A Wilderness of Lawsuits

By James Kelly

Environmentalists are going to court to stop Secretary Watt

No doubt about it, Dick Davenport is plenty steamed. Husband of Congresswoman Lacey Davenport in Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury comic strip, he discovered last week that U.S. Secretary of the Interior James Watt plans to open Davenport's beloved Matagorda Island Wildlife Refuge in Texas to developers. "Watt can't do that!" fumes the courtly Davenport, his straw boater slightly askew. "It's outrageous and unconscionable!" So furious is he that, "as secretary of the Maryland Audubon Society, I'm seriously thinking of demanding Watt's resignation in our next newsletter!"

That sort of empty gesture used to be a hallmark of conservation groups, but no more. Not only are environmentalists clamoring for Watt's ouster, they are trying to draw and quarter him in the courts for what they view as his efforts to turn back the environmental clock. "He's being sued right and left," crows Craig Van Note, executive vice president of the environmental group Monitor Consortium. And Patrick Parenteau, legal counsel for the National Wildlife Federation, predicts an "explosion of litigation" as Watt's plans for developing the nation's natural resources take shape.

In his defense, Watt claims that he is only following the laws as set down by Congress, not as they have been selectively interpreted by past departmental officials. "In recent years we have seen programs administered by those who do not respect the law but feel, 'Oh well. Congress did not know what they were doing,' " says Watt. But Watt's critics claim he is doing precisely that--selectively interpreting the laws to suit his own policies. Says Lewis Regenstein, executive vice president of the Fund for Animals: "Someone has got to stand up and say, 'This is what Congress meant.' We're counting on the courts to do that."

The most important suit brought against Watt so far centers on his plan to offer for lease a billion acres for offshore oil and gas exploration over the next five years. As an initial step, Watt announced last April that he planned to auction 31 tracts off the California coast near Santa Barbara. A coalition of groups, including the state of California and the Natural Resources Defense Council, immediately sued to stop the sale. The plaintiffs' lawyers argued that the proposed drilling threatened the coastline as well as the area's sea otters and other endangered species. More persuasively, they maintained that Washington did not have the authority to lease those areas without first considering the state's right of jurisdiction. U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer agreed and last July barred the sale.

Though the decision led Watt to withdraw four more basins off the Northern California coast from the auction block, he vows to fight his battle all the way to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, several other states, including Maine and Alaska, are poised to sue the Interior Department if it goes ahead with plans to lease some of their offshore territory. Washington Energy Analyst Roger Copland believes that the odds are in Watt's favor to win his case eventually, but his critics are encouraged by the California decision. Says Sara Chasis, staff attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council: "We proved that Watt is stoppable."

Watt's decision to allow mineral and energy exploration in wilderness areas promises to turn up an equally rich lode of legal squabbles. Last May he and the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee clashed over whether the 1 million-acre Bob Marshall preserve in Montana should be opened for such development, and committee members ordered the land withdrawn from leasing arrangements. The Mountain States Legal Foundation, the pro-development public interest law firm that Watt once headed, sued the Interior Department to open up Bob Marshall. In an unusual maneuver, the Justice Department informed Congress in August that it would not defend the committee's action and, indeed, would join the foundation in its battle. The latest twist came three weeks ago when the Wilderness Society filed suit against Watt charging that he colluded with the Mountain States group to sue his own department. Both suits are being tried before a Montana federal judge, and a decision is expected in late fall.

Three Appalachian conservation groups plan to sue Watt this week for failing to curb abuses of the rule that exempts strip mining done on plots of less than two acres from environmental safeguards; several environmental groups are also threatening legal action if Watt keeps his promise to allow states to devise more lenient strip mining regulations. The National Wildlife Federation predicts that Watt will be sued for allowing overgrazing on federal lands. As for Davenport's cherished Matagorda Island, a covey of environmental groups plans to meet with Interior staffers this week to ask that it be kept pristine.

Environmentalists acknowledge that many of the Secretary's most sweeping moves--refusing to ask for more money for new national parks, for example, and appointing pro-development personnel to key Interior posts--cannot be challenged in court. They admit that many of their lawsuits are attempts to buy time until they can succeed in dumping Watt. But White House aides stoutly deny that the Secretary is an endangered species. Even if Reagan's support does turn lukewarm, Watt will be a formidable adversary. He was one of the shrewdest anticonservation lawyers in the nation before taking over the department and has a keen sense of when to fight in court and when to retreat. But with one-fifth of America's acreage at stake, the Dick Davenports may be stirred up enough to take off their boaters and stop him in his tracks.

--By James Kelly. Reported by Gary Lee/Washington

With reporting by Gary Lee

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