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Senator Hecht. Thank you very much. 

 Charles Watson. 



STATEMENT OF CHARLES S. WATSON, JR., DIRECTOR, NEVADA 

 OUTDOOR RECREATION ASSOCIATION, INC., CARSON CITY, NV 



Mr. Watson. Mr. Chairman, my name is Charles Watson. I am 

 Director of the Nevada Outdoor Recreation Association in Carson 

 City, Nevada. We wish to address both Senate Bill 59 and Senate 

 Bill 854 in these proceedings. 



I have previously submitted the statement which you have up 

 there, and I will try to be brief and summarize those comments. I 

 won't read them in detail. 



Senator Hecht. Thank you. 



We strongly oppose Senate Bill 854 because it undermines the 

 Federal Lands Policy and Management Act reforms of the past 

 malpractices, such as the Curtis-Wright Land Exchange of 1961 

 and the Point Reyes fiasco of 1969 in interstate land exchanges. 



Aerojet presently has no Pentagon contract that we know of that 

 justifies this land exchange. Yet, they seek a creation of a land 

 base from our public lands in order to have a leg-up on the compe- 

 tition. 



In this case, high Interior officials and Aerojet have conspired to 

 suppress key environmental laws, and we can document this in 

 many instances — for instance, by attempting to promulgate with- 

 drawals without required Section 7 Endangered Species Act study. 

 This was attempted in 1985. 



When they realized they had to do the Section 7 study, then they 

 proscribed the Fish and Wildlife Service in Reno from releasing a 

 true jeopardy opinion, citing a clear danger to the 14 Category One 

 and Category Two species in the Coyote Springs Valley area of 

 Nevada. 



Aerojet has altered the Florida offered land scenario four times, 

 with no NEPA analysis whatsoever done on that process. The Flor- 

 ida lands are not critical habitat, whereas 42,800 acres in Nevada 

 definitely is. 



Aerojet has involved itself in two serious Superfund scenarios 

 and now has refused to cooperate with the EPA in the clean-up at 

 Rancho Cordova, California. The taxpayers will all have to clean 

 that up. They are also involved in Stringfellow, California. 



Aerojet is intransigent on the whole idea of alternatives in this 

 regard. We have suggested five alternative sites in Nevada that 

 might be studied under a full EIS scenario. The BLM has illegally 

 been barred from scoping, from holding hearings, from involving 

 the public in decision-making. The bill is tied to a memorandum or 

 understanding that targets known critical habitats, fossil water, 

 with no recharge, in five unique wilderness study areas that sur- 

 round this valley, four of which have been recommended by the 

 agency. 



The National Environmental Policy Act would be shattered by a 

 Congressional failure to assess the impacts and alternatives re- 

 quired by a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement. 



The BLM's appraisals are flawed. We can document the fact that 

 $45 an acre is offset by comparable sales in the area, ranging from 



