Update: Ag chief Rey apologizes for delays in retardant evaluatio

Faced with possible jail time, U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey on Tuesday repeatedly apologized to a federal judge in Missoula for the Forest Service’s delays in evaluating the environmental impacts of fire retardant.

But Rey, the Bush administration’s top forest official, insisted the agency has complied with the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act.

U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy is presiding over a watchdog group’s 2003 lawsuit that accuses the Forest Service of violating the nation’s top environmental laws in the agency’s use of fire retardant.
The hearing is scheduled to resume Wednesday afternoon.

Other federal agencies have found that fire retardant jeopardizes the survival of more than 40 species of endangered or threatened fish and other aquatic species.

But the Forest Service maintains retardant can be used without significantly harming those species as long as the agency monitors their health and takes steps to keep the chemical slurry away from waterways.

In an earlier ruling, Molloy said he considered the Forest Service to be in contempt of the law and the court’s prior orders to complete environmental analyses in a timely fashion.

If Molloy decides that the Forest Service has not tried to comply with the law and his orders, he said he will consider jailing Rey, placing him on electronic monitoring or stopping the Forest Service from dropping fire retardant until it complies with his earlier orders.