[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 143 (Wednesday, October 22, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2050-E2051]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    ADDRESS TO GREEN CROSS ON WATER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 22, 1997

  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity last 
Friday to speak at the International Freshwater Symposium sponsored by 
Green Cross International and Global

[[Page E2051]]

Green USA in Los Angeles. The meeting, which was chaired by Green Cross 
President Mikhail Gorbachev, the former president of the Soviet Union, 
was attended by many of the leading water policy scholars, advocates, 
and administrators in California. I would like to share my remarks at 
the conference with my colleagues.
  In addition, I know that all Members of the House will want to join 
me in paying tribute to those who received awards from Global Green USA 
for their outstanding leadership in environmental advocacy. The 
Founder's Award was given to the president emeritus and founder of 
Global Green USA, Diane Meyer Simon. The Entertainment Industry 
Environmental Leadership Award was given to actor Pierce Brosnan for 
his work on dolphin protection and other issues. James Quinn, the 
president and CEO of Collins Pine Co., one of the leading U.S. 
companies practicing sustained yield forest management. The Individual 
Environmental Leadership Award went to David Brower, the legendary 
founder of Friends of the Earth and Earth Island Institute, a great 
leader in environmental causes in California and nationwide for 
decades. And the International Environmental Leadership Award was given 
to the National Geographic for its outstanding educational and 
scientific work:

                   International Freshwater Symposium

       President Gorbachev, fellow panelists, ladies and 
     gentlemen, I am very pleased to participate in this program 
     today.
       Much of the world has struck a Faustian bargain over the 
     past century; develop natural resources to promote economic 
     growth with little consideration for long term environmental 
     damage or remediation. Nowhere has this trade-off been more 
     dramatic, or more cataclysmic, than in the case of water 
     development in the American West.
       In California, as in the Aral Sea, or the forests of 
     Indonesia, or the polluted rivers of Eastern Europe, we are 
     paying a huge environmental price for short-term economic 
     growth. Correcting those past errors will not be cheap or 
     without political risk.
       Because of our rapid economic development, we in the United 
     States committed serious resource management blunders earlier 
     than many other nations. But we also have been among the 
     first to recognize the errors of the past and to develop, if 
     haltingly, innovative solutions.
       Western water policy provides a textbook example. The great 
     dams, reservoirs and waterways planned over the last century 
     were supposed to reconfigure Nature for 500 years. Now, in 
     the Pacific Northwest, in Utah, Arizona, North Dakota and 
     California, we are confronting the urgent need to redefine 
     the mission of these projects.
       The goal of the great water planners in arid California was 
     to make the deserts bloom and to permit cities to flourish. 
     The decisions to build the great dams and canals were made by 
     farsighted, powerful and wealthy interests who spent far more 
     time asking ``How'' than ``Should we?'' We built dams when 
     destruction of wetlands and fisheries was ignored; we became 
     addicted to subsidies in an era when long-term deficits and 
     inflation were not considered; we allowed irrigation of low-
     quality lands without adequate drainage; we allowed urban 
     growth that within a generation will push the population of 
     our water-short state to nearly that of France and Britain.
       We created, in short, a population, an economy and a 
     political system that thirsted for water, and that has 
     created a host of economic and environmental problems.
       On the cusp of the 21st Century, as we were compelled to 
     modernize a water policy conceived in the twilight of the 
     19th, many doubted that the political system could exercise 
     the bold leadership that is essential to alter destructive, 
     costly habits.
       And yet, five years ago, we did begin a unique experiment 
     to conform water policy to the environmental, political and 
     economic standards of our own time. Interestingly, these 
     changes were not initiated by local officials in California, 
     but rather were imposed by the national government which 
     recognized that reform was urgent.
       The Central Valley Project Improvement Act included, for 
     the first time, environmental restoration and fish and 
     wildlife mitigation as fundamental purposes of a major 
     federal water project. This law represents something rather 
     remarkable, even for those who are utterly disinterested in 
     water policy. The CVPIA is fundamentally a mandate to 
     reconfigure our most crucial resource in a way that preserves 
     the vitality of the economy, and then does more.
       Unlike earlier periods, we are not basing policy solely on 
     what engineering, money and political muscle can achieve. 
     Now, we must pay attention to what science and ethics tell us 
     is necessary to pass a healthy, diverse and prosperous 
     California on to future generations.
       Policy can no longer only benefit those who arrived first 
     and struck their best bargains. Today, fishermen and hunters, 
     Native Americans, fish and wildlife, the environment itself, 
     must be included. The CVPIA law established the right of all 
     of these parties to a seat at an expanded table and to 
     participate fully in making the fundamental decisions about 
     how we remedy the severe mistakes of the past and plan for 
     more equitable sharing of our resources in the future.
       Securing such change is difficult enough within a single, 
     heterogeneous state like California. Adding the overlay of 
     clashes between cultures, nations and religions, make 
     solutions seem impossible unless great tenacity is displayed 
     by political and other leaders.
       And yet, we in California have begun to make great 
     progress, in no small part because all parties have begun to 
     recognize the inevitability of change; to understand that it 
     is cheaper, better science and smarter business to help 
     create a new framework than to be the last defender of the 
     old order.
       I am encouraged that the progress we are making through the 
     CALFED process and CVPIA implementation, however halting and 
     difficult it is at times, represents the only course for 
     California. And it can serve as a successful model for those 
     in the Middle East, in South America, and elsewhere where 
     water politics threatens both political stability and 
     environmental quality.
       Lastly, Mr. President, may I say that it is an honor to 
     participate in this meeting with you. Your willingness to 
     venture great thoughts and take enormous risks--both 
     political and personal--stand as one of the great legacies of 
     our century, and I am tremendously gratified that you are 
     lending your distinguished efforts to resolving the problems 
     of the environment around this world.

     

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