Nevada’s two Democratic senators are pressing a bill that would force the Bureau of Land Management to sell land near California’s Mojave National Preserve as a site for a second Las Vegas airport, even before environmental studies can be done to determine its potential impact. The Interior Department, on behalf of both the BLM and the National Park Service, is fighting the bill sponsored by Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan. Enviros fear that the airport, which would be just six miles from the California border and 10 miles from edge of the Mojave preserve, would negatively affect the fragile desert with noise, lights, and air pollution, as well as spur development in the area and tap into scarce water supplies.
