NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Wednesday, March 4, 1998

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

98-88 - Buffalo NR (AR) - Explosive Device

On March 1st, a local resident advised the Searcy County
sheriff's department that he'd found what he thought was a bomb
in an old, abandoned home site in a remote section of the park. 
Rangers and deputies traveled to the site the next day and found the
device in an old well house on the property.  It consisted of a round
metal cookie tin with black and red wire protruding from a hole in the
top.  The hole had been sealed with some type of putty, and the tin
itself had been sealed.  The man who reported it also said that he had
lifted it up and found it to be heavy.  The area was secured and a
state police bomb technician was summoned from Fort Smith.  The
technician determined that the can contained a drilled-out CO2 canister
surrounded with plaster of paris, and that it could not have gone off
in its present condition.  He could not tell what type of explosive was
in the canister.  The technician surmised that someone had been
attempting to make a device that would explode when the lid opened, but
that the builder did not have the expertise needed to complete it.  The
device had likely been at the site for several weeks or months. It was
exploded on site.  Rangers, deputies and state police officers are
conducting a joint investigation.  [Bob Howard, LES, BUFF, 3/3]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Shenandoah NP (VA) - Air Quality

Cardinal FG, a manufacturer of flat (window) glass, announced on March
2nd that it would withdraw its application before the Virginia
Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to build a plant 25
kilometers from the park. The factory would have produced 600 tons of
glass per day and would have emitted 767 tons/year of nitrogen oxides,
222 tons/year of sulfur dioxide, and 180 tons/year of particulate
matter.  This was the largest pollution source proposed near
Shenandoah, a park with severe air pollution problems and a long
history of air quality conflicts dating back to the early 1990s.  NPS
and US Forest Service (USFS) staff in Virginia and at the Air Resources
Division in Denver had been analyzing the impacts of the proposal on
Shenandoah and several nearby USFS Class I wilderness areas. 
Preliminary modeling showed that nitrogen and sulfur deposition levels
in the park were of concern and might contribute to stream
acidification.  In 1990, a preliminary Federal Register determination
of adverse impact asserted that Shenandoah suffered adverse impacts
from existing air pollution, and that any additional pollution would
contribute to degradation.  An NPS determination of adverse impact in
this case would have to be considered by the DEQ, but previous
experience suggested that it would not be a determining factor in any
DEQ decision.  The NPS approach from the beginning was to stress the
Service's legal obligations under the Clean Air Act and that a
determination would be based on the weight of scientific evidence. The
park began a grass roots approach to this issue (including a web site)
which focused primarily on local quality of life issues and secondarily
on protecting the park.  On February 25th, almost 1,000 people
showed up for a DEQ public briefing, and not one person spoke publicly
in favor of the proposal.  The brief NPS statement was interrupted
twice by applause.  The local state senator and a majority of the
county board of supervisors subsequently came out in opposition to the
plant, and the company announced its withdrawal.  This outcome was not
expected, and is a clear victory for the local community, which
accepted the responsibility of speaking up for the environment in their
area and for the nearby Class I national park.  [Bob Krumenaker, Chief
of Natural and Cultural Resources, SHEN, 3/3]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No entries.

MEMORANDA

No entries.

EXCHANGE

Saddles - Jefferson NEM has three Australian stock saddles available for
transfer to another park.  If you're interested, please contact Keith
Temple at 314-425-5095.

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Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the
cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.

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