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Friday, September 17, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Noise rules delayed by senators
By Christine Dorsey
Donrey Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Nevada senators slipped a provision into an Interior Department spending bill this week that forces the National Park Service to delay new noise standards for the Grand Canyon.
The amendment prevents the park service from putting noise regulations into effect until three months after the agency provides Congress with a report justifying the science behind the standards, as well as a report on the peer review process it used to validate the standards.
The Senate approved the amendment without a vote after Sens. Richard Bryan and Harry Reid got it approved by leaders. Bryan said he was confident it would be included in a final version of the $14.1 billion Interior bill later this year.
Environmental advocates expressed wariness, calling it a delay tactic sought by the air tour industry that flies over the national park. Most Grand Canyon air tour operators are based in Las Vegas.
"They should be ashamed of themselves," said Tom Robinson, director of government affairs for the Grand Canyon Trust. He accused the Nevada senators of catering to the tour operators who oppose efforts to control the noise made by planes and helicopters that take tourists to the 10-mile-wide natural wonder.
Steve Bassett, president of the U.S. Air Tour Association, said the amendment gives the industry some time to dispute the park service's science.
"Their methodology is terribly flawed," said Bassett, who added the park service recently approved a new definition for sound levels in the park that is so restrictive, no air tour operators would be able to comply.
"Basically, it will shut everybody down," he said.
Robinson said he was meeting with park officials Thursday to learn how, if at all, the Bryan-Reid amendment will affect the agency's ability to comply with a decade-old congressional mandate to restore natural quiet to the park.
A call to the National Park Service was not returned Thursday.
The Wilderness Society opposes the amendment, and the group's park service project director, Rose Fennell, characterized it as a way to appease the air tour industry or buy time for other tactics to prevent the noise standards from being adopted.
"We're not quite sure what Reid and Bryan are trying to do," said Fennell. "It just simply mucks up the works. It's the last thing we really needed right now."
Bryan said Nevada's air tour industry has concerns about how the noise regulations will affect their ability to do business at the Grand Canyon, and wants time to review the agency's findings.
"What we're seeking to accomplish is a balanced approach," said Bryan.
Congress in 1987 directed the National Park Service and the Federal Aviation Administration to come up with noise standards for the Grand Canyon, in response to complaints that a growing number of helicopters and tour planes are ruining the park.
At issue is the science that determines what constitutes noise. Environmentalists say the park should be virtually silent, with the exception of natural sounds.
Air tour operators argue their planes are less noisy than the mighty Colorado River, and that if standards are to be adopted, they should be based on the ability of tourists to notice the planes flying above.
Scientists for both sides disagree on how and when to measure noise in and above the park.
The park service has recommended a plan to split the park into two sound zones. The outer zone, which includes the North and South Rims where most tourists congregate, would allow more air tour noise. The inner core of the park would have tougher standards.
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