Wally Hickel's Christmas

For Interior Secretary Walter J. Hickel, the Alaskan capitalist turned conservationist, Christmas brought tidings glad and sad. The good news: Hickel has won a key battle in his long struggle to save Florida's Everglades National Park. The threat to the unique aquatic park was a huge proposed airport that would have polluted the Everglades' chief watershed. Now, the Departments of Interior and Transportation are expected to conclude an agreement with the Dade County Port Authority to move the encroaching airport (plus a small training strip already built on the site) far from the Everglades.

Hickel's bad news came from California's Santa Barbara Channel, the scene of last January's big oil leak. Once again, a thick black tide from the same Union Oil Co. well oozed offshore over a 20-mile area, fouling beaches and harming marine creatures. Company officials and the U.S. Geological Survey maintain that the new leak was caused by a buildup of pressure in the oil dome. The solution to the problem seems to be to keep pumping oil so that the pressure does not reach the rupture point. But even normal operation of the offshore wells is risky. Pipeline breaks are not uncommon, with unfortunate results for waterfowl and Santa Barbara residents.

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