Likewise, commissioners for the three counties surrounding the Reach remain strongly opposed to monument status. They supported a 1997 bill from Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Pasco, which would have given local governments control of the Reach and opened portions of the land to private development. It's not clear whether that will happen, she said. Babbitt's proposal calls for a local advisory committee to help write a management plan. Steele said it's time for the counties to concede they'll never control the Reach and start cooperating with federal officials on writing a management plan.
Local control means that they can develop the land.
Environmentalists and many scientists warned that development, including irrigated farming, would cause increased erosion of the White Bluffs, fragile cliffs that line the eastern edge of the river. In recent years, ground water has caused sloughing of the cliffs, which rise 300 feet over the river and turn pastel shades at sunset. In one spot, a slide is deflecting the river into an island that is rich with archaeological artifacts. Erosion is biting away big chunks of the island. Together with the Army's Yakima Firing Range, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is the largest remaining piece of the shrub-steppe habitat that once covered 10 million acres in the Northwest.