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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bonnuss_in_austin who wrote (260851)	6/3/2002 8:39:58 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

B, I paraphrased him. It's not an exact quote... <g> Here's the latest insult to the country from the Bush mercenaries, the Army trying to dewater a critical riparian habitat by sneaking around environmental legislation in a back room attack on the will of the people. ga0.org What's At Stake! Help Save One of our "Last Great Places" The San Pedro, and the habitat it nurtures, is an oasis in the desert. Flowing north from Mexico into the Gila River in southeast Arizona, the San Pedro is home to one of the Earth's the most biologically diverse and important ecosystems. It supports 400 species of birds (nearly half of the U.S. total), 100 species of butterflies, 83 species of mammals, and 47 species of amphibians and reptiles. It has the second highest diversity of land-mammals in the world. Millions of migratory birds traveling from their wintering grounds in South and Central America to their northern breeding grounds in the U.S. and Canada depend on the Southwest's one surviving reliable passage, the San Pedro. It was designated the first "globally important bird area" by the American Bird Conservancy and one of the northern hemisphere's eight "last great places" by The Nature Conservancy. Yet all this is jeopardized by the Army's activities and a proposed amendment to the Supplemental Interior Appropriations bill. The Army is encouraging growth at its Fort Huachuca and in nearby Sierra Vista, increasing demands on ground water in the area - ground water that also supplies the San Pedro River. Because of unsustainable sprawl and agribusiness, base flows in the river have declined 67% since the 1940s and will eventually disappear if aggressive water conservation actions are not taken soon. The continuous expansion in the Fort Huachuca / Sierra Vista area is the single biggest contributor to the deadly overdraft of the river. In 1988, Congress recognized the unparalleled value of the San Pedro, designating 45 miles of it as the nation's first Riparian National Conservation Area. Congress has also recognized a growing number of threatened and endangered species dependent upon the river, including the Southwest Willow Flycatcher and the Huachuca Water Umbel, a semi-aquatic plant. And, thanks to Earthjustice, the Army is under court orders to study the problems caused in the river by excessive water use at the Fort (read about our success at: earthjustice.org. Now, Congress is endangering that same river and those same species by considering the Army exempt from any responsibility for water demands not supplying the Fort, even though that water supplies the Fort's bedroom community of Sierra Vista. An amendment codifying that exemption passed the House attached to the Supplemental Interior Appropriations bill (HR 4546). Now, the Senate is looking at a similar amendment to its version of the bill.