach area of the Columbia river a national wild and scenic river or a national wildlife refuge and return to private ownership that federally owned prime farm land that may, in balance with water availability and environmental protection, sustain agricultural production.

          BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.

 


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