CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - State officials have submitted 50 pages of comments lambasting a National Park Service plan to phase out snowmobiles from Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.
The comments said the studies behind the proposal are "flawed, biased and objectionable" and do not consider the potential noise and pollution of snowcoaches.
Park Service officials have offered to continue allowing snowcoaches after snowmobiles are phased out.
The comments were written by John Keck, director of the Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources; John Baughman, former director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department; and Dan Olson, head of the Department of Environmental Quality's Air Quality Division.
The comments were submitted for a draft supplemental environmental study the Park Service has been doing since it settled a lawsuit filed by snowmobile manufacturers, who contested the ban.
Under the settlement, the Park Service agreed to reconsider its decision to phase out snowmobiles over three winters.
Keck, Baughman and Olson said state studies call into question Park Service claims that snowcoaches would carry more people, pollute less and be less noisy.
Keck accused the National Park Service and Environmental Protection Agency of "selective review and analysis of data" and said the proposed actions in the draft environmental impact statement are similarly based on "flawed data and assumptions."
Keck cited a study the state commissioned by Southwest Research Institute. The study, he said, refuted most findings of the draft supplemental environmental study.
Keck demanded more information on the noise and pollution made by snowcoaches and said he wanted information to support a Park Service claim that snowmachines disturb wildlife.
As for concerns about the ability of visitors to hear the parks' natural sounds and not noise from snowmobiles, Keck wrote: "While we agree with the statement in general, we do not agree that this expectation should be for every second upon every inch of NPS soil."
A final decision on the issue is expected at the end of the year.
