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American Rivers Policy Update For the week of November 8, 1999

American Rivers Policy Update 11/8/99

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• APPROPRIATIONS
• COMMITTEE APPOIONTMENT
• DAMS
• PARKS AND PUBLIC LANDS
  • Clinton Announces Expansion of Wildlife Refuge on Columbia River:
  • Landmark Conservation & Recreation Legislation Scheduled For Markup:
• WATER RESOURCES
  • North Dakota Project Comes to Floor:
  • Bills Passed by the House:
• WILD AND SCENIC
  • Movement on Taunton River Designation:
  • Delaware River Slated for Better Protection:
  • House Resources to Move on Wilson Creek Bill:
• ON THE FLOOR
• HEARINGS
• LINKS TO PAST UPDATES:

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APPROPRIATIONS

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Funding Debate Continues:

Legislators hope to wrap up negotiations on the FY 00 appropriations bills this week, but some sticky issues remain unresolved after the weekend.

Congress and the Clinton Administration continue to grapple with disagreements over two bills vetoed by President Clinton Commerce, Justice, and State bill as well as Labor, Health, Human Services, and Education. Legislators and the Administration also must resolve some areas of contention in the funding measure for the Department of Interior and Related Agencies, which has not yet been sent to the White House.

After much difficult bargaining, the House passed the $15.3 billion FY 00 Foreign Operations bill (H.R. 3196) on Friday afternoon after adding $1.8 billion requested by the Administration for support of the Wye River Middle East peace agreement. President Clinton vetoed the original $12.7 billion bill on October 18.

The Foreign Operations bill was sent to the Senate, where approval has been held up by a rider attached by Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), senior Democrat on the committee. The rider would overturn a federal court decision applying Clean Water Act standards to mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia.

The bill could be cleared as early as Monday evening. More than 80 environmental groups, including American Rivers, signed onto a letter to President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore urging them to oppose the rider. Nearly twenty House Republicans made a similar appeal to the Administration.

According to House Appropriations Committee Chair C.W. Bill Young (R-FL), there had been some give and take over riders attached to the Department of Interior funding bill and the two sides were close to an agreement. The bill supposedly now includes $226 million of the $550 requested by the Administration for land acquisition under President Clinton s Lands Legacy initiative. A deal may have been struck regarding a 180-day delay in regulations to determine royalties to be paid by companies for oil produced from federal lands and a two-year exemption from waste disposal limitations for wording and planned hardrock mines.

Representative Harold Rogers (R-KY), Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and State, reported that negotiations continue on funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and for Pacific salmon recovery programs.

Congress passed the fourth stop-gap spending measure on Thursday to keep the government running with negotiations continue on the remaining appropriations bills. H.J.Res. 75 extends funding through November 10.

For more information on the funding measures, see updates from November 1 (http://www.amrivers.org/policy11-1.html), October 25 (http://www.amrivers.org/policy10-25.html), and October 18 (http://www.amrivers.org/policy10-18.html).

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COMMITTEE APPOIONTMENT

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Smith to Take Chafee s Seat:

Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) was elected as Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, replacing late Senator John Chafee (R-RI). Senator Smith will bring a more conservative view of environmental issues to the committee compared to the more moderate Chafee who was seen as a champion of environmental causes.

On Thursday, the Senate passed legislation designating the new John H.

Chafee Barrier Resources System. Chafee, who died on October 24, was the author of legislation that created the system in 1982. The bill was introduced by Senators Bob Smith (R-NH) and Max Baucus (D-MT).

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DAMS

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California Wilderness Dams:

This week, the House hopes to hold floor debate on a bill aimed at clarifying the intent of Congress in Public Law 93-632 to require the Secretary of Agriculture to continue to provide for the maintenance and operation of 18 concrete dams and weirs located in the Emigrant Wilderness in California s Stanislaus National Forest. H.R. 359, introduced by Representative John Doolittle (R-CA), would allow the US Forest Service to delegate the work and cost of maintaining the dams to local private groups.

The California Department of Fish and Game has been responsible for maintaining some of the dams, but can no longer afford to do so.

The House may consider an amended version of the bill that includes recommendations from the state Department of Fish and Game to reduce the list of dams to 12 and provide the Forest Service will authority to decide, with public input, how to prioritize and order the activities through the agency s environmental review and management planning process. Trout Unlimited, CalTrout, and Representative George Miller (D-CA) have indicated their support for the compromise version.

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PARKS AND PUBLIC LANDS

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Clinton Announces Expansion of Wildlife Refuge on Columbia River:

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On November 5, President Clinton announced a major expansion of the Saddle Mountain National Wildlife Refuge to include critical lands surrounding the Columbia River's Hanford Reach, the last free flowing stretch of the Columbia River in the United States. The 51-mile stretch of river runs through the Department of Energy's Hanford Nuclear Reservation and provides a migration corridor and critical spawning habitat for fall chinook salmon.

The announcement transfers management of 57,000 acres of the Wahluke Slope to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Protection of the fragile lands of the Wahluke Slope is essential to safeguarding the spawning grounds in the Hanford Reach for chinook salmon. The Wahluke Slope provides habitat for numerous native plants and animals, including almost 200 species of birds.

More than 150 Native American archaeological sites have been discovered along the shoreline.

The DOE has owned and administered the Hanford Nuclear Reservation since 1943. Ironically, the use of the Wahluke Slope and other lands as buffers has protected their natural function and the health of the Hanford Reach, which provides habitat to the only harvestable runs of chinook salmon left in the region.

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Landmark Conservation & Recreation Legislation Scheduled For Markup:

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The House Resources Committee plans to mark up landmark legislation to increase funding for national conservation and recreation programs and resolve several inequities regarding the disposition of funds generated from Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) activities. Representative Don Young (R-AK), Chair of the House Resources Committee, said the markup will be on compromise legislation drafted by the sponsors of the Conservation and Reinvestment Act of 1999 (H.R. 701) and the Permanent Protection for America's Resources 2000 (H.R. 798).

The markup is scheduled Wednesday, November 10th, depending on the House schedule. As drafted, the new legislation would provide annual dedicated funding for the following:

• Impact Assistance & Coastal Conservation, $1 billion
• Land & Water Conservation Fund Revitalization, $900 million
• Wildlife Conservation & Restoration Fund, $350 million
• Urban Park & Recreation Recovery, $125 million
• Historic Preservation Fund, $100 million
• Federal & Indian Lands Restoration, $200 million
• Conservation Easements & Species Recovery, $150 million
• Payment In-Lieu of Taxes & Refuge Revenue Sharing, $200 million.

The House Resources Committee has established an email address for those wishing to express comments on the legislation. People who would like to submit comments or recommendations can send them to: CARA@mail.house.gov.

For more information, please check the House Committee on Resources Home Page at

The markup is scheduled for November 10 at 1 p.m. in 1324 Longworth House Office Building.

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WATER RESOURCES

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North Dakota Project Comes to Floor:

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This week, the Senate will likely bring to the floor a bill aimed at expanding the controversial Garrison Diversion project in North Dakota with a $630 million drinking water system. As approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on September 22, S. 623 encompasses an agreement with the Clinton Administration reducing the price tag of the project from $770 million as well as language making the state responsible for all operations and maintenance costs resulting from new construction. In hopes of reversing Canada s opposition to the bill and project, the committee removed language linking authorization of a natural resources trust fund to construction of unrelated features of the project. Canada is concerned about the proposal because it involves diverting water from the Missouri and Mississippi River Basins into the Hudson Bay Basin by way of the Sheyenne and Red Rivers.

S. 623 would provide $200 million for statewide municipal, rural, and industrial programs (MR&I), a $100 million reduction from earlier legislation. If an MR&I revolving loan fund is created, the funds will have to be treated as federal funds, requiring compliance with federal laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act. The bill drops, and House companion legislation H.R. 2918, drop a $40 million bridge project.

The Garrison project has been the source of controversy among farmers and other residents of North Dakota for decades. It was first introduced as part of massive Bureau of Reclamation Pick-Sloan project, built in the 1940s to control flooding in the lower portion of the Missouri River basin. Under that plan, North Dakota citizens ceded 550,000 acres of land for the construction of the Garrison dam, in return for which they were promised a huge water supply and irrigation project authorized in 1965 as the Garrison Diversion Project. The project was strongly opposed from the start by affected landowners, environmental and taxpayer groups, and the Canadian government.

For more information about the history of the Garrison Diversion project, see
(Select the following to go to:) http://www.amrivers.org/policy9-27.html

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Bills Passed by the House:

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Last week, the House passed seven measures pertaining water resources and the environment:

H.R. 2889 to provide for the acquisition of water and water rights for Central Utah Project purposes, completion of project facilities, and implementation of water conservation measures.

H.R. 862 to transfer a water distribution system to the Clear Creek Community Services District in Shasta County, CA.

H.R. 1235 to allow the city of Vallejo, CA, to wheel some of its drinking water through part of the canal system serving the state s Solano Project, a water project built by the Bureau of Reclamation in the 1950s.

H.R. 2632 to designate the 9,200-acre Dugger Mountain Wilderness in the Talladega National Forest in central Alabama.

H.R. 2737 to authorize the Secretary of Interior to convey to Illinois certain federal land associated with the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail to be used as a historic and interpretive site along the trail.

H.R. 992 to turn over the Sly Park Dam and reservoir in California to the El Dorado Irrigation District.

The House Resources Committee approved a rewritten version of the Senate-approved bill to allow the Kake Tribal Corp. to trade tracts containing the watershed that provides water for its village for land that could be logged, mined, or otherwise developed. S. 430 would direct the US Forest Service to trade other land in the Tongass National Forest for the 2,400-acre Gunnuk Creek watershed, giving the corporation lands that could be developed without harming the village s water supply. The village of Kake is located on an island near Juneau in southeast Alaska.

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WILD AND SCENIC

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Movement on Taunton River Designation:

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The Senate will likely bring to the floor this week a bill to designate segments of the Taunton River in Massachusetts for study for potential addition to the national Wild and Scenic Rivers System. S. 1569, was introduced by Senators John Kerrey (D-MA) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA), calls for the study to encompass about 40 miles along the Taunton and part of its major tributary, the Nemasket River, at their confluence. The National Park Service would have three years to complete the study, and then report to Congress on their conclusions.

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Delaware River Slated for Better Protection:

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This week, the Senate will also likely bring to the floor a bill to designate portions of the lower Delaware River and associated tributaries as a component of the national Wild and Scenic Rivers System. S. 1296 would protect 65.6 miles along the river between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The river corridor includes 29 national historic designations and 8 national historic landmarks. Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) and Rick Santorum (R-PA) introduced the bill in June.

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House Resources to Move on Wilson Creek Bill:

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On Wednesday, following discussion of legislation to redistribute outer continental shelf receipts for land acquisition and impact aid, the House Resources Committee hopes to markup a number of bills, including a bill to protect part of Wilson Creek in North Carolina under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. H.R. 1749, introduced in May by Representative Cass Ballenger (R-NC), would designate as wild and scenic a 23.3-mile segment of the river from its headwaters on Grandfather Mountain.

To view the bills, visit

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ON THE FLOOR

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The following bills could come to the House floor at any time:

S. 416 to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to convey land to the city of Sisters, Oregon, for a sewage treatment facility and for the disposal of treated effluent.

H.R. 1444 to authorize the Secretary of Army to develop and implement projects for fish screens, fish passage devices, and other similar measures to mitigate the adverse impacts associated with irrigation system water diversions by local governments in Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Idaho.

H.R. 1725 to convey 28.5 acres of public land to Douglas County, Oregon, to be added to the county s Miwelata Park.

H.R. 2389 to stabilize the level of revenue-sharing payments from natural resource development receipts to rural counties (County Schools Funding Revitalization Act).

H.R. 2541 to adjust the boundaries of the Gulf Islands National Seashore to include Cat Island, Mississippi.

H.R. 3077 to amend the act that authorized construction of the San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project in California to facilitate water transfers in the project.

H.R. 3090 to amend the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to restore certain lands to the Elim Native Corporation. The bill would allow the corporation to select up to 50,000 acres near Norton Bay, Alaska.

For a list of bills could come to the Senate floor at any time, see
(Select the following to go to:) http://www.amrivers.org/policy10-25.html

To view the bills, visit

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HEARINGS

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Nov. 10, 1 p.m.: House Resources Committee markup of legislation to increase funding for impact aid to coastal states and national conservation and recreation programs. The committee may also mark up a bill (H.R. 1749) to protect Wilson Creek in North Carolina as wild and scenic and a bill (H.R.

3051) to authorize $250,000 for a study of the most feasible way to develop an adequate municipal, rural, and industrial water supply for the residents of Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation in New Mexico. Location: 1324 Longworth House Office Building.

Nov. 13, 1 p.m.: House Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health field hearing on whether to repair a washed-out dirt road in Nevada.

Location: Convention Center, Elko, Nevada. House Resources contacts are Doug Crandall, majority, 202-225-0691 and Erica Rosenberg, minority, 202-225-6065.

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