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Threat to the Gorge
In Our View - Threat to the Gorge Saturday, December 11, 2004 Columbian editorial writers Gearing up for legal battle, the Friends of the Columbia Gorge organization has good news about Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski's plan to let the Warm Springs Indians put a huge casino at Cascade Locks: Their cozy little arrangement is not a done deal. Opponents are holding some good cards. Those fearful of a casino-motel-restaurant complex and all its traffic marring the environment and ambience in the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area have an important ally in the Bush administration, says Michael Lang, conservation director of the Friends of the Gorge. Let's hope so. Because it appears the Oregon governor has caved in to the tribe's repeated requests for a gambling emporium and sprawling parking lot in Cascade Locks, about 40 miles east of Vancouver. The Oregonian revealed this week that the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs are likely to win Kulongoski's blessing to put a casino on nontribal land at river level in Cascade Locks on land that the tribe would buy. Kulongoski has kept his negotiations with the Indians under wraps. This matter, it seems, doesn't qualify as the kind of "transparent government" about which politicians speak so glowingly. In return for Kulongoski's support for a casino in Cascade Locks, the tribe would not build on higher ground farther east at Hood River, where it does have reservation-status land. The governor is right that if a casino is to be built on one of the two sites, Cascade Locks would be less visually intrusive. And, the people of Cascade Locks are more receptive to a casino than are residents of Hood River 20 miles east. Wherever it would be built, it would attract day- trip and overnight visitors to the area, a potential economic boost to both sides of the gorge. But whether gamblers would spend much time or money in businesses off the casino grounds is questionable. These gambling complexes are cities unto themselves. Because the Cascade Locks site is not a reservation, the tribe needs the approval of the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, who has not been supportive of off-reservation casinos. The Warm Springs' fallback plan is to build a casino on reservation land on the hill east of Hood River. But that's iffy, too, given federal environmental regulations that could make it tougher to build infrastructure to that site. Lang says his group would wage a major legal fight to keep the Warm Springs from building a casino there. Another card of unknown value that opponents hold is the Oregon constitution, which instructs the Legislature to bar casinos from operating in the state. That has been meaningless against Indians putting gambling halls on established reservations, but it should carry weight in this case. If an off-reservation casino is approved in Cascade Locks, it won't be long before other tribes lobby for off-reservation casinos close to Portland. (The Cowlitz Indians' bid for a casino along Interstate 5 near La Center is different. That tribe has no reservation now and is applying for "initial reservation" status there.) Here's hoping that Kulongoski's scheme falls apart and that the federal government, which created this first national scenic area in the country back in 1986, does the right thing and keeps it scenic. http://www.columbian.com/12112004/clark_co/221202.html |
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