Read the BIA notice, including information on where to get the Final EIS and how to comment on it.
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For more news and background information, see our Web site.
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CARS is pleased to bring you the latest news on the Cowlitz casino issue. Feel free to add your comments to our blog and research background information on our Web site.
Sincerely,
Ed Lynch, Chairman |
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The Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Cowlitz casino will be published tomorrow in the Federal Register, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
Publication of the document will be followed by a 30-day comment period ending July 1, 2008. A decision on the project could come as soon as July 1, although that is not expected. The preferred alternative described in the Final EIS is the outcome sought by the tribe: to acquire 152 acres owned by Salishan-Mohegan at the Interstate 5 La Center interchange, declare it a reservation and establish a Las Vegas-style gambling center.
The release of the Final EIS is only a procedural step and the project remains far from approval.
The EIS is part of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, but that is not the only process involved in a tribal casino application. For example, a parcel would need to be declared "Indian lands" before the project could commence, and BIA has yet to accept the "restored lands" recommendation issued by the National Indian Gaming Commission in November 2005.
Unless the Final EIS has undergone a tremendous amount of new research and revision, the document will remain a liability for the Cowlitz casino proposal. The preliminary Final EIS, released in March 2007 to the county, local cities and other cooperating agencies, was excoriated by local agencies. Officials familiar with these kinds of environmental reviews were unanimous in their criticism of the Cowlitz EIS. Their comments, submitted in April 2007, include:
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The City of Vancouver's criticism that the Final EIS "remains fatally flawed from the start because of its failure to consider alternative sites to the north for Cowlitz gaming which are closer to the center of the tribal population."
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The City of La Center's indignation that the document said the proposed casino would have a "less than significant" impact on the city's socioeconomics -- despite the fact that it would cause a 66 percent loss in revenue to the city.
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Clark County's observation that transportation models used to draw conclusions in the preliminary Final EIS were not provided and that models used in the Draft EIS were "found to have significant errors in model inputs, and model methodology."
CARS Chairman, Ed Lynch is taking a wait-and-see attitude. "Unless there has been a total overhaul of this work since we last saw it," he said, "the EIS remains in serious trouble."
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Read the BIA notice, including information on where to get the Final EIS and how to comment on it.
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CARS is a local citizens organization that is concerned about the practice of reservation shopping.
If you have not yet joined CARS as a member, we invite you to add your name to our membership list at www.NotHerePlease.org. Please forward this to others you think would be interested.
If you would like to support our work financially, we welcome your assistance. We are a nonprofit organization -- 501(c)(4) -- but contributions are not tax deductible.
CARS
PO Box 61808
Vancouver, WA 98666 |
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