The Washington (DC) Times
Wed Aug 15 06:33:15 2001
EDITORIAL • August 15, 2001
Interior's endearing insects
When is a persistently rare critter certainly not extinct, nor
even really endangered? Such troubling waters of logic are
easily traversed when a bridge for bureaucrats is at stake –
specifically, the already all-too troubled Wilson Bridge.
The bridge has already become synonymous with
bureaucratic exceptionalism. Bald eagles and shortnose
sturgeon, both endangered species, will almost certainly be
harmed by construction of the bridge, and yet federal
bureaucrats signed off on the project anyway.
It now appears that at least three species of endangered
invertebrates would be similarly affected. Yet perhaps fearing
still another delay in a bureaucratic boondoggle already
approaching the proportions of Boston's Big Dig, the Interior
Department has refused to recognize the insects as
endangered.
Instead, the Department suggested that at least one of the
species was simply, in Steven Segal style, hard to kill. As
reported by Audrey Hudson of The Washington Times, the
Interior Department claimed that the first sighting in 50 years
of the presumed extinct Northern Virginia well amphipod,
"indicates that the species, though it may be rare, has persisted
and is not in imminent danger of extinction."
Perhaps the same standard should be applied to the
suckerfish, for whose presence federal bureaucrats have
turned off water taps to thirsty communities throughout the
West. That decision was devastating for the financial futures
of many farmers living in the area, and is only one example of
the high price Westerners are paying for the rigorous
enforcement of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). A few
weeks ago, four firefighters paid the ultimate price, after the
water drop they frantically requested was delayed for 10 hours
over fears that the river from which the water was drawn
contained endangered species.
Understandably, Western leaders are outraged over such
hypocritical and unfair enforcement of the ESA. As Idaho Sen.
Larry Craig said, "It appears Washington, D.C. gets a special
exemption when it comes to species protection."
If the Interior Department was right to refuse to allow
supposedly endangered insects to interfere with the
construction of a needed causeway, it should have also refused
to allow the North Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle to block
the building of a levee, or Delhi Sands flies to stall construction
of school and hospital construction in San Bernardino.
After all, political power grows through the making of
exceptions, and equitable enforcement of the law is always an
endangered species.
