199 



Aerojet's Florida land could be worth $525 per acre only if avail- 

 able to the south Florida realty market for development, and, of 

 course, it is not. Neither the State or Dade County could allow re- 

 ality development there because it lies within a critical drainage 

 basin that supplies essential fresh water for Everglades National 

 Park. And, indeed, development is not in prospect. 



Aerojet's wetlands, under the proposed deal, are destined to 

 become the property of the South Florida Water Management Dis- 

 trict. 



In Nevada, the appraiser attached no value to the availability of 

 the proven source of water next door. This has been related, and 

 evidence is going to be supplied by the Sierra Club spokesman, to 

 show that last winter a nearby tract of private land, a ranch, 460 

 acres, land almost identical to the Coyote Springs Valley, sold for 

 more than $500 per acre. 



Defenders of the Aerojet deal have tried to explain why a Las 

 Vegas realtor was willing to pay ten times as much as the apprais- 

 er said BLM's land was worth. They say it was because the Butler 

 Ranch had a water right. 



Aerojet knows it can pump all the water it needs from a Nevada 

 aquifer, utilizing the large wells already drilled by the government. 

 It knows the allocation will be provided under the Nevada water 

 law. 



So, it is getting a steal — 51,000 acres at $45 or $50 per acre — and 

 when it stops using the area for its manufacturing purposes, or 

 when it decides to sell off part of the tract to developers, it will net 

 a rich windfall at taxpayers' expense. 



Remember, Mr. Chairman, that public lands are property of the 

 U.S. taxpayers, and Aerojet's very business is financed by the tax- 

 payers through Defense Department contracts. 



There are other aspects of the public interest involved in the 

 deal. Several endangered species could be pushed over the brink by 

 the development. Three adjacent wilderness study areas — potential 

 additions to the National Wilderness Preservation System — also 

 would be adversely impacts. 



Details of this have been and will be provided by Mr. Watson 

 and other witnesses. 



If Aerojet would clean up its act at its plant at Rancho Cordova, 

 it Avouldn't have to move from California to Nevada, where the pol- 

 lution laws are weaker and the aquifers are virgin. 



The fact is Aerojet has polluted itself out of business in Califor- 

 nia, and that is why it is proposing to move to Nevada. 



I have seen the draft land exchange agreement between Aerojet 

 General and the Secretary of the Interior, through which all of the 

 environmental problems are supposed to be mitigated or solved. It 

 is clearly unenforceable. 



It is filled with escape clauses and weasel words. Once Aerojet 

 owns the land in fee, we should have no confidence that it will be 

 carried out faithfully. 



The exchange is not in the public interest. The Committee should 

 reject it. 



S. 854 deserves to be "Deep Sixed." 



Mr. Chairman, let me say with respect to the other bill before us 

 today, S. 59, that I should like to be associated with the comments 



