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Callison testimony, page two 



In Nevada the appraiser attached no value to the availability 

 of the proven source of water. Next door to the tract coveted by 

 Aerojet, 460 acres of private land — the saune kind of desert grass- 

 land — sold last winter 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 appraiser said BLM' s land 

 was worth. They say it is 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 govern- 

 ment. It knows the allocation will be provided under Nevada water 

 law. 



So it is getting a steal — 51 thousand 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, the public lands are property of the U.S taxpayers. 

 And Aerojet' s very business is financed by the taxpayers 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 Aerojet development. Three adjacent wilderness study areas — 

 potential additions to the National Wilderness Preservation System — 

 also would be adversely impacted. 



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

 Cordova, it wouldn't have to move from California to Nevada where 

 the pollution laws are weaker and the acquifers are virgin. 



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 — once Aerojet owns the land in fee. 



This exchange is not in the public interest. The Committee 

 should reject it. S. 854 deserves to be deep-sixed. 



