2 Florida parks on threatened list

WASHINGTON -- Polluted runoff is affecting Florida's Everglades, mountain views are clouded by air pollution and historic monuments are crumbling, a park advocacy group said Monday.

In what is becoming an annual ritual for the National Parks Conservation Association, the nonprofit group released its "Top 10" most-threatened parks.

The list includes Florida's Everglades National Park and adjacent Big Cypress National Preserve.

The Everglades is threatened by polluted runoff from agriculture and from flood-control projects, and a restoration plan under way is still too conceptual to guarantee a fix, association officials said.

The Big Cypress is still fighting "considerable swamp buggy use" and now faces the threat that the private owner of underground mineral rights may want to conduct more exploratory drilling and seismic testing for petroleum deposits.

The list also includes Yellowstone National Park, the country's first park, and Federal Hall, the site in lower Manhattan where George Washington was sworn in as president.

The list was released just three days after the Interior Department released its own list, detailing projects it said are needed to improve 12 national parks.

The Interior Department's list also included Yellowstone, for a $75,000 plan to replace an aging sewer line near Old Faithful, and Federal Hall, for a $16.5-million appropriation to repair cracks in the building's foundation that appeared following the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11.

Also included on Interior's list are: Mojave National Preserve in California; Ocmulgee National Monument, Georgia; Valley Forge National Historical Park, Pennsylvania; Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska; Big Bend National Park, Texas; Glacier National Park, Montana; and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina.

"Parks have so many important projects going on across America that we couldn't keep it to the usual "Top 10' list," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in a prepared statement.

President Bush has proposed $663-million for new construction, maintenance and rehabilitation projects, ranging from erecting new buildings to repairing sewer lines that threaten waterways.

That is about $2-million more than what Congress appropriated for the current year. Aides to Norton expect Congress will increase the president's budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

The parks association already is lobbying Congress to appropriate more money than what Bush has proposed in order to hire more employees and to catch up on a substantial maintenance backlog.

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