[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 155 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11967-S11968]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BOND:
  S. 1399. A bill to authorize the Secretary of the Army to carry out a 
project to protect and enhance fish and wildlife habitat of the 
Missouri River and the middle Mississippi River; to the Committee on 
Environment and Public Works.


               THE FISH AND WILDLIFE HABITAT ACT OF 1997

  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I am pleased to introduce legislation to 
enhance, preserve and protect habitat for fish and wildlife on the 
Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. This new 5-year $50 million 
authorization is a win-win approach that will implement and expand the 
use of new and innovative measures developed by the Corps of Engineers 
to improve habitat conservation without impacting adversely private 
property and other water-related needs of the rivers including 
navigation, flood control and water supply.
  As I have always maintained, fish and wildlife conservation and 
commercial activity are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, we cannot 
afford to abandon either river commerce or the species that live in and 
on the river. This new approach is a win for man, for nature and for 
the river.
  This legislation is supported by Missouri Farm Bureau, MARC2000, 
American Rivers, the Missouri Soybean Association, the Missouri 
Corngrowers Association, and Farmland Industries. While these groups 
have not always agreed on river policy, that should not preclude us 
from seeking common ground and working together to address the 
questions of resource management and I am delighted that we can all 
come together in support of this commonsense approach.
  Without specific authorization and only scarce dollars, the St. Louis 
Corps of Engineers has been developing and

[[Page S11968]]

testing ways in which navigation structures used to guide the river and 
maintain the channel may be modified to meet environmental as well as 
navigation goals. These innovations have proven successful earning wide 
acclaim including a Presidential Design Award and Federal Design 
Achievement Award.
  This legislation seeks to put these successful innovations to work on 
the Missouri River and expand their use on the middle Mississippi by 
providing a specific authorization and a dedicated and substantial 
source of funds. In other words, we are giving the corps the tools they 
need to put their ideas to work to improve the rivers to benefit fish 
and wildlife.
  The legislation authorizes $10 million per year to protect, create 
and enhance side channels, island habitat, sand bars, and other 
riverine habitat. For example, by notching rock dikes that run 
perpendicular to the shoreline, sandbars develop between the dikes 
which has been provided nesting habitat for the endangered least tern 
and valuable spawning ground for the endangered pallid sturgeon. The 
Missouri Department of Conservation has run tests validating an 
increase in diversity and numbers of microinvertebrates surrounding the 
notched dikes.
  Chevron dikes have been developed to improve river habitat and to 
create beneficial uses of dredge material. These structures are placed 
in the shallow side of the river channel pointing upstream which 
improves the river channel while serving as small islands. These 
islands encourage the development of all four primary river ecosystem 
habitats and additionally, various micro-organisms cling to the 
underwater rock structures, providing a food source for fish.
  Changing the gradation of rock revetments, used to stabilize eroding 
riverbanks, has proved to provide greater bank stability and precluded 
the need to remove bank vegetation so that, for the first time, trees 
and rock revetment could coexist providing greater habitat diversity.
  The draft legislation authorizes $10 million per year over 5 years to 
develop and implement a plan including the following activities: 
Modification and improvement of navigation training structures to 
protect and enhance fish and wildlife habitat; creation of side 
channels to protect and enhance fish and wildlife habitat; restoration 
and creation of island fish and wildlife habitat; creation of riverine 
fish and wildlife habitat; establishment of criteria to prioritize 
based on cost-effectiveness and likelihood of success; and physical and 
biological monitoring for evaluating the success of the project.
  The draft provides that the project be coordinated with other related 
Federal and State activities and that there be public participation in 
the development and implementation of the project. It requires a 25-
percent non-Federal cost share and limits the Federal cost of any 
single project to $5 million. Finally, the draft legislation confers no 
new regulatory authority and requires compliance with the National 
Environmental Policy Act.
  The legislation is designed to work between the banks of the river 
and forbids expressly any adverse impacts on private lands and water-
related activities including flood control, navigation, and water 
supply. Additionally, it is designed to compliment other existing 
programs such as the Missouri River Mitigation project and the 
Environmental Management Program on the Mississippi River.
  I intend to work with the administration and with other Senators and 
interested groups to build the broad support necessary to enact this 
legislation in an omnibus Water Resources Development Act the Senate is 
expected to consider in 1998.
  Mr. President, the problems experienced in the Midwest and elsewhere 
with railroad bottlenecks highlight the need for diverse transportation 
options. As the fall harvest proceeds, there are reports of grain being 
piled on the ground in neighboring Kansas and Nebraska. Notwithstanding 
that I must continue working on behalf of Missouri to preserve river 
navigation as a transportation option, our joint efforts to pursue this 
new legislation is a strong indicator that we may be experiencing an 
episode of domestic detente on river policy between groups that have 
pursued differing approaches in the past. This legislation offers a 
significant boost for our need to make the various river uses 
compatible and an important step toward unifying the river's 
stakeholders behind a realistic approach for the future.
  I thank and congratulate the various groups who have come together 
behind this legislation and look forward to enacting this consensus 
legislation.
                                 ______