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Show 'They Did It To Us Again,' Say County Officials On LeavittlBabbitt Land Swap Garfield County Commissioners Commission-ers and most of the county's residents were either angry or in mourning this week after details of Gov. Mike Leavitt's land swap deal with Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt were released. "For all practical purposes, they've turned Garfield County into a federal territory," said Garfield County Commission Chair Louise Liston. "We feel betrayed by the Governor and the Trust Lands Administration," said Commissioner Commis-sioner Clare Ramsay, and Commissioner Com-missioner Maloy Dodds added, "We were totally taken by surprise." sur-prise." The precedent-setting seven-page seven-page agreement was signed by Leavitt and Babbitt on May 8 in Salt Lake City with some 200 federal, state and county officials looking on. "This is the largest public land exchange we have been able to identify anywhere in the continental conti-nental United States," Leavitt said. Under the agreement which still must pass through Congress before becoming law, almost 377,000 acres of school trust lands locked inside of national parks, monuments, forests and Indian reservations will be turned over to the federal government. Among those acres in Garfield County are all the school sections, each 640 acres, in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Capitol Reef National Park, Glen Canyon Recreation Area, and Dixie National Forest, well over 100,000 acres in the county. In return, specifically, Garfield County will receive 12,678 acres in the "Hatch parcel," Bureau of Land Management land south of Hatch and east of and adjacent to U.S. 89 land which, according to Commissioner Ramsay, has little value and no water. Leavitt's news release says the "benefits" to the state as a whole will include $13 million from the potential sale of unleased coal; approximately 139,000 acres of land and minerals throughout the state with potential for- mineral and commercial development (that includes Garfield County's parcel), and 160 million tons of undeveloped coal, 185 billion cubic feet of yet to be developed coalbed methane gas, and oil and gas, tar sands, limestone and other materials, mostly in Emery and Carbon Counties. In addition, the state will also receive $50 million in cash "about what a really good movie grosses on one weekend," said one angry Garfield County resident. The agreement also specifies that SITLA's lawsuit will be dropped, saving millions of dollars in continuing legal costs, mediation and appraisals. Leavitt claims that the agreement fulfills President Bill Clinton's promises made at the time the monument was created. The agreement does not transfer to the state any federal lands that could be surface mined, are habitat for endangered species, areas of critical environmental environ-mental concern, or potential wilderness. Leavitt's information also says that there is "no loss of revenue to local governments from mineral lease revenues," and that the agreement protects valid existing rights and permittees, and ranchers with grazing leases. Commissioner Liston said that as recently as three weeks ago she had queried Jerry Meredith, interim director for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, regarding possible land exchanges taking place in the monument, but was told that exchanges couldn't be considered as long as there was ongoing litigation. The three commissioners agreed that they could now see clearly why Governor Leavitt refused early on to lend any support when the Utah Association of Counties and SITLA and the Western States Legal Foundation filed lawsuits against Clinton and formation of the monument. They said they could also now see why he recently vetoed two separate bills that would have helped litigation, (See COMMISSION Page 4A) Commissoners Cry TouT After LeavittBabbitt Deal From Front Page both of which passed handily by a two-thirds majority in both houses. They agreed that planning and talking on the land swap had to have been ongoing for more than a year. Liston, a former school teacher tea-cher herself, and a member of the board of directors of SITLA, said the board was not aware of the magnitude or scope of the exchange until the announcement was made. Liston said that although she could see an apparent potential gain to education in Utah and savings of millions of dollars and time in litigation, the land swap is "still a great loss for Garafield County." But SITLA spokesman Dave Hebertson said on Tuesday that the SITLA board had been informed in February or March that "high level negotiations were taking place." He said, however, he didn't know if Liston had been present at the meeting, Hebertson said Leavitt and Babbitt had been working intensely intense-ly on the proposal for the past two months, and "we got all that we wanted." He said the current arena for the success of the agreement in Congress is "very delicate," with a "critical mix of people," and he didn't know what might happen after the elections. The county's commissioners said they had "no idea that Utah's inholdings were being thrown in with the monument lands and that, as a county, we are having to deal with a tremendous future loss." '-' Yet Hebertson said that SITLA anticipated no loss to local governments by their action. He said that currently held grazing ' permits could pass to . the youngest heir for the lifetime of that heir. "The agreement is the culmination of weeks of delicate negotiations after decades ; of disagreement." said a release from the Governor's office. "It benefits both parties, who have struggled for decades over issues of land ownership patterns, energy development, and environmental protection." " " But Commissioner Ramsay on Tuesday simply reiterated his feelings of betrayal by Leavitt as Commissioner Liston spent Tuesday in Cedar City before heading for Moab for Thursday's scheduled SITLA board meeting. |