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Panel seeks answers on Groom Lake buffer

Members of the Legislature's Public Lands Committee said Monday they want more answers from the federal government on why it denied the state's request for an impact statement on the Air Force's proposed land withdrawal for a buffer zone around the Groom Lake base.

"It gets so discouraging to write letters on the EIS (environmental impact statement) and we don't get listened to," said Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, who chairs the committee.

His comments Monday were directed at Gary Ryan, acting district manager of the Bureau of Land Management's Las Vegas District. Ryan said the bureau is concerned with natural resource issues on the land in question, and environmental impacts were addressed when the Air Force withdrew a much larger tract -- 89,000 acres -- near the base in the mid-1980s.

Now the Defense Department wants the BLM to withdraw 3,972 acres of public land in Lincoln County along the White Sides mountain range that would serve as a buffer for the base on the Groom Dry Lake bed.

Rhoads said the State Clearinghouse, an entity that coordinates state comments on federal planning and regulation issues, had requested the BLM write an environmental impact statement for its Groom Lake buffer zone plans.

Ryan told the five-member panel at Monday's meeting, "I don't want to pass the buck. I'm just saying a decision was made quite a while ago."

Ryan later said the decision not to issue an impact statement was made during the spring by Billy Templeton, who was then the BLM's Nevada director.

Despite Ryan's position, the committee on a motion by Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, decided to send a letter to the BLM requesting a written explanation about why only a small fraction of public comments made during a 120-day period is being considered on the proposed land withdrawal.

The period for protesting the proposed land withdrawal ends Friday.

Lew Dodgion, administrator of the state Environmental Protection Division, who was at the meeting, said a member of his staff, whose name is being kept secret, is continuing a probe into the base's toxic waste activities that the division's former air quality chief launched a year ago.

Dodgion said the probe could involve collection of samples from the base, and citations for alleged violations of toxic waste laws might be issued.

The committee received a letter from Grace Bukowski, a private military watchdog activist who specializes in air space and land use issues, who said, "the BLM's credibility is on the line."

She said the bureau has ignored comments on meaningful, public participation on the proposed Groom Lake buffer, formally known as the White Sides Land Withdrawal Amendment.

Bukowski claims that provisions of the Special Nevada Report, which sets environmental protocol for military activities in Nevada, are not being followed.

In a report to the committee on land exchanges, Ryan said there is "very little (public) land left in Nevada" for trading or selling to private entities.

"We're at a crossroads. Where do we go next?" he asked.

The bureau, he said, is considering 14 land exchanges, including one that would become part of a boundary for Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.