Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2001

Ruling slows Interior communication

By Mike Lee Herald staff writer

If you're wondering how much water is stored in Yakima Basin reservoirs, don't bother checking the Internet site of the federal agency that monitors them.

Ditto if you want to research Kennewick Man or learn about volunteer opportunities at the region's national wildlife refuges.

The Department of Interior and its many subagencies that criss-cross the West remain indefinitely tongue-tied by a federal court ruling that has shut down virtually the entire department's Internet and e-mail system.

The resulting frustrations are a telling indication of just how quickly electronic communication has become a centerpiece of government work.

"Our ability to conduct a large portion of our daily business has been impacted," J. Steven Griles, deputy secretary of the Interior, said in a short news statement.

But there's no end in sight to the shutdown that has backed up business for hundreds of employees at agency offices from Portland to Boise.

"We're handling things the old-fashioned way - by fax, by telephone and in person, as much as we can," said Paula Call, outdoor recreation planner at the Hanford Reach National Monument in Richland.

The lockdown is a result of a Dec. 5 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth, who ordered the Department of the Interior to immediately shut down Internet systems and agency computers that provide access to individual Indian trust data.

The ruling is part of a long-running suit that calls into question the agency's management of Indian trust funds. Two years ago, Lamberth ruled that the federal government had "breached its fiduciary duties to 500,000 individual Indian fund beneficiaries, and cannot be trusted to carry out trust fund mismanagement reform without continued oversight by the court," according to the Native American Rights Fund Legal Review.

The practical effects of the shutdown are widespread, starting with Kennewick Man, ancient remains about which the Interior Department has published several studies online. Anthropological research across the country has slowed as students no longer have access to what has been the single source of government research about the bones.

"With the increasing number of university classes covering First American topics, it's not good if the Department of the Interior is 'reorganizing,' " said Cleone Hawkinson of Portland, who tracks archaeology research across the country.

Information gaps also haunt the region's irrigation managers who rely on the Bureau of Reclamation's up-to-the-minute water tracking system to follow stream flow, snow pack and reservoir levels.

On Monday, Kennewick Irrigation District manager Chuck Garner still wasn't getting Yakima Basin status reports even by fax - just a notice that the Bureau didn't know when communication would return to normal.

"I can't even report to my board because I don't know the specifics," he said, noting that the information is important but not critical during the winter.

Shannon McDaniel, manager of the South Columbia Basin Irrigation District, said he is hampered most by lack of e-mail to set up meetings and get questions answered by the bureau. Without it, he said, "It's just a little more hassle."

Everyone seems to be hoping electronic communications return to normal soon, but at the Fish and Wildlife Service in Richland, Call said being low-tech isn't all bad.

"Some of the staff has commented that it's kind of nice not to have all of those e-mail messages every day," she said. But, "We know there will be a backlog when the system comes back up. We are kind of bracing ourselves for that."