[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 96 (Thursday, July 1, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8070-S8071]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              SILVERY MINNOW--CRITICAL HABITAT DESIGNATION

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss recent 
developments regarding the Rio Grande River in New Mexico, an 
endangered species called the silvery minnow, and praiseworthy action 
by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee earlier this week.
  As I have previously outlined before to my colleagues, a complicated 
and potentially chaotic situation involving literally hundreds of 
thousands of water users along the Rio Grande in my state could emerge 
this year. Yesterday, the Fish and Wildlife Service designated almost 
170 miles of the Rio Grande channel as critical habitat for the silvery 
minnow. This designation, as Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt 
testified earlier this year, is prematurely driven by a court order 
before the needs of the minnow and economic impacts are known. Indeed, 
this is a ``cart before the horse'' situation that would be comical if 
its consequences weren't potentially so tragic.
  In light of this situation, the action by the Senate Environment and 
Public Works Committee Tuesday is heartening in two respects. First, I 
want to profoundly thank Senator Chafee, chairman of the committee; 
Senator Baucus, ranking member; and Senator Crapo, chairman of the 
relevant subcommittee, and their staffs, for their help on S. ll00, a 
precisely crafted bill that would bring a logical and commonsense 
reform to the present Endangered Species Act. Second, I also thank the 
various environmental organizations and their staffs that helped us in 
this effort. This was a unique, bi-partisan undertaking. I think the 
committee's work shows that intelligent reform can occur in this highly 
charged

[[Page S8071]]

arena. I will do all I can to assist in ``clean'' passage of this 
legislation, without the burden of multiple amendments that will 
fracture the consensus that has developed.
  S. ll00 simply requires that the designation of critical habitat for 
an endangered species occur, in the future, after the scientific work 
necessary to develop a comprehensive recovery plan for that species is 
completed. That sounds logical to my colleagues, I suspect, but the 
present Endangered Species Act provides for just the opposite: that is, 
it requires a designation of habitat before science has told us what a 
species needs to survive.
  I have been asked what relationship exists between S. 1100 and the 
Rio Grande/silvery minnow situation. The answer will clearly depend on 
how the courts resolve this particular case. However, S. 1100 provides 
that designation of critical habitat should occur concurrently with the 
development of a recovery plan. That is a significant step forward, but 
only a first step. It will prevent the situation now found on the Rio 
Grande in the future.
  A court has forced the Fish and Wildlife Service to prematurely 
designate critical habitat, a premature designation that everyone 
agrees could be counter-productive. Mr. President, you know that a full 
Environmental Impact Statement is required by law in the case of a 
``major federal action.'' If any case cries out for a full EIS, it is 
the case of the silvery minnow. The potential impact of this federal 
action by the Fish and Wildlife Service, compelled by the court, could 
have consequences well beyond the normal definition of the word 
``major.'' At stake is the water, literally the water used every second 
of every day by all users of the Rio Grande system. Unfortunately, even 
with legal precedent on the need for an EIS in habitat designations, 
the Fish and Wildlife Service chose not to do one.
  Some try to portray this particular case as one dividing farmers and 
ranchers from the more extreme environmentalists in our state, a 
situation described quite accurately and colorfully by Secretary 
Babbitt earlier this year as ``intransigence.'' Yet, this issue is much 
broader than that kind of confrontation: hundreds of thousands of 
users, people who depend upon the Rio Grande for their water in their 
taps at home, residents of Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and the 
communities in between, could find their water endangered.
  In light of this potential, I believe that a full-scale Environmental 
Impact Statement must be done on the silvery minnow issue. It is only 
after we know the impact that critical habitat designation may have on 
all users, and its relationship to saving the species, that we can 
intelligently move forward.

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