Subject: Possible steel mill at Bowerman Basin NWR
Date: Sep 10 20:54:22 1997
From: Norton360 at aol.com - Norton360 at aol.com


The advice to David Beatty to fight the mill proposal is probably
counterproductive to conservation interests. But like Arab terrorists blowing
themselves up some conservationists blindly fight all proposals and do an
injustice to their cause in the court of public opinion.
Here in Port Angeles Auduboners are not popular among a large segment of
the population. I suspect in even more economically depressed Grays Harbor
the feelings are even stronger. I was down in Ocean Shores this weekend and
the local Sunday paper had a good section on questions and answers on the
issue. There is also a 2000 bed prison being planned on the estuary which is
being fought by the fishing conservation groups.
Nucor, the company planning the plant, has three sites in mind with the
other 2 being in OR. They are playing the two states against each other to
see which will grant them the biggest tax break. OR has the lead here as
giving property tax relief would be unconstitutional in WA and thus would
require a legislative action (as I understood the problem). If such is
necessary, we can all lobby our legislators and it gives the Puget Sound Area
the big voice in the problem (which rankles the rest of the state once
again).
There is no reason that a steel plant can't follow all water quality and
air quality rules and be a good neighbor to a NWR if the rules are adequate
(I don't know that they are adequate but the Clinton Administration has given
the EPA more teeth than it had in the Reagan-Bush years).
My advice to David would be to say yes but we must be sure the enviroment
is not degraded and monitor the proposals closely and fight for all the
mitigation that can be obtained. We are in a battle for public opinion and
doing rather nicely (the Republicans after the '94 election set out to gut
the enviromental laws but backed off when the polls showed it to be unpopular
with rank and file voters. Votes still count for something although I think
corporation political money is more important than votes in this television
democracy). Mindless opposition to all development does not help our cause.
Besides I think OR will outbid WA and win the steel plant.
Bob Norton
Joyce, WA
norton360 at aol.com