|
The Battles for the Indiana Dunes
The 1966 Legislation | 1967-1976 | 1977 to 1980 | 1981 to 1986
PART III: 1977 to 1980
"We didn't know what we were getting into; and we didn't know how to quit ." -- Dorothy Buell
1977
The Save the Dunes Council began its 25th year under the leadership of newly elected Council President Ruth Osann. A top priority was to complete the unfinished business of the 1976 dunes legislation: adding the 90-acre NIPSCO "Greenbelt", the 650-acre Beverly Shores "Island," and the 50-acre U.S. 12 Highway Strip to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore; and restoring the 1966 homeowners' provisions.
The Council's initial step was to actively participate in the National Park Service study of the areas called for in the legislation. The study addressed a number of questions. For the Beverly Shores Areas, it examined the desirability of acquiring any or all of the areas from the standpoints of resource management, protection, and public access; impact on the Lakeshore resulting from potential development; and costs of acquisition. For the NIPSCO "Greenbelt," the Park Service looked at preservation of the resources within the area; the preservation of Cowles Bog and associated wetlands; public access; and the economic consequences to NIPSCO of acquisition.
The 1976 legislation also required the Park Service to prepare a master plan for the park by 1979, and to develop land acquisition priorities for the next five years -- plenty of activities to keep the Council busy for a long, long time. In addition, we needed to get acquainted with Indiana's newly elected U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, First District Congressman Adam Benjamin, and President Jimmy Carter's appointees to head the Department of Interior and the National Park Service.
In late January and early February of 1977, the Park Service team held workshops, interviewed scores of individuals, and held two formal public hearings -- one on the two Beverly Shores areas, and a separate one on the NIPSCO Greenbelt. The final study, dated July 1977, made no recommendations about acquisition. An often overlooked part of the Beverly Shores section of the special study report was the information provided by the Corps of Engineers on the feasibility of a permanent sand bypassing system to counter shoreline erosion.
At the beginning of December, U.S.Senator Birch Bayh held a meeting for Beverly Shores residents and property owners about proposed legislation to add the two Beverly Shores study areas to the park.
Small Additions: Big Dreams
This Save the Dunes Council map shows the growth of the park between 1966 and1976, and the addtions proposed in 1979. Not all of the 1979 additions became reality.
Dorothy Buell died in California May 17, 1977. Council founder and its first President , Buell passed away in San Jose, California at the age of 90 , just four days before the May 21st dedication of West Beach for public use, the first major visitor facility in the park she worked so hard to create. Second District Congressman Floyd Fithian was the principal speaker at the dedication ceremony. The Council held a "Celebration of the Life of Dorothy R. Buell" on Sunday, June 26, 1977 at the Ogden Dunes Community Church. Three verbal portraits of the Council founder were given by Emily Taft Douglas, Sylvia Troy, and Edward W. Osann Jr.. Ron Engel presented a tribute, "Dorothy Buell and the American Spirit."
1978
The National Park Service began a two-year study to develop a General Management Plan for the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore with a series of public workshops throughout Indiana and Illinois.
"NIPSCO Greenbelt" area.
Fly ash settling ponds are on far left, NIPSCO plant
in background, with Bethlehem Steel in the distance.
With the NPS study of the three proposed areas now complete, early in the year Senators Birch Bayh and Richard Lugar introduced Senate Bill 2560 and Congressman Floyd Fithian introduced H.R. 11110. Both bills included all the study areas and restored the 1966 homeowners' provisions. However, the proposals delayed the acquisition of the NIPSCO "Greenbelt" until 1986, a provision strongly opposed by the Council. It provided for a transportation study for the Lakeshore to be completed by October 1979.
The U.S. Department of the Interior threatened to sue NIPSCO over the one-million gallons per day of ash pond sluice water seeping into Cowles Bog from company fly-ash settling ponds. An agreement was reached calling for NIPSCO to seal the ponds, but providing an extended time to solve the problem. Interior agreed not to sue NIPSCO to stop the ongoing harm to the Lakeshore from dewatering operations for the proposed Bailly nuclear plant.
Offroad vehicle enthusiasts were destroying hundreds of acres of duneland added to the 1976 expansion bill and intended for purchase by the National Park Service. Fifty Gary teenagers led by Jeffrey Smith (son of long-time Council members Jack and Judy Smith) formed a human shield to protect the fragile dunes against the ORVs. The combination of this dramatic action with the efforts of the Save the Dunes Council, Miller Citizens Corporation, and our Indiana congressional delegation sent Lakeshore superintendent Jim Whitehouse to Washington to request a Declaration of Taking for 1000 acres in Lake County in May. (Rarely used, a Declaration of Taking would enable the federal government to acquire immediate title to the property, with full payment determined later.) In June Congress approved a Declaration of Taking for 632 acres, putting these threatened lands -- all vacant land owned by industry or utilities -- into the hands of the Park Service.
Meanwhile, ORV users asked the Park Service planners to set aside an area within the Lakeshore for their exclusive use. More than 300 ORV users from Indiana, Illinois and Michigan came to a special workshop at the Visitor Center in May. Tensions were so high that some Council supporters who dared to speak against ORV use in the park had to be escorted to their cars by NPS rangers.
A bus load of park supporters of all ages left Beverly Shores August 8 to attend House and Senate subcommittee hearings on dunes bills in Washington, D.C. August 10. In addition to Save the Dunes Council, national conservation organizations, scientists, and labor unions testified in support of the bills. Council and Senate sponsors, who had been led to believe that the Park Service would testify in favor of the bill, were stunned when NPS Deputy Director Ira Hutchinson asked the committee to delay consideration of dunes legislation until 1979, which would mean starting all over again. To improve chances of passage, possibly adding the dunes bill to the Omnibus Parks Bill on the Senate Floor, the Council recommended deferring the decision on the NIPSCO "Greenbelt" until 1979.
Meanwhile, Congressman Benjamin introduced his own dunes bills that would authorize the Secretary of Interior to construct a $25,000,000 marina and support facilities in that part of the Lakeshore adjacent to the US Steel lakefill, add three small dunes areas to the Lakeshore (different areas than in the study area bills), and add two members to the IDNL advisory committee. And Congressman Sidney Yates of Illinois added language to the House Omnibus Parks Bill renaming the National Lakeshore for Senator Paul Douglas. This engendered vocal and often hostile opposition in Indiana, sparking a petition drive against renaming the park.
As 1978 drew to a close, the Senate passed a dunes bill as an amendment to another bill, while Charlotte Read and Public Relations Chair Norma Schaeffer watched from the gallery. The bill did not reach the House floor in time to be considered before Congress adjourned.
1979
Senators Bayh and Lugar introduced S. 599, the study areas bill minus the Greenbelt because of opposition by Senator Lugar. Congressman Fithian introduced H.R. 2742, the House companion bill. Both reinstated the 25-year leaseback for homeowners, added a life tenancy option, authorized a transportation study to reduce dependence on automobiles for access to the park, and authorized an intergovernmental forum composed of National Park Service personnel and representatives of local governments. Both bills dedicated the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to the late Senator Paul Douglas -- naming a unit of the park in his memory and designating a park structure as the Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education, but not changing the name of the park itself.
The House Subcommittee reported out an expanded bill October 19, 1979, adding the following areas to Lakeshore boundaries: 650-acre Beverly Shores Island and 56-acre U.S. 12 Highway strip, 83-acre Mt. Baldy staging area, 182-acre campground site, 60-acre Dune Acres strip, 60 of 90 acres in the Greenbelt, 161-acre Long Lake addition, and an 8-mile-long, 216 ft wide utility corridor in the East Unit, for a total of 1,434 acres.
Council president Ruth Osann testified September 20 at Senate hearings on S. 599, with National Park Service and the Carter Administration support expected for inclusion of the two Beverly Shores areas within park boundaries. Senator Bayh was prepared to offer an amendment to add the NIPSCO Greenbelt to the bill.
House passage in October of the 1,434-acre addition prompted the Council's statement that while it welcomed the addition of worthwhile dunes areas to the park, it would not accept a tradeoff of other areas for the three study areas, and pledged to continue working for improvement in homeowners' terms (which still fell short of the 1966 terms).
1979 ended with significant opposition building to portions of the House-passed dunes bill, especially from Dunes Acres and from a loose coalition composed of Ogden Dunes and Beverly Shores residents (Indiana Dunes Conservancy and Homeowners Opposed to Park Expansion, respectively). No Senate action was scheduled.
1980
The Council's top priority for 1980 was Senate passage of the dunes bill (S. 599). As the year began, the Senate bill still languished in committee. NIPSCO continued its opposition to including the "Greenbelt," claiming that the Council wanted that area in the park in order to stop construction of the Bailly nuclear plant.
Homeowners Opposed to Park Expansion linked up with anti-park organizer Charles Cushman of the National Park Inholders Association (which lobbies against expansion of any parks anywhere in the country) to remove the Beverly Shores areas from the bill. The Dune Acres Town Board produced an expensive and inaccurate brochure opposing the addition of 60 acres along West Road, and hired a top Washington, D.C. lobbying firm to work against this particular addition. To counter these efforts, the Council hired its own part-time lobbyist to secure passage of the three study areas, still our top priority.
Congressman Benjamin urged NIPSCO to consider replacing the Bailly nuclear plant with a coal fired plant, citing the fact that the "nuke" was only 1% complete (translate that to a big hole in the ground). Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board held a pre-hearing conference March 12 and 13 in Valparaiso to consider NIPSCO's request to extend their Bailly nuclear plant construction permit for an additional eight years.
By early August, with no Senate action on the dunes bill. committee member Senator Howard Metzenbaum agreed to offer a revised dunes bill for committee consideration, eliminating the 60-acre Dune Acres tract, the NIPSCO "Greenbelt," the utility corridor in the East Unit, and the campground south of Beverly Shores; and removing NPS authority to condemn homes. The August 27 committee mark-up was cancelled; September 10 mark-up became a talkathon by western senators who expressed concern that the dunes bill would adversely affect the western national parks like Yellowstone and Yosemite. The September 17 mark-up was again canceled. By October 15, Senator Birch Bayh wrote to dunes supporters summarizing the dunes situation: "Senator Wallop of Wyoming is personally keeping the bill from passage."
Finally, dunes legislation was folded into S. 1910, which included additions to other parks. The dunes portion of this bill totalled 1200 acres and included the two Beverly Shores areas, the proposed campground, the Mt. Baldy staging area, the Long Lake extension in Gary, Gary Access Corridor, and Highway 51 extension for a proposed west entrance. It did not include the NIPSCO "Greenbelt," the 60-acre parcel in Dune Acres, or the 176-acre utility corridor in the East Unit.
In November, Senator Birch Bayh lost to Dan Quayle, and President Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan. In a last chance to enact a dunes bill during the lame duck session after the elections, Senator Bayh unsuccessfully attempted to add the Beverly Shores areas by submitting an amendment to H.R. 8450, which primarily dealt with a national park in Oregon.
A bittersweet success came with attachment of a very small dunes bill to S. 2261, which passed the House on December 11 and the Senate on December 12. Added were the 83-acre addition staging area south of Mount Baldy; the 60-acre Gary Pedestrian Corridor; the 182-acre campground south of Beverly Shores, and 161 acres of dune and swale (the Long Lake extension) adjacent to the park boundary in Gary. Left out were all three study areas.
A four-year battle to add the three study areas to the park was lost. But 488 acres were added to the Lakeshore, and the legislation officially recognized the role of the late Senator Paul Douglas in establishing the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The year 1981 loomed, with a new Senator and a new President, and the expectation of more challenges for the Indiana Dunes.--Charlotte J Read
Senator Paul Douglas at the Indiana Dunes
This is the third in a series of articles on the history of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Copies of the previous articles are available from:
Save the Dunes Council
444 Barker Road
Michigan City, IN 46360
219-879-3937 -- Email
June, 1998
|
|
|
