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American Rivers Policy Update For the week of February 22, 1999

FEEDLOTS
FORESTS
HYDROPOWER AND DAMS
MINING
PARKS AND PUBLIC LANDS
WATER POLLUTION
WILD AND SCENIC RIVERS
SOME PENDING WATER-RELATED BILLS

FEEDLOTS

Webpage for Comments on National Feedlot Strategy:

The Environmental Protection Agency has developed a webpage to post comments on the Draft Unified National Strategy for Animal Feeding Operations. The web address is http://www.epa.gov/OWM/afos/LETTERS.htm. The site will display all correspondence submitted to US Department of Agriculture and EPA during the comment period for the Draft Unified National Strategy for Animal Feeding Operations. The site is under construction, so not all comments are posted at this time. Check back over time if you want to find specific comments.

FORESTS

Hearing on US Forest Service's FY'00 Budget Proposal:

Both the House and the Senate will examine the US Forest Service's FY'00 budget proposal this week. The Forests and Forest Health Subcommittee of the House Resources Committee and the full Senate Energy Committee have scheduled hearings on the agencies request for $2.82 billion in discretionary appropriations for FY'00, an increase of $175 million. Part of the increase -- $100 million - would go to a program aimed at protecting habitat threatened by development, providing grants to local and state governments for open space and forest preservation, and establishing a revolving loan program to promote open space, limit sprawl, and improve water and air quality. Other increases include: $100 million for easements to protect sensitive habitat from development; $50 million for grants to state and local governments for urban and community forests and loans for "smart growth" land acquisition and management; $40 million for watershed protection and restoration; $270 million for forestland management programs; and $124 for wildlife and fisheries habitat protection.

The House Resources subcommittee hearing will be held at 1:00 p.m. in 1334 Longworth House Office Building on Tuesday, February 23. House Resources contacts are: Doug Crandall, majority, 202-225-0691; Jeff Petrich, minority, 202-225-6065. The Senate Energy hearing is at 2:00 p.m. in 366 Dirksen Senate Office Building on Thursday, February 25. Senate Energy contacts are:

Mark Rey, majority, 202-224-4971; Kira Finkler, minority, 202-224-4103.

HYDROPOWER AND DAMS

House to Discuss Dam Maintenance in California Wilderness:

On Tuesday, the House Resources Subcommittee on Forests will hear testimony from the US Forest Service, Backcountry Horsemen of California, Central Sierra Wilderness Watch, and California Trout about legislation to allow ongoing maintenance of eighteen concrete dams and weirs in the Emigrant Wilderness, located in California's Stanislaus National Forest. If passed, the bill would direct the US Forest Service to delegate maintenance of the dams to local private groups. The legislation passed to create the wilderness area included a provision allowing pre-existing dams to remain, but did not provide for improvements to those structures. Most of the dams, constructed of local rock, are less than two feet high and impound lakes that provide water for wildlife, fish, and recreation. Because of budget cuts, the California Department of Fish and Game will no longer be able to maintain the structures. In response to public opposition to removing the dams, the US Forest Service has proposed allowing eleven of the dams to deteriorate naturally while continuing maintenance at the other seven. Much of the concern over removing the dams focused on fears that draining too many of the small lakes would concentrate recreation on the few remaining lakes, negatively impacting those resources.

The hearing will be held immediately following the 1:00 p.m. oversight hearing on the US Forest Service's FY'00 budget request on Tuesday, February 23 in 1334 Longworth House Office Building. House Resources contacts are:

Anne Heissenbuttel, majority, 202-225-0691; Jeff Petrich, minority, 202-225-6065.

MINING

Hearing on Funding for Mining Agencies:

On Thursday, the House Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Minerals Resources will hear from four Department of the Interior agencies on FY'00 budget requests.

The Bureau of Land Management requested $72 million for its energy and minerals programs, a small increase over last year's proposed budget. BLM representatives will face questions about completing its proposed regulations for gold, silver, and hardrock minerals surface mining on federal lands. The FY'99 DOI funding bill instructed the BLM to delay the regulations until October 31 so that the agency could take into consideration the results of a study by the National Academy of Sciences on the adequacy of existing regulations at the federal and state level.

Representative Barbara Cubin (R-WY), chair of the subcommittee, may also question the BLM officials on how it plans to deal with state applications for coalbed methane drilling permits in Wyoming's Powder River Basin and the potential conflicts between federal coal lessees and methane miners.

The Clinton Administration has requested $838 million for the US Geological Survey, the research arm of DOI. The USGS hopes to expand the Integrated Natural Resource Sciences program, aimed at better integrating geological, hydrological, biological, and mapping analyses of important regions. USGS would like to expand work done in the Florida Everglades, the Chesapeake Bay region, and California's Bay-Delta ecosystem to the Great Lakes, the Platte River, the greater Yellowstone area, and the Mojave Desert.

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement seeks an increase of nine percent to $305.8 million, including an additional $25.7 million for its program to clean up abandoned mines. States and tribes would receive $22.3 million of that increase in grants for watershed and water quality restoration initiatives. The agency would also increase by thirty percent money devoted to its Appalachian Clean Streams Initiative aimed at restoring waterways damaged by surface mining.

The Minerals Management Service has requested an additional $16.2 million in FY'00 for its offshore program. The MMS, which brings in more than $4 billion annually in mineral royalties to the federal treasury, manages the energy and mineral resources of the nation's outer continental shelf.

The hearing is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. in 1334 Longworth House Office Building on Thursday, February 25. House Resources contacts are: Bill Condit, majority, 202-225-9297; Deborah Lanzone, minority, 202-226-2311.

PARKS AND PUBLIC LANDS

Senate to Examine Park Service Budget:

On Wednesday, Senator Craig Thomas' (R-WY) Senate Energy Subcommittee on National Parks, Historic Preservation, and Recreation will look into the National Park Service's FY'00 budget request. The NPS has requested $2.06 billion, a seventeen percent increase, in appropriated funds. $376.5 million of the increase would be devoted to President Clinton's new Lands Legacy program, $8 million to natural resource science and stewardship and acceleration of a system-wide inventory of natural resources, and $267 to recovering degraded lands and rare species.

NPS Director Robert Santon is scheduled to testify at the hearing, to be held at 2:00 p.m. in 366 Dirksen Senate Office Building on Wednesday, February 24. Senate Energy contacts are: Jim O'Toole, majority, 202-224-4971; David Brooks, minority, 202-224-4103.

WATER POLLUTION

Governors to Speak on Clean Water Initiatives:

The House Transportation Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment will hold a hearing to hear the views of several state governors on efforts to clean up the nation's waterways. The governors are expected to highlight issues related to non-point source pollution and Clean Water Act implementation and reauthorization. The hearing comes one year after President Clinton unveiled his Clean Water Action Plan, which offered a plan for dealing with polluted runoff from urban streets and farmlands.

Governors from western states may offer testimony about their desire for increasing the flexibility of the Clean Water Act's standards for arid regions and ephemeral or intermittent streams and a "good Samaritan provision" to promote clean-up of abandoned mines and protect them from liability fears that hamper restoration efforts.

The governors scheduled to appear before the subcommittee are George Pataki (R-NY), Jim Geringer (R-WY), and Parris Glendening (D-MD). The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in 2167 Rayburn House Office Building on Tuesday, February 23. House Transportation contacts are: Ben Grumbles, majority, 202-225-4360; Ken Kopocis, minority, 202-225-0060.

Bill Introduced to Amend Federal Water Pollution Control Act:

Representative Hefley (R-CO) has introduced a bill (H.R. 155) to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to provide for the use of biological monitoring and whole effluent toxicity tests in connection with publicly owned treatment works, municipal separate storm sewer systems, and municipal combined sewer overflows. The bill was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The legislation would set criteria for biological monitoring based on representative aquatic species that indicate the toxicity of the effluent in the specific receiving waters. The criteria must take into consideration the natural biological variability of the species and ensure that the accompanying test method accurately represents actual in-stream conditions, including conditions associated with dry and wet weather.

EPA Budget Hearing Rescheduled:

The hearing on EPA's budget proposal for FY'00, originally set for February 11, will be held Wednesday. EPA Administrator Carol Browner will face questions on the agencies $7.2 billion budget request, which includes a $300 million increase to combat air pollution and global warming and a $600 million cut to the clean water state revolving loan fund.

The hearing will be held at 9:00 a.m. in 406 Dirksen Senate Office Building on Wednesday, February 24. Senate Environment contacts are: Jimmie Powell, majority, 202-224-6176; Tom Sliter, minority, 202-224-8832.

WILD AND SCENIC RIVERS

Northern Rockies Bill Would Designate 1,800 Miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers:

Introduced by Representatives Christopher Shays (R-CT) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) on February 2, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act of 1999 would add some 1,800 miles of rivers to the Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

In addition to designating wild and scenic rivers, H.R. 488 would designate more than twenty million acres of federal public lands in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming as wilderness, national park and preserve study areas, wild land recovery areas, and biological connecting corridors.

The Northern Rockies is home to populations of grizzly bear, wolf, woodland caribou, bull trout, cutthroat, and numerous other threatened and endangered species. The bill, which has twenty-one co-sponsors, was referred to the House Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health and Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands.

SOME PENDING WATER-RELATED BILLS

S. 109: Senator Paul Coverdell's (R-GA) bill to improve protection and management of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in Georgia.

The goal of S. 109 is to increase protection of open spaces within the national recreation area; ensure that the area is managed to standardize acquisition, planning, design, construction, and operation of linear corridors; and to authorize the appropriation of federal funds to cover a portion of the costs of the federal, state, local, and private cooperative effort to add lands to the area with the goal of establishing a series of linear corridors along the Chattahoochee River. The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

S. 356: Introduced by Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Senator John McCain (R-AZ), the Wellton-Mohawk Transfer Act would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain works, facilities, and titles of the Gila Project, as well as designated lands adjacent to or within the Gila Project, to the Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District. The bill calls for the Secretaries of the Interior and Energy to provide for and deliver Colorado River water and Parker-Davis Project Priority Use Power to the District in accordance with the terms of existing contracts with the District.

S. 421: Senator Jon Kyl's (R-AZ) legislation aims to authorize an Indian water rights settlement agreement entered into in May, 1998 by the Gila River Indian Community of Arizona, the US government, and the Phelps Dodge Corporation. The settlement in the bill is part of a larger, more comprehensive settlement process developed to settle all claims of the Gila River Indian Community. The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Senator Kyl hopes all the different parts of the larger settlement will move together so that the parties arrive at a comprehensive settlement to fully address all aspects of the Gila River Indian Community's claim.

S. 422: Senator Frank Murkowski's (R-AK) bill would provide for Alaska state jurisdiction over small hydroelectric projects by amending the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 792).

H.R. 344: Representative Bill Barrett's (R-NE) bill would modify the Wood River, Grand Island flood control project in Nebraska. The project is authorized by the Water Resources Development Act of 1996. H.R. 344 would modify the project to authorize the Secretary of the Army to carry out the project at an estimated cost of $17.353 million. The federal government would cover $9.969 million of the total cost.

H.R. 410: The Mineral Exploration and Development Act of 1999, introduced by Representative Nick Rahall II (D-WV), would modify the requirements applicable to locatable minerals on public domain lands, consistent with the principles of self-initiation of mining claims. The bill finds, among other things, that the Mining Law of 1897 no longer fosters an efficient and diligent development of those mineral resources under its scope, continues to transfer lands valuable for mineral resources from the public domain to private ownership for less than the fair market value of such lands and mineral resources, and fosters activities that burden and adversely affect the public welfare by disturbing surface areas and water resources. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Resources.

H.R. 757: Representative Don Young's (R-AK) bill would prohibit the construction of new facilities or structures within the boundaries of the George Washington Memorial Parkway along the Potomac River in Virginia between the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge, an area the bill states is currently pristine and undeveloped and in need of protection. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Resources.

American Rivers, 1025 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 720 Washington, DC 20005, (202) 347-7550

CHECK OUT OUR HOMEPAGE!! http://www.amrivers.org QUESTIONS? Contact Suzy McDowell, Conservation Outreach Coordinator, at smcdowell@amrivers.org or 202-347-7550x3040.

Legislative information taken from many sources including: Congressional Green Sheets, Environment and Energy Weekly, Greenwire, and Roll Call.

Suzy McDowell
Conservation Outreach Coordinator
American Rivers
1025 Vermont Ave., NW, #720
Washington, DC 20005
202-347-7550 x3040

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