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Oregon off-reservation casino setback
 
Michael Lang, conservation director for Friends of the Columbia Gorge, a casino opponent, said the report was another sign that the Bush administration opposes off-reservation casinos.

"We think that what the BIA and Interior are clearly telling the Warm Springs tribe is to
build your casino on the reservation," Lang said.

 
 BIA: Oregon tribe must study on-reservation site for casino

MATTHEW DALY
Associated Press Writer
August 22, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a setback for an Oregon tribe hoping to build a casino in the Columbia River Gorge, the Interior Department is requiring that the tribe study an alternative site on its Central Oregon reservation.

The decision means the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs must spend hundreds of thousands of dollars -- and up to two months -- to study an option the tribe discarded years ago as unworkable.

In a revised report released last week, the Bureau of Indian Affairs said the purpose of the casino project is to improve the tribe's long-term economic health and support its self-sufficiency. The Warm Springs can do that by developing a new casino, either on its reservation or at an off-reservation site, the report said.

The report orders the tribe to analyze in detail a casino development on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation at a gravel pit off U.S. 26, about one mile west of Warm Springs.

Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., hailed the Aug. 17 report, which he said came in response to requests from him and others that the environmental analysis of the project include sites outside the gorge.

"The Interior Department has made the right decision for the Columbia River Gorge, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation and the people of Oregon," Wu said in a statement. "Much is at stake (in the casino project), and doing what is right cannot be short of a full analysis of all potential sites."

Wu and other opponents say a Las Vegas-style casino at Cascade Locks, Ore. -- about 40 miles east of Portland -- could bring in more than 3 million visitors a year, exacerbating traffic, pollution and risks to endangered species in the gorge, which is designated as a national scenic area.

Michael Lang, conservation director for Friends of the Columbia Gorge, a casino opponent, said the report was another sign that the Bush administration opposes off-reservation casinos. (http://www.gorgefriends.org/)

"We think that what the BIA and Interior are clearly telling the Warm Springs tribe is to build your casino on the reservation," Lang said.

Len Bergstein, a lobbyist for the tribe, scoffed at that, calling the report just another bureaucratic hurdle the tribe must overcome.

"Under threat of lawsuits and outrageous behavior on the part of congressman Wu, (BIA officials) basically have decided that rather than suffer the potential of a lawsuit, let's add an alternative: an on-reservation casino," Bergstein said.

Bergstein charged that Wu and other critics -- including the Friends of the Gorge and a rival tribe, the Grand Ronde -- have adopted a strategy of trying to bleed the Warm Springs of time and money. The Grand Ronde, which operates the Spirit Mountain casino southwest of Portland, has launched a $1 million ad campaign to oppose the Cascade Locks casino.

The new analysis should take about six weeks and cost at least $100,000, Bergstein said, calling the report far less than the victory casino opponents claim.

"David Wu keeps trying to inject his own political agenda into what should be a technical process," Bergstein said, noting that Wu does not represent either Warm Springs or Cascade Locks, where the planned Bridge of the Gods Columbia River Resort Casino would be built.

In a related development, Friends of the Gorge released a survey showing that Oregonians oppose a gorge casino by a 2-to-1 margin. About 68 percent of those surveyed said they opposed the idea of building a casino resort in Cascade Locks, the group said. New York-based Mercury Public Affairs conducted the statewide poll of 400 people, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. (http://www.gorgefriends.org/New%20Poll%20Press%20Release.pdf)

Bergstein said the results were deceptive because the poll emphasized potential environmental harm.

http://www.newsreview.info/article/20060822/BUSINESS/60822007/-1/rss01


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