Regional Report
MID-ATLANTIC
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) blocked the state of West Virginia from issuing a permit to developers who wanted to dump treated sewage from a proposed 188-unit subdivision into the Shenandoah River. The tract, Murphy's Landing, is upstream of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and is part of the historical range of the site. EPA said that the state Department of Environmental Protection had not shown that the permit meets the terms of West Virginia's stream anti-degradation law. Murphy farm has national significance because of its Civil War and civil rights history. The EPA has initiated a formal review of the historical significance of Murphy farm.
NORTHERN ROCKIES
A decade after authorizing a memorial to American Indians who fought at the Battle at Little Bighorn, Congress has appropriated $2.3 million to have it built. The money was included in the Interior funding bill that at press time awaited President Bush's signature. The memorial will commemorate Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians who fought during the 1876 battle in southeast Montana where Lt. Col. George Custer staged a surprise attack.
His cavalry was overwhelmed by nearly 2,500 Indians, and all 263 soldiers were killed. Until now, very little interpretation has been focused on the American Indians at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.
PACIFIC
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by timber and off-road vehicle interests that challenged President Clinton's authority under the Antiquities Act to establish Giant Sequoia National Monument in California. The monument preserves more than 327,000 acres of forest ecosystem and some of the last unprotected giant sequoia groves in the Sierra Nevada.
"As our judge recognized, the Antiquities Act has been challenged six times, and courts have upheld its use each time," said Earthjustice attorney Michael Sherwood, who fought the challenge. A subsequent lawsuit on the president's use of the Antiquities Act was also upheld.
