Clinton Signs Bill on Water Efforts

Highlighting his work to protect the environment, President Clinton signed a bill Saturday containing $1.8 billion in federal aid for water cleanup efforts, including a major project in the Florida Everglades and several others in California.

In his weekly radio address, Clinton also said he will sign a bill to improve or create about 120 national parks, trails, rivers and historical sites in 41 states. The Presidio, a former Army post in San Francisco, will gain national park status and be run by a nonprofit trust under the legislation, he said.

Shortly after the address, Clinton flew to the Colorado Rockies for a rally in a naturally formed, open-air amphitheater, where he took issue with the anti-government rhetoric of conservatives, citing the environment as an appropriate area for federal efforts.

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“I think this is a better country because we took action to protect Yellowstone National Park from a gold mine, because I signed a bill just this morning before I flew out here to continue our work to recover and preserve the Florida Everglades . . . ,” the president told a cheering crowd of about 9,000 people at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

Sen. Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, complained that Clinton had removed from the bill provisions that would have raised park fees or allowed the National Park Foundation to raise money for parks from private foundations and businesses.

He said the two items were deleted to avoid a presidential veto. “It seems they’d rather starve our parks than risk giving Congress credit for providing additional funds for the National Park Service.”

In his radio address, the president pointed to Saturday’s celebration of Columbus Day as good reason to think about the nation’s environmental heritage--and the government’s responsibility to preserve it.

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“We can only imagine the beauty of the land the explorers found,” Clinton said. “We must work to pass upon to our children the Earth that God gave us.”

He then turned the microphone over to Vice President Al Gore, who had announced the administration’s bid to assist in the Everglades last February. The White House is touting the federal-state Everglades project as an example of “reinventing government,” with an emphasis on decisions made at the state and local level.

The water bill “recognizes that federal and state governments must work in tandem, but of course there is more to do, and all who benefit from the Everglades bear this responsibility,” Gore said. “Each of us must do our part.”

Under the new law, states are expected to add about $700 million to the $1.8 billion from Washington, adding up to $2.5 billion that will be allocated among 44 projects throughout the country.

The Florida portion of the bill directs that a plan be completed by July 1, 1999, to restore, preserve and protect the Everglades. It authorizes the Army Corps of Engineers to get started on critical projects to begin that restoration over the next three years. And it establishes a federal-state partnership to pay the roughly $150-million cost of restoration projects on a 50-50 basis.

California environmental projects that are in line for the added government support include improvements to the Port of Long Beach, the Santa Monica Breakwater, Santa Barbara Harbor, the American River Watershed, Humboldt Harbor and Bay, the Marin County Shoreline at San Rafael, the San Lorenzo River habitat-restoration effort, Narco Bluffs in Riverside County and Terminus Dam on the Kaweah River.

“These are our national treasures,” Clinton said in his radio address. “When we maintain our national parks, nourish our wildlife refuges, protect our water and preserve places like the Everglades, we are standing up for our values and our future, and that is something all Americans can be proud of.”

The president plans an appearance in Albuquerque today and will be staying in New Mexico during the early part of the week, preparing for the final presidential debate with GOP nominee Bob Dole in San Diego on Wednesday.

Times wire services contributed to this story.