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Groups sue to stop sleds
Park snowmobile plan sends animal rights group back to court five years later.

By Rebecca Huntington

A coalition of employee and environmental groups filed suit Tuesday to stop the U.S. Interior Department from overturning a snowmobile ban in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., argues that allowing snowmobiles to remain in the parks will pollute the air and water and affect the health of wildlife and employees.

"This proposal violates federal statutes and laws because it doesn't protect park resources," said Andrea Lococo of the Fund for Animals, one of the groups filing suit. "It would appear that the Bush administration is not interested in sound science or the public sentiment, apparently they are only interested in special interests," she said.

The suit comes on the eve of the Park Service's last public meeting on snowmobiling, set for Tuesday in Idaho Falls. Teton County commissioner Bill Paddleford will represent county interests there and this week said he would pass on comments he receives prior to the meeting.

"It doesn't matter if I agree with your comments, I will present them if you give them to me," he said. (See the box on page page 33A for how to get in touch.)

Paddleford supports continued snowmobile use, as do outfitters who said recently they have only a few problems with the latest proposal. But environmentalists who are not associated with the suit say the Park Service's own environmental study demonstrates park degradation if snowmobiles remain.

"They can talk about how it's a step in the right direction, but the details show [otherwise]," said Chris Mehl, of the Wilderness Society. "They are turning their back on science, public opinion and their own experts."

The Park Service received 244,274 public comments supporting the ban compared to 63,206 comments in favor of snowmobile access. Agency officials say the new winter-use plan would limit and manage sleds to protect resources.

"Our goal is to achieve the same conditions we would have achieved under the previous decision," said Steve Iobst, who is heading the Park Service's winter-use planning. At the same time, Iobst agreed that Park Service studies show snowmobiles increase environmental impacts compared to a ban.

"Right now we feel that those impacts are acceptable," Iobst said Monday. Monitoring will allow the agency to tighten restrictions in the future, he said.

Tuesday's meeting will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the WestCoast Hotel in Idaho Falls, Idaho. It is being hosted for cooperating agencies ­ largely pro-snowmobile local governments around Yellowstone. Public comment will be accepted some time around 2 p.m., Iobst said.

The existing plan has a long and convoluted history that has its incipience in a suit brought by the Fund for Animals in 1997. Since then the park studied and imposed a snowmobile ban, agreeing to limit motorized access to multi-passenger snowcoach vans. The agency shifted gears under the Bush administration and reversed the snowsled ban.

Park officials and conservationists disagree over whether the new plan increases snowmobiles in the parks. Iobst said the revised plan would lead to greater impacts compared to a snowmobile ban. But he disputes claims it would increase impacts compared to existing conditions under which there are no limits to snowmobile traffic.

"How can you have an increase over something that's unlimited?" he asked.

The Park Service's proposed snowmobile limits would allow up to 1,100 machines per day. With the winter season lasting an average of 85 days, total snowmobile use could rise to 93,500. A 10-year average shows 81,059 snowmobiles per year.

Based on those numbers, Lococo said: "It would appear that things are going to be worse under this decision than they are presently." The Bush administration is doing an "about-face," Lococo said. "Instead of working for protection they appear to be working for polluters."

Iobst disagreed. "If every day was maxed out for the entire 85 days then, yes, it would mean more snowmobiles than average," he said. But whether that will happen is uncertain, he said.

Also, the plan reduces traffic in key areas, he said. During President's Day weekend, for example, more than 1,300 snowmobiles enter through the West Entrance a day. Under the new plan, those numbers would be down to 550 and 1,100 park-wide.

"I think there's significant improvements over existing conditions," he said.

The revised plan would cut air pollution compared to current conditions. It would allow only the cleanest machines to enter the parks starting in the winter of 2004-05. Carbon monoxide emitted by snowmachines would be reduced from 1,925 tons to 621 tons a year the study projects. Even with cleaner snowmobiles, however, carbon monoxide emissions would be double those under the snowcoach-only plan, the study shows.

Also, another pollutant, nitrogen oxides, would increase over existing conditions. That's because "cleaner" four-cycle snowmobile engines reduce most pollutants but emit more of that gas than "dirtier" two-stroke engines.

Under the proposed plan, nitrogen oxides would increase from 16 tons a year today to 62 tons. The snowcoach plan would see 11 tons a year of nitrogen oxides.

Cleaner snowmachines would reduce particulate emissions to the level of snowcoaches, park studies say.

Snowmobile pollution has sparked health complaints from both visitors and employees laying the foundation for one of the groups that joined the suit. The park received 1,200 complaint letters regarding excessive exposure to snowmobile pollution by employees and visitors in 1993 and 1994.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility joined the Fund and the Bluewater Network in the suit, citing the exposure of park employees to air pollution. Complaints of nausea, dizziness, headaches, sore throats, eye irritation, light-headedness and lethargy are frequent among employees working along routes heavily traveled by snowmobiles, park studies state.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that an employee working in the express lane at the West Gate was overexposed to benzene and formaldehyde, known carcinogens, and carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas. Some employees have requested and received respirators.

Banning snowmobiles would have "virtually" eliminated threats to public health from air pollution, the Park Service study concludes. But the proposed plan would likely affect "employees and visitors who are susceptible to respiratory problems," in areas with high levels of pollution, the study states.

Park officials are taking steps to protect employees, Iobst said. For example, the Park Service is moving and building a new West entrance station, in part, to reduce traffic congestion and employee exposure to air pollution in winter and summer, he said.

Snowmobile noise has also been a worry. OSHA has documented employees overexposed to noise at the West Entrance and on patrol. The Park Service has ordered high-tech helmets equipped with form-fitted ear plugs that allow park rangers to hear their radios while reducing background noise. Park officials also are encouraging employees to get tested for potential hearing loss.

Critics say the revised winter-use plan would do little to reduce noise in the parks. Although a snowcoach can create as much noise as a snowmobile, coaches carry an average of eight passengers compared to 1.3 for snowmachines.

The Park Service's analysis shows snowcoaches would be heard across more acres of the park because the Bombardier snowcoach, included in the mix, emits a low-frequency tone that travels long distances, the study states. But snowmobiles would be heard more often, the study shows. Winter motorized traffic would be audible on 26,680 acres more than half the time, under the latest plan. That's a slight increase over existing conditions and more than double the 12,330 acres where engines would be heard if snowmobiles were banned.

Iobst cautioned that noise estimates are based on models. The Park Service is planning to spend between $250,000 and $500,000 annually to monitor impacts, he said.

Under the revised plan, which tries to disperse snowmobiles to reduce congestion on popular routes, the risk of conflicts between wildlife and motorized use would increase compared to existing conditions, the study shows. The study rates 10 park road segments for potential conflicts, which range from displacing bison to wildlife collisions with animals.

Today, four road segments are rated as high risk, one as medium and five as low. Under the revised plan, four segments would remain high risk, three segments would be medium risk and three segments, low risk.

Those risks drop to low on all 10 segments if only snowcoaches are allowed, the study shows.

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