Legislature and governor get failing grades on environmental protection

PHOENIXThe Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club issued its 2000 Environmental Report Card for Arizona legislators and the governor, Monday.

"Unfortunately, the Arizona Legislature once again showed disdain for environmental protection by failing to adequately protect our air, water, and land," said Sandy Bahr, conservation outreach director for the Sierra Club.

"Legislators and the governor had a great opportunity to at least address two critical areasgrowth management and protection of state trust landsbut they blew it on both counts," she suggested.

Bahr suggested that the misnamed "Growing Smarter Plus" package passed by the Arizona Legislature included a bill that "actually gives developers more leverage with local government and a referendum for a constitutional amendment that significantly limits the amount of state trust lands that could be preserved."

In the meantime, a coalition of groups including the Sierra Club is working to put the Citizens' Growth Management Initiative"a strong and effective growth management proposal"on the ballot.

Most of Arizona's conservation groups are opposing the state trust lands constitutional amendment.

The Sierra Club gave special recognition to Rep.Carolyn Allen, R-Phoenix, and Sen. Chris Cummiskey, D-Phoenix, for their efforts to improve Growing Smarter Plus, and a failing grade to Sen. Russell Bowers, R-Mesa, for "leading the efforts to produce weak bills that will do little to protect Arizona's natural heritage."

"Rep. Allen withstood enormous pressure from Republican leaders, big business interests and developers, to do the right thing on Growing Smarter Plus and for that, we commend her," said Bahr.

Particularly disappointing this session, according to Bahr, was a lack of leadership by Gov. Jane Dee Hull with respect to environmental protection.

"She supported a weak Growing Smarter Plus package and even undercut the efforts of people like Rep. Allen who attempted to improve the state trust lands measure," said Bahr. "The governor also signed several other negative environmental bills including one to weaken recycling efforts."

"Even though it was meaningless, she signed a memorial to Congress that denounced the establishment of two new national monuments in Arizona," Bahr pointed out. "Gov. Hull says she wants preservation, but her actions belie her words."

Regarding water quality, Bahr said legislators did pass a bill to raise the fee cap for aquifer protection permits.

"That should help the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality address the backlog of permits, and get these facilities operating under more stringent protections," said Bahr.

"Unfortunately, that work was undercut to some degree by other measures."

"Legislators have assured that we will continue to have more polluted water in Arizona by passing a bill that allows the use of pesticides in Arizona before they have gone through adequate monitoring and testing, and a measure that makes it difficult to establish pollutant limits for our state's already impaired lakes, rivers and streams," said Bahr.

"They also neglected restoration efforts and showed they cannot be trusted to fulfill commitments by failing to fund the Arizona Water Protection Fund," she added.

Bahr suggested that a high point in the session was work by Rep. John Loredo, D-Phoenix, on environmental justice.

"A low point was the chilly reception it received from leadership," she said. "And one bright ray of sunshine was passage of a bill that will help promote solar energy use."

"We want to commend Rep. Loredo for his work to advance the cause of environmental justice," stated Don Steuter, local conservation chair for the Sierra Club.

"We also want to challenge next year's Legislature, the governor, and local elected officials to get behind efforts to ensure that all Arizonans have a safe and clean environment and that poor and minority groups are not saddled with the bulk of this state's toxic and hazardous waste."

Rep. Ken Cheuvront, D-Phoenix, and Sen. George Cunningham, D-Tucson, Sen. Harry E. Mitchell, D-Phoenix, and Sen. Elaine Richardson, D-Tucson, each received the highest number of points in the House and Senate respectively.

Other members receiving As included Representatives Bill Brotherton, Carmine Cardamone, Sally Ann Gonzales, Leah Landrum, Andy Nichols, Debora Norris, and Christine Weason.

At the bottom of the class this year were Representives Bill McGibbon, Lou-Ann Preble, Karen Johnson, Senate President Brenda Burns and Sen. Keith Bee.

The Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter is a grassroots environmental organization with more than 12,000 members in Arizona.

At the end of each legislative session it develops the report card in order to inform Arizonans about how their legislators are voting on environmental issues.

This year's grades were based on 20 House votes (19 bills and one amendment) and 14 Senate votes on issues ranging from growth management to citizens' ability to engage in the initiative process.

Each vote was assigned points proportionate to its significance to the Sierra Club; the growth management bills and the measure to undercut citizens' ability to change wildlife laws through the initiative process had the most points associated with them.

Unlike other years, this year the Sierra Club used plus and negative points and counted absences as zero.