An effort by Rep. Karen Shepherd, D-Utah, to stop the Army from launching missiles over southeastern Utah has been shot down in a House-Senate conference committee.
The committee, which worked out a compromise this week over differences between House and Senate versions of defense-spending bills, killed a provision that would have prohibited the Army from firing dummy test missiles from Green River to White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico, where the missiles would be destroyed by defensive missiles.That provision, the so-called "Shepherd amendment," was a major hope for many Utahns trying to stop the Army plan, which opponents say would threaten the environment, public safety and tourism in the Moab area.
Shepherd's provision amounted to a permanent ban that would have sent the Army looking for launching sites in places other than Utah for the Army's "Theater Missile Defense Extended Test Range" program.
Evette Reiss, a Shepherd spokeswoman, said Shepherd has not seen the conference committee's report and, therefore, would not comment.
House-Senate conferees, who had to compromise on more than 1,100 differences in the $264 billion defense authorization bill, decided to rewrite Shepherd's provision to ban the missiles only long enough for the government to address the affected public's concerns.
Specifically, the new language in the compromise bill would prohibit the Army from firing missiles until 30 days after the final Environmental Impact Statement is released or June 30, 1995, whichever date is later.
"The basic view of conferees was to protect the integrity of the EIS process," said Ed McGaffigan, an aide to Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who was apparently instrumental in killing Shepherd's proposal. "The conferees said let's build in some extra time that's not statutorily mandated to allow concerns to be addressed."
But despite the "extra time," the compromise provision still allows missiles to be launched from Green River.
"We're in trouble with that (compromise provision)," said Steve Erickson, spokesman for Downwinders, a military watchdog group that opposes the missile plan mainly because of the Army's poor track record in Utah.
Scott Groene, attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said he's disappointed that Shepherd's provision was killed but said the fight is long from being over.
"We're still in the third inning," Groene said. "There's a couple of other things we can do," such as:
- Persuading the Bureau of Land Management and/or the U.S. Forest Service not to give the Army permits for booster drop zones south and southeast of Canyonlands National Park.
- Lawsuits.
- Civil disobedience. "People will get into the (launching and booster-drop) areas and refuse to leave - similar to what they do at the Nevada Test Site," Groene said. "I know one businessman in Bluff who is talking about doing that."
The compromise defense bill now goes back for approval in both houses and then to President Clinton's desk for signing.