Who's Endangered Now?
ANTONELLI, ANGELA
Who's Endangered Now? by Angela Antonelli Claire Royal, Marian Anderson, and Bill Nakagawa of Arboga, California—a retired elementary-school teacher, a grandmother married to the local levee...
...In "punishment," the leaders suggested that no environmental legislation would move for the rest of the year...
...Thus, the opponents argued as if the bill's sponsors were out to rape and pillage...
...Arboga's experience is not unique...
...In the end, the opponents' chief concern was power: the power of the environmental groups and of the regulators...
...Unfortunately for the residents of Arboga, the levee was home to 37 elderberry bushes, and the elderberry has been known to shelter the threatened North Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle...
...George Miller, a California Democrat, said the proposal would take a "sledgehammer" to the act...
...Other officials, however, with other priorities, blocked repairs while the danger grew...
...by Angela Antonelli Claire Royal, Marian Anderson, and Bill Nakagawa of Arboga, California—a retired elementary-school teacher, a grandmother married to the local levee manager, and a veteran of World War II—lived very different lives and probably would never have been mentioned together had the three of them not been killed in the same disaster...
...This victory for the environmental movement entrenched an irrational status quo: Only after disaster has struck—after lives are lost, property is destroyed, and "protected" wildlife is wiped out—can the federal government dispense with red tape while communities rebuild...
...What they ignore is that because of the Endangered Species Act, property owners and state and local governments are afraid of finding rare plants and animals...
...Largely in response to the Arboga tragedy, two House Republicans from California, Richard Pombo and Wally Herger, introduced the Flood Prevention and Family Protection Act (H.R...
...George Radanovich of California got to the heart of the problem when he said: "Proponents of the status quo . . . are less concerned about protecting endangered species than they are [about] giving up federal control of environmental decisionmaking to local authorities...
...When, at last, permission was granted to begin repairs in the summer of 1997, it was too late...
...Since 1990, federal officials had known that a flood would wreak such havoc in Arboga and had urged that the levee receive immediate attention...
...The U.S...
...This would allow communities to move expeditiously to reconstruct, operate, maintain, or repair flood-control facilities in order "to protect human life or to prevent the substantial risk of serious property damage...
...Angela Antonelli is deputy director for economic policy studies at the Heritage Foundation...
...As of now, however, its prospects remain grim...
...Amazingly, the opponents succeeded in characterizing as "overreaching" local officials' efforts to gain exemption from federal regulations "where necessary to protect human life...
...When officials finally took stock, they found that the flood not only had ended these lives but also had forced over 32,000 people from their homes and covered 25,000 square miles, wrecking property and wildlife habitat and drowning over 600 head of livestock...
...Later, Gingrich assured Rush Limbaugh's audience that he will bring the Flood Prevention and Family Protection Act to the floor of the House again before the end of the year...
...House Republicans did not cover themselves with glory on this issue...
...Shortly after the vote, House speaker Newt Gingrich met with the caucus of congressmen from the western states and admitted that mistakes had been made...
...Between 1995 and 1997, more than a dozen officials from flood-prone areas in six states told the House Resources Committee, work on levees and flood-mitigation in their communities had been stopped because a threatened or endangered species was in the vicinity...
...Apparently the House leadership is bent on playing it safe through 1998—though on environmental issues as on others, this is bad policy and bad politics...
...As Nancy Pelosi, another California Democrat, saw it, the bill would go "to the extreme in allowing a non-emergency exemption of the act with the result of permanently decimating the intent" of the Endangered Species Act...
...It was designed to inject common sense and flexibility into the federal regulatory system...
...Indeed, the act has created an incentive for landowners to make sure federal regulators will find no potentially endangered species on their property...
...And the tragedy had a further disturbing twist...
...Although nobody had actually seen a North Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle in the area, local officials were required to spend six years on studies that cost over $10 million and delayed flood protection...
...Once again, well-financed and extremist groups displayed their ability to influence the nation's environmental policies and to control the debate...
...Sherwood Boehlert, the liberal New York Republican who led the opposition to Pombo-Herger, urged House members not to allow "legitimate concerns about flooding to wash away 25 years of effort to preserve endangered species...
...This measure would exempt state and local officials from "federal consultation and conferencing" requirements under the Endangered Species Act when they faced a "critical, imminent threat to public health or safety...
...Consequently, on May 7 the House shunted aside the bill and instead approved an empty substitute offered by Boehlert, by a vote of 227-196...
...On January 2, 1997, a levee burst, and flood waters destroyed their town...
...If the Endangered Species Act pits people against wildlife, the Pombo-Herger proposal sought to reconcile their interests...
...Communities caught in this bind, moreover, have no recourse...
...The leadership made the vote on Pombo-Herger a test case for environmental reforms for the 105th Congress, but failed to educate members about the bill or to consolidate support...
...In House floor debate, Democrat Sander Levin of Michigan called it a "transparent effort to gut the Endangered Species Act...
...Army Corps of Engineers had reported, "Loss of life is expected under existing conditions, without remedial repairs, for major flood events...
...Predictably, however, the debate over the bill ignored the actual effects of the available policy options...
...Afterwards, the leadership feigned anger at GOP moderates who had defected...
...Opponents of Pombo-Herger assume that, but for the vigilance of federal bureaucrats, individual citizens and state and local officials would disregard the impact of their flood-control activities on endangered species...
...The law allows the president to suspend the Endangered Species Act only after a disaster has occurred...
...GOP Rep...
...478) in January...
Vol. 2 • July 1997 • No. 45
