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American Rivers Policy Update For the week of January 24, 2000
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APPROPRIATIONS
It s Not Too Late To Sign On For River Funding For FY 01:
American Rivers is again accepting sign-ons for the River Budget: National Priorities for Local River Conservation in FY 2001. As of January 15, more than 440 river conservation organizations, community groups, recreation organizations, and others had added their names to the list of groups supporting the budget (see
http://www.amrivers.org/rbudget2001list.html for the full list of sign on groups as of November 1).
To see the final River Budget for FY 01 visit
To sign on in support, contact Suzy McDowell at smcdowell@amrivers.org
Note the River Budget for FY 01 went to the printers in late October. All groups that sign on to the River Budget after November 15 will be listed on an addendum sheet to be inserted in the printed documents and added to the online list of sign on groups.
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House Appropriations Hearings Begin in March:
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies will begin FY 01 appropriations hearings in late February. All take place beginning at 10 a.m. in B-308 Rayburn. For more information, visit
http://www.house.gov/appropriations/
Feb. 15: Oversight hearing on Fish and Wildlife Service land acquisition accounts and priority setting.
Feb. 29: Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Energy.
March 1: Bureau of Land Management.
March 2: Fish and Wildlife Service.
March 9: Forest Service.
March 16: U.S. Geological Survey.
March 28: Oversight hearing on Forest Service research.
March 29: National Park Service.
April 4: DOE -- conservation.
April 5: Oversight hearing on the Everglades.
April 6: Public witnesses on natural resources, energy and other programs.
April 12: Members of Congress.
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MINING AND MINRALS
House Resources Committee to Examine PA Mine Cleanup Efforts:
House Resources Committee Chair Don Young spent January 24 visiting a number of abandoned anthracite coalmines in northeastern Pennsylvania prior to holding a field hearing examining efforts to cleanup and reclaim abandoned coalfields. Representatives Don Sherwood (R-PA), Paul Kanjorski (D-PA), and Tim Holden (D-NJ) also planned to attend the field hearing.
During the past 200 years of coal mining, Pennsylvania produced more than one-quarter of the nation s total coal output. The state now ranks fourth in annual coal production by state. Prior to 1995, Pennsylvania coal miners produced more than 8.7 million tons of anthracite coal, most of it reclaimed from refuse piles left over from old mining operations or from bank mines cut into hillsides. Before the enactment of state and federal reclamation laws in the 1970s, operators could abandon a site after all available coal had been extracted from a mine, with no obligation to undertake any cleanup efforts. As a result, there are currently more than 250,000 acres of abandoned coal mine lands in Pennsylvania with dangerous open pits and shafts, unstable mine buildings and equipment, subsiding lands, mine fires, and polluted waters and soils.
The state is expected to seek increased federal funding to help cover the estimated multi-billion dollar price tag for cleaning up these abandoned mine lands. In 1977, as part of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, Congress created the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund to help pay for reclaiming mine lands abandoned prior to 1977. Pennsylvania has received about $470 million from the trust fund, completing about 1,400 reclamation projects to date.
The authorization for the trust fund s fee collection expires in 2004. There is currently a balance of about $1 billion, enough to cover only a fraction of the cleanup backlog. Pennsylvania and other mining states want the federal government to release more money from the fund on an annual basis and hope to gain an extension of the fee collection authority.
The hearing was held at 1pm on January 24 at the University of Scranton s Redington Hall in Scranton, PA. House Resources contacts are Bill Condit, majority, 202-225-9297 and Deborah Lanzone, minority, 202-226-2311.
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PARKS AND PUBLC LANDS
Senate Energy Committee to Discuss Alaska Lands Bills:
As early as Wednesday, the Senate Energy Committee could take up several controversial Alaska lands bills. One of the bills, a highly controversial proposal to grant an easement and other concessions to the Chugach Alaska Corporation, a regional Native corporation. The Clinton Administration and environmental organizations have strongly objected to the bill (S. 1686), introduced by Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK).
The bill would grant the CAC an easement across part of the nation s second largest national forest to reach an 8,000-acre tract of land owned by the corporation. Opponents to the bill claim it is unnecessary, and the Forest Service is close to issuing an easement to the corporation. They also fear that other concessions included in the bill could reduce protections to federal lands in Alaska. Representative Don Young introduced a companion bill in the House (H.R. 2547), which has been approved by the House Resources Committee over the objections of most Democrats and a veto threat by the Clinton Administration.
The Committee could also take up Senator Murkowski s S. 1702 to amend the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which created 13 regional corporations and numerous village corporations to represent the interest of most Alaska Natives. S. 1702 is virtually identical to Representative Young s H.R. 3013. The Senate Energy Committee is expected to follow the House Resources Committee s lead and drop two of the most controversial provisions, rework a land grant to the Elim Native Corporation to conform to an agreement with the Clinton Administration, and retain two provisions making changes relating to the treatment of Native corporations stocks. The land grant to the Elim Corporation would give 50,000 acres near Norton Bay to the corporation.
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Other bills that may come up in the Senate Energy Committee markup include:
S. 503 to set aside 18,000 acres in the San Isabel National Forest in Colorado as the Spanish Peaks Wilderness; H.R. 150, the Education Land Grant Act; S. 1629 to authorize a complicated land trade involving 104,000 acres of intermingled public and private land in Oregon; S. 1167 to expand the scope of the Independent Scientific Review Panel to include all federal fish and wildlife projects through the Columbia River Basin; and S. 1723 to direct the Bureau of Reclamation to develop and implement projects for fish screens, fish passage devices, and other similar measures.
The markup has not been formally scheduled, but will likely occur at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, January 26 in 366 Dirksen Senate Office Building. Senate Energy Contacts are Andrew Lundquist, majority, 202-224-4971 and Bob Simon, minority, 202-224-4103.
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House Resources Panel Holds Field Hearing on Forest Plans:
On Saturday, January 29, members of the House Resources Subcommittee on Forests will hold a field hearing on a soon-to-be-published proposal to improve the management of a dozen national forests and management units in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Representative Helen Chenoweth-Hage (R-ID) will chair the field hearing, which will include testimony from federal, state, and local officials; interest groups; and individuals. They will discuss the status and possible impacts of the Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment Environmental Impact Statement. The plan was originally scheduled to be released last summer, but likely will not be ready for review until early spring 2000.
The Sierra Nevada Forest Plan was originally developed to stem the declining population of California s spotted owl and provide a better management plan for Forest Service holdings in the region. The efforts to amend the plan focus on five problem areas: old forest ecosystems; riparian, aquatic, and meadow ecosystems; fire and fuels; noxious weeds; and lower Westside hardwood forests.
The hearing will be held at noon on January 29 at the Mariposa County Government Center on Bullion Street in Mariposa, CA. House Resources contacts are Anne Heissenbuttel, majority, 202-225-0691 and Erica Rosenberg, minority, 202-225-6065.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Feb-March: 10:00 a.m. in B-308 Rayburn House Office Building. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies FY 01 hearings.
See above.
Feb.2, 9:00 a.m.: Senate Agriculture Committee oversight hearing on water quality regulations proposed by the EPA on August 23 that would affect agriculture and forest. Location: 328A Russell.
Feb. 2, 11:00 a.m.: House Resources Committee hearing on endangered species legislation (H.R. 3160). Location: 1324 Longworth.
Feb. 8, 11:00 a.m.: House Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Oceans hearing on bills to conserve Atlantic highly migratory fish species (H.R. 3331 and H.R. 3390) and to prohibit longline fishing in certain areas of the Atlantic Ocean. Location: 1324 Longworth.
Feb. 9, 11:00 a.m.: House Resources Committee hearing on a land conveyance bill for Craig, Alaska (H.R. 3182). The Committee will also discuss access across conservation system lands and other public lands in Alaska under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. Location: 1324 Longworth.
Feb. 17, 10:00 a.m.: House Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Oceans markup of pending legislation and an oversight hearing on FY 01 budget requests from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. Location: 1334 Longworth.
Feb. 23, 10:00 a.m.: House Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Oceans field hearing on bills to conserve Atlantic highly migratory fish species. Location: Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
Feb. 22, 1:30 p.m.: House Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources oversight hearing on FY 01 budget requests from the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement; Minerals Management Service; BLM energy and minerals program, and USGS. Location: 1334 Longworth.
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Legislative information taken from many sources including Thomas, Congressional Greensheets, Greenwire, and Roll Call.
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