Land Withdrawal Hearings

[Vernon Brechin <vbrechin@igc.apc.org>]

     Senate Hearing on Military Land Withdrawal Renewals 

On Tuesday, April 13, 1999, an initial hearing was held by the U.S. Senate
Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Readiness and Management
Support to receive testimony on DoD's plans to renew its withdrawal of
approximately 7.2 million acres of public lands for training and weapons
testing purposes.  The U.S.  Department of Interior (DOI) and the DoD are
presently preparing a legislative package, to renew or extend the
withdrawals.  At the hearing, the DOI testimony included the following
paragraph.

  P.L.99-606 withdrew from public use, until November 2001, 
  approximately 7.2 million acres of public lands for the 
  military to use for training and weapons testing.  
  P.L.99-606 concerns the following six ranges located in 
  four states, and requires congressional action to renew or 
  extend the withdrawals beyond November 2001:  

    C   Alaska, 869,851 acres for the Army's Ft. Wainwright 
        and Fort Greely; 
    C   Arizona, 2.6 million acres for the 
        Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range; 
    C   New Mexico, 608,385 acres for the Army's McGregor 
        Range; and 
    C   Nevada, 3,038,698 acres for Nellis Air Force Range 
        and 21,577 acres for the Brovo-20 Bombing Range at 
        Naval Air Station Fallon.  

  Although the P.L.99-606 withdrawals will not expire for 
  another 2-1/2 years, the Interior Department and the 
  Defense agencies have committed to submit consensus-based 
  legislation to renew these withdrawals before the end of 
  the first session of the 106th Congress.  


Legislative Environmental Impact Study (LEIS) reports have been prepared
in support of the legislation.

Readers of the CPEO.military conference may wish to read the statement
provided by Ms. Sherri W. Goodman - Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for
Environmental Security.  That statement presents the DoD's recent
perspective on their environmental management programs.  Most of the
hearing testimonies are accessible at the following Internet web address:

http://www.senate.gov/~armed_services/hearings/1999/r990413.htm 

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Vernon Brechin 
vbrechin@igc.org