[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 111 (Tuesday, September 19, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H7858-H7864]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             NIGHTSIDE CHAT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 1999, the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. McInnis) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, as my colleagues recall, last evening I had 
an opportunity to address my colleagues and to speak about a number of 
different subjects. I would like to kind of do a quick summary or at 
least some additions or amendments to my comments last night based on 
some of what I saw today.
  First of all, as many of my colleagues will recall last night I spoke 
about Pueblo, Colorado, and the home of heroes. This week is Patriots 
Week in Pueblo, Colorado, and there we are going to honor over 100 
recipients of the Medal of Honor.
  These are real heros, as I said last night, and I read the definition 
of heroes. And we do not have to explain to people what courage is and 
how courageous and brave these particular individuals were, we know 
that just because they are recipients of the Medal of Honor, they are 
amongst the most recognized, courageous and brave people in the history 
of this country.
  I say with some sadness today that we lost one of our heroes who 
passed away at age 74, and I thought I would just read a brief 
paragraph or two about this particular hero. Douglas T. Jacobson, 
Douglas T. Jacobson who received the Medal of Honor was a Marine 
private, private in the Marine Corps for single handedly storming enemy 
positions on Iwo Jima, an action that resulted in the deaths of 75 
Japanese soldiers, died in August. He had congestive heart failure.
  Iwo Jima is often remembered for the photograph of the five Marines 
and the Navy Combat Medic raising the American flag on February 23, 
1945, but the carnage of what occurred there was one, as described, as 
one of the most savage and most costly battles in the history of the 
Marine Corps.
  This was taken from the obituary out of the New York Times. 
Unfortunately, obviously, Mr. Jacobson will not be in Pueblo, Colorado, 
but to his family, we mourn his passing and want them to know in Pueblo 
this week we will think about him. We will think about the action that 
he took on behalf of this country.
  Moving on to another subject. I talked last night about the 
entertainment world, specifically I focused in on some of the video 
games that we can pick up or rent at the store or pick up or go down to 
the video arcade and play. I showed you a demonstration of some of 
them, including one which is called the Kingpin. And on the Kingpin, as 
I mentioned last night, you are actually able to put this video game on 
your video and focus in on the exit wounds of the person that you shot.
  The game itself encourages you to be like a tough gang person and 
wipe out your opponents. And it is a gross miscarriage of, in my 
opinion, of responsibility, community responsibility, by some 
individuals, not all individuals, but by some individuals in the 
entertainment industry.
  Mr. Speaker, I said yesterday in my comments that I felt that I 
probably represented 1 percent, maybe 2 percent, 3 percent of that 
entertainment industry that put that kind of trash out. Tonight while I 
was waiting for my opportunity to address my colleagues, I was back 
reading the New York Times.
  And I noticed a story and I would like to say or comment on a 
response that was given to our concern in the United States Congress, 
our concerns as parents, parents who have young children that many of 
our constituents do, we expressed the concern of a lot of people and a 
lot of communities across this country.
  Here is the response of one of the people of the entertainment 
industry, a guy named Larry Casinof, he is president of Threshold 
Entertainment, a company that makes, among other things, movies based 
on action oriented video games like Mortal Kombat and Duke Nukem.
  Here is his comment about what Congress says about these video games, 
about what parents and communities are saying about these video games. 
I think it is a bunch of weasels scrambling for votes; that is exactly 
what this fellow calls my colleagues up here who express concern about 
the entertainment industry that small portion of the entertainment 
industry which puts this kind of garbage out there to

[[Page H7859]]

be sold to our young people, with the intent of influencing our young 
people.
  Let me tell you it would be interesting to call Larry on the phone 
and I wish had his phone number because I would call him this evening. 
In fact, if I could, I would bring a phone on to the floor, it is not 
allowed, but I would bring it to the floor and let my colleagues hear 
in the microphone, and I would ask Larry the question, Larry, do you 
have any children? My guess is he probably does.
  Let us see. Larry, how young are they? And I would hope that his 
children are young. I would say Larry, do you buy these games? Do you 
buy Mortal Kombat, and do you buy Duke Nukem or do you buy Kingpin 
games for your own children? Do you allow your children to play the 
same kinds of games that you are profiting from by marketing to your 
neighbor's children, to your community's children, to your State's 
children, to the Nation's children.
  My guess if Larry who has got the big mouth and says you are nothing 
but weasels if you question my integrity on putting this kind of trash 
out, my bet is he does not allow his kids near this stuff.

                              {time}  2145

  I think this guy is a self-righteous guy, and I do not mind saying it 
on the House floor; and I sure wish he would take a second look at his 
community responsibilities.
  I sure wish he would take a look at some of the tragedies that we 
have suffered, some of the school shootings, Columbine High School, for 
example, in Colorado. I think he ought to take a look and say, gosh, 
are the people that are really worried about this, should we consider 
them vote-getting weasels or maybe, just maybe, it is somebody who is 
worried about the communities that they represent. I hope I get an 
opportunity some day to meet this fellow because I would like to ask 
him that question.


                         The Liberal Media Bias

  Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, let me move on from there and mention 
something else. Obviously, we are in the presidential election; and 
when you get into an election that is as intense as this election is, 
the question always comes up, does the media favor one candidate over 
the other. Now, of course, as many of you know, obviously, I am a 
Republican, and I am concerned. I think that there is a liberal bias to 
the media in this country, not all of the media, obviously. We have 
many papers, the Wall Street Journal editorials which I think are 
outstanding. We have the Washington Times, but on a whole I think most 
people would agree that the media has a very liberal bent to it; that 
the media favors Al Gore as the next President of the United States. I 
think it has been clearly demonstrated in the last few days.
  I guess a couple of weeks ago, an advertiser hired by George W. Bush 
put an ad out that had rats or something on the ad. You could not 
believe it. Many of you saw it. That became the headlines and the 
starting news story on the newscasts in the evening. They have played 
this story over and over and over and over. That word did not come out 
of George W. Bush's mouth, but they tagged him with it; and they have 
been tagging him day after day after day.
  Well, another big issue that has come up in this presidential 
election is prescription drugs; and as I said last night, look, do not 
buy into what the liberal Democrats, not all Democrats because moderate 
and conservative Democrats do not necessarily agree with the liberal 
Democrat philosophy, but do not buy into their philosophy that they 
have the magic answer and that you are going to get something for 
nothing.
  Prescription drugs are a huge problem in this country. Our medical 
delivery system is a huge problem in this country; but the quick and 
easy answer, especially for a politician, is to promise all of you that 
you can get something for nothing; that the government will take all 
the responsibility; you do not have to worry about individual 
responsibility anymore; we will do it for you and it will not cost you 
anything.
  Prescription drugs are a big issue, but they have to sell this. 
Hillary Clinton attempted this about 8 years ago. She attempted, and I 
will say the polls were way up here, it took a lot of guts to stand up 
against Hillary Clinton and the national health care plan that Gore and 
Clinton supported 8 years ago, but the American people did not buy into 
it. Once they had time to evaluate it, once they understood what the 
consequences of a national health care plan would be, once they 
understood how poorly the government managed its current health care 
delivery system, like veterans benefits, like Medicare, like Medicaid. 
Once they realized this, they did not buy into that.
  Initially, when the Hillary Clinton proposal came out to offer a 
nationwide socialized health care plan, the polls supported it, the 
majority of Americans said hey, we are tired of paying the kind of 
prices, we are tired of getting it stuck to us by insurance companies 
and frankly in a lot of cases they were. So they supported this plan 
until they began to look at the details. But during that period of 
time, until the American people had time to let the details settle out, 
until they had time to weigh what the consequences were of this 
nationalized socialized health care plan, there was a lot of propaganda 
put out there.
  Well, you know what? We are seeing the same kind of thing. You know 
what is happening? The media is giving Al Gore a free ride on it. Let 
me say exactly what I am talking about. Not all of the media, 
obviously, because this headline came out of the Washington Times. Al 
Gore, to try and push his numbers higher against George W. Bush, has 
gone out and we have seen this history with Al Gore in the past, Al 
Gore at one point said that the movie Love Story, which my generation 
remembers, that Love Story was written about him and his wife, Tipper. 
Al Gore went on later to say that he is the one who invented the 
Internet, and now in the last couple of days Al Gore has stood in front 
of senior citizens, and I will say one of the ways that the liberal 
Democrats are selling their plan and are attacking the conservative or 
moderate Republican/Democrat plan is by the doctrine of fear, so a 
couple of days ago Al Gore stood up in front of a group of senior 
citizens and he said to these senior citizens, he said my mother-in-
law, who lives with us, has arthritis and she has to pay, and I think 
the number was $138 a month for her prescription every month, and he 
says our dog has arthritis and the same drug that is administered to 
that dog, why that prescription costs, I think he said $37 a month.
  Well, you know what? Afterwards, some people began asking questions, 
well, what was the price of this drug and what was the price of that 
drug? And this is the result: Gore made it up. He made up the antidote 
about the cost of the drugs. His own staff admitted that Al Gore made 
it up.
  In all fairness, and talk about fairness here, do you think that the 
media has put this out? This came directly from Al Gore's mouth, by the 
way. Whereas this rats ad, or whatever it was, did not come from George 
W. Bush; it came from an advertisement authorized by his campaign or 
whatever. But do you think the media has done much about this?
  Frankly, Al Gore has had some problems with credibility with the 
administration that he is associated with, but he says now he is his 
own man; but yet he stands in front of the American public and he lied 
to us about this. He fabricated. That is the word they are using, not 
the word lie. He fabricated the facts because it sounded good.
  Of course, it is alarming that the average person would pay $138 or 
something a month for prescription drugs and the same drugs used on the 
dog would be $37 a month. That is unfair. On its face, its outrageous. 
Of course, we sympathize with the Vice President. Of course, we are 
drawn in by Al Gore's story. He told that story for a purpose, to get 
votes, to get your votes, Mr. Speaker. Yet now his staff admits well, 
he fabricated the story.
  At the beginning of my comment in regards to this issue, I said take 
a look at whether you are a liberal Democrat, whether you are a 
conservative serving up here, whether you are a moderate, take a look 
from a nonpartisan point of view and see if there is fair play going on 
out there with the media. Ask the media, hey, why is not this story 
being played up like these other stories? I can say if that was not 
Gore but Bush who made up the antidote about the

[[Page H7860]]

cost of drugs, it would be the lead story on every national broadcast 
in this Nation. It would be the lead story, bold headlines in a lot of 
newspapers across this country. They would unmercifully attack Bush for 
this kind of little example. But look what happened. It is a small 
story in a lot of these newspapers.
  My point tonight is to demonstrate to you, as we get in these 
presidential elections, we do not have a level playing field, in my 
opinion, with a lot of the media out there on this presidential race. I 
am saying, Mr. Speaker, most of our constituents, in my opinion, will 
eventually see through this, and I hope most of our constituents have 
an opportunity to stand back and make an educated decision on who they 
want to support for the White House.
  Well, let me move off of this subject.


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). Members are reminded that 
suggesting dishonesty of the Vice President or questioning his 
credibility are violations of the rules of the House.
  Mr. McINNIS. Inquiry of the Speaker. That is a headline on a 
newspaper. Is that what the Speaker is referring to, is an objection to 
the headline off the Washington Times that says that the Vice President 
misled?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Rules of the House, quotes from a 
newspaper read in debate are held to the same standard as if spoken in 
the Member's own words.


                         Fun Facts About Water

  Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I will move on to a new subject now and 
that is on water. I want to talk this evening about water. Water is a 
fun subject to talk about. Really, it is kind of boring. In Colorado, 
we are a State that has critical reliance on water, but I thought 
before we begin the discussion in earnest about the State of Colorado, 
I thought I would go through some fun facts that impact all of our 
colleagues out here, all of our constituents; some neat things, 
interesting things to learn about water.
  As I begin this, most people do not think much about water unless it 
does not come out of the taps, or they do not think much about the 
quality of water unless their water is dirty. There are some major 
issues that evolve around the natural resource of water. Water is the 
only resource we have that naturally renews itself. It does not expire 
upon its use.
  So I thought we would go over some interesting things that I have 
found about water. It would be kind of fun for us this evening to take 
a lighter moment and talk about some of these things.
  First of all, I have titled this little chart, which obviously you 
can tell I have slapped this thing together, but there are some 
interesting things. Who was the American explorer who compared the 
western plains to the sandy deserts of Africa? Zebulon Pike, Pikes Peak 
of Colorado. Another interesting fact, and this pertains mostly to 
Colorado, but the largest reservoir in the State of Colorado is the 
reservoir called the Blue Mesa Reservoir.
  Next, what percent of water treated by the public water systems is 
used for drinking and cooking? In other words, all of the water that is 
treated nationwide by your public treatment system, how much of that is 
used for drinking and cooking? Less than a percent. That is an 
interesting fact. I thought it was more than that.
  In fact, I thought most of the water that was processed by your 
treatment facility plant was used for drinking and cooking, but less 
than 1 percent of it actually is.
  What river in Colorado used to be called the Grande River? That is 
the Colorado River, and we are going to go in later on a little more 
depth about the Colorado River. It is called the Mother of All Rivers.
  Kentucky blue grass, an interesting point here, uses 18 gallons of 
water per square foot for each year. Tall fescue and wheat grasses use 
10 and 7 gallons of water per square foot each year, respectively.
  Riparian habitat makes up less than 3 percent of the land in Colorado 
but is used by over 90 percent of the wildlife in the State, which 
points out how important riparian habitat is; and our technological 
advances have shown us over the last 20 or 30 years why these riparian 
areas are so important for our wildlife.
  Eighty-seven percent of the water leaving Colorado flows out of the 
Colorado River Basin towards the Pacific Ocean. The remaining 13 
percent of water that leaves Colorado flows out of the Missouri, the 
Arkansas, and the Rio Grande River Basins towards the Atlantic Ocean. 
So 87 percent of water in the State of Colorado, and for a lot of you 
that are not from Colorado you will see why there are many references 
to Colorado, not just because I am from there but Colorado is really a 
critical State in the western States when we talk about the issue of 
water. As I just said, 87 percent of the water that goes into Colorado 
flows towards the Pacific Ocean and 13 percent of that water flows 
towards the Atlantic Ocean.
  I might also add that Colorado is the only State in the Union where 
all of the free-flowing water goes out of the State. There is no water 
in the Continental United States, in any State in the Continental 
United States, like Colorado, that flows into Colorado. Colorado does 
not have any. It is an exception of one.
  Producing a typical lunch hamburger, french fries and soft drink, 
this is hard to believe, uses 1,500 gallons of water; a typical drink, 
french fries and a hamburger. By the time you are able to grow the 
resources, produce the resources that are necessary to come up with 
your final product, you have gone through 1,500 gallons of water. It 
includes the water needed to raise the potatoes, the grain for the bun 
and the grain needed to feed the cattle and the production of the soda.
  Let me move over here. The natural rotation of the earth, now this is 
one of the most amazing water facts that I have seen and for 18 years I 
have studied water, the natural rotation of the earth has been altered 
slightly by the ten trillion, ten trillion tons of water stored in 
reservoirs over the last 40 years, according to NASA.
  So of the 10 trillion tons of water that is stored, it has actually 
altered slightly the rotation of the earth.
  The Platte River, whose name means flat, was named by French trappers 
and explorers. The Native Americans in the region called it the 
Nibraskier, a similar word for flat.

                              {time}  2200

  The hottest spring water in the State of Colorado, 82 degrees 
Celsius, 180 degrees Farenheit is found in Horse Tents Hot Springs in 
Chaffee County. The largest hot spring in Colorado is the big spring in 
Glenwood Springs with a maximum discharge greater than 2,200 gallons 
per minute. I am from Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and I hope that many 
of you have already been through Glenwood Springs. It is a small town, 
a beautiful town, located about 40 miles north of Aspen, Colorado. If 
you have driven to Aspen, especially in the winter, you had to go 
through Glenwood Springs, and as you go over the bridge, if you go 
through there again, take a look and you will see that huge hot 
springs.
  In May 1935, 10 miles south of Kiowa, 24 inches of rain fell in 6 
hours. Note that the average for Colorado in a year, in a year in 
Colorado, the average precipitation we get is 16.5 inches, and here in 
Kiowa County, they actually got 24 inches in 6 hours. Grand Lake is 265 
feet deep, the deepest natural lake in Colorado.
  From 1820 to 1846, the boundary of the United States with Mexico was 
the Arkansas River. That was the actual boundary between the United 
States and Mexico, the Arkansas River. Wolford Reservoir, which is one 
of our newer reservoirs, located 7 miles north of Kremmling, Colorado, 
opened to the public over Memorial Day weekend, the 5.5 mile long 
reservoir covers about 1,400 acres and has a capacity of 26,000 acre 
feet and costs about $42 million to build.
  Now, in our discussion this evening about water, we will be talking 
about acre feet, so it is a good time to define exactly what I mean by 
acre feet. An acre foot of water means that the amount of water over a 
1-year period of time that would cover 1 acre 1 foot deep. Now, that is 
what an acre foot of water is. Eighty-nine percent of Colorado's 
naturally occurring lakes are found at altitudes above 9,000 feet.
  Now, let us talk a little bit about Colorado and why this altitude is 
different or important. Colorado is the highest State in the Union. In 
fact, the district that I represent, the Third

[[Page H7861]]

Congressional District of Colorado, which, geographically, is larger 
than the State of Florida, is the highest congressional district in the 
Nation.
  In Colorado, we depend very heavily on the precipitation that occurs 
on those high points at that high elevation. That is what creates 80 
some percent, and we will look at that statistic a little later on, but 
80 some percent of the water as a result of the snowfall at that high 
precipitation. So as we point out here, 89 percent, almost 90 percent 
of our natural lakes are found at altitudes of 9,000 feet or higher.
  The average humidity that we have in Colorado is about 38 percent; 
technically, 37.9 percent. There are more than 9,000 miles of streams 
and 2000 lakes and reservoirs open to fishing in the State of Colorado. 
A dry wash, we often hear the term dry wash. What that really means, 
they are stream flows that occur only for a short period of time after 
the snow melt or after a rain storm, something like this. That is what 
they call a dry wash, or gulch, et cetera.
  Let me shift over here. The South Platte waters is used in the 
following ways. This is interesting. The South Platte, which is a major 
river in the State of Colorado, 10 percent for city and industrial use, 
65 percent for irrigation, and 3 percent of the water for reservoir 
evaporation. Twenty-two percent of the water leaves that State.
  Now, let us talk for a moment, leave this and talk just for a moment 
about water in general. Mr. Speaker, 97 percent, 97 percent of the 
water in the world is salt water, and of that 97 percent, 75 percent of 
the balance, so we have 97 percent of the water in the world is salt 
water, so we have 3 percent of that left, and 75 percent of that 3 
percent is water that is tied up in the polar ice caps. So we can see 
that less than half of a percent is fresh water in this world that we 
would find in lakes and streams. Mr. Speaker, 73 percent of that stream 
flow in the United States is claimed by States east of a line drawn 
north to south along the Kansas-Missouri border. So 73 percent of the 
stream flow in this Nation is in the eastern United States. And, most 
of our rainfall occurs in the East, not in the West.
  In fact, in many States in the East, their problem is getting rid of 
water. Our problem in the West is the ability to retain the water. Mr. 
Speaker, 12.7 percent of the water is claimed by the Pacific Northwest, 
which means that only 14 percent, about, 14.2 percent to be technical, 
so approximately 14 percent of the water, of the total stream flow of 
fresh water is shared by 14 States and these 14 States geographically 
consume more than one-half of the Nation in land area. Of those 14 
States, Colorado sits at the apex. Again, back to the high elevation of 
the State of Colorado.
  In Colorado, our high altitude semi-arid climate, we have 85 million 
acre feet, of the 100 acre feet we get approximately a year of moisture 
that falls in the State as precipitation. So we have about 100 million 
acre feet. Here is an interesting statistic. Of that 100 million acre 
feet, approximately 85 million acre feet of that goes away in 
evaporation or goes away in what we would call transpiration through 
where the plants take the moisture from the soil and it essentially 
evaporates through the leaves of the plants.

  Let us go back here for some other interesting statistics that I 
think will help give us a good idea of just how critical water is and 
how critical it is going to be in our future. Mr. Speaker, 48 million 
people in the United States receive their drinking water from private 
or household wells. In Colorado, water must be diverted for a purpose 
and for beneficial use. The reason I put this in there is that Colorado 
water law is very unique.
  Our water law in the West is significantly different than the water 
law in the East. In the West, water actually is a private property 
right. One can actually own the water separate from the land. In some 
States in this Union, the water and the land go together. But in 
Colorado, they can be separated. In Colorado, it is necessary, and in 
the West in general, it is necessary for us to divert water.
  Basically, in Colorado, we have as much water as we could possibly 
need during what is called the spring runoff, which lasts from about 60 
to 90 days. But once that spring runoff is finished, the States in the 
West have to rely very heavily upon water storage. If we do not have 
the water stored, we do not have the ability to use it for the balance 
of the year that we do not have spring runoff. That is why water 
storage is so critical in the West.
  What is interesting is that a lot of what we would call, I guess, 
politicians in the East criticize water storage in the West. It is 
because they are talking about two entirely different systems. It is 
almost as if we have two entirely different countries based on water 
differences. In the East, the water comes much heavier and it is 
treated, even legally is treated differently than the water needs and 
the water facts of the West, which is very important to remember as we 
go on here.
  In the United States, approximately 500,000 tons of pollutants pour 
into our lakes and rivers each day. That is why all of us continue 
towards this effort of clean water and clean lakes. Now, we cannot be 
so extreme as to say, look, we cannot flush our toilets because there 
is a pollutant in the toilet. What we have to do is figure out where 
that balance is with the use of water, without getting too extreme on 
one side or the other side. It is interesting here that if you spill 
four quarts of oil, a can, four quarts of oil in a sewer system, by the 
time it is done, you will have about an eight-acre oil spread, eight 
acres, as a result of four quarts of oil.
  Those are the kinds of things that we have to be very sensitive with 
about. That is why we have to be careful about the pollutants that are 
in our water sources and our water supplies. This is interesting. The 
maximum 24-hour snowfall in the United States is 75 inches which 
occurred in the mountains of Colorado in 1921. Can we imagine, 75 
inches of water in a 24-hour period of time.
  Here are some other interesting facts. We will jump down here. Well, 
right here. Evidence indicates that an ancient irrigation system was 
found at Mesa Verde and may have been in use by 1000 AD or even 
earlier. It is interesting, the Anasazi down in the Mesa Verde National 
Park, down in the four corners of Colorado, and by the way, if you have 
not been down to the Mesa Verde National Park, you have to go. Take a 
look at the Anasazi Ruins, they were fabulous. These people that lived 
in the cliffs, they were called the Cliff People, and that is where we 
find the first indication of the use of a dam in the United States, and 
it was by the Anasazi people who would go down by the stream below the 
cliffs, and the water, as I said, Colorado is an arid State, averages 
16\1/2\ inches of rain or precipitation in a year. So they would go 
down and store their water. That is the first indication we found of 
the use of a dam.
  In Colorado, for a dam, we actually have a ditch, the San Luis 
People's Ditch, which has been in operation since its construction in 
1852. That is the oldest irrigation system that we have that is still 
in continuous operation in Colorado. Fresh, uncompacted snow, and this 
is important to remember about the snowfall that comes down. In 
Colorado, we have an arid climate. As I said earlier, our humidity 
averages about 37 percent. But did we know that those snow flakes, when 
you are out there skiing in Colorado or just walking in the snow, those 
snow flakes that you see, 90 to 95 percent of that snowflake is trapped 
air. Mr. Speaker, 90 to 95 percent of that snowflake that we see at 
least in Colorado is 90 to 95 percent trapped air and I think that 
percentage is probably very similar in Washington, D.C., or up in 
Connecticut, or New Jersey when it snows.

  Denver, Colorado has an average snowfall of about 60 inches per year, 
and the snowiest season occurred in 1908 where they had 118 inches. 
Avalanches killed 914 people in the United States between 1990 and 
1995. On an average year, on an average year, most of the avalanche 
deaths actually occur in my congressional district out there in 
Colorado, because the Third Congressional District of Colorado 
basically has all of the mountains of Colorado. There are some that are 
outside of it, but for the most part, the mountains in Colorado are in 
the Third Congressional District, and avalanche is a huge danger that 
we have to deal with. But I can tell my colleagues this in a little 
promotion here which I do not think it

[[Page H7862]]

is against the rules; I hope my colleagues ski, we have the best skiing 
snow in the United States. Try some of our resorts, Aspen, Vail, 
Steamboat, Beaver Creek, Powder Horn, Purgatory.
  Let us go back to water. Water usage, this is one of the most 
interesting charts that I have come across in regards to water. Follow 
through with me when we talk about water usage. Americans are 
fortunate. We can turn on the faucet and get at the clean, fresh water 
that we need. Many of us take water for granted. Have we ever wondered 
how much water you use each day? Here is an idea. For the average 
person out there, I say to my colleagues, this will give us an idea of 
what the average person in America uses, the basic needs for water each 
day. Direct uses of water, again, this is daily, drinking and cooking, 
the average person uses about two gallons of water a day to drink and 
cook with. Flushing the toilet, between five and seven gallons per day, 
or excuse me, per flush, I am sorry, per flush. Washing machine, 20 
gallons per load. The dishwasher, 25 gallons per load. Taking a shower, 
seven to nine gallons of water per minute while you are in that shower.
  Now, growing foods takes most of the water. In this country, a lot of 
people, if you ask what consumes most water, one, they will not think 
of evaporation and maybe it is a misleading question, because 
evaporation really zaps up our biggest amount of water, but right 
behind it, the number one use of water in this Nation is the growing of 
food.
  It is in agriculture. Every day in the super market we take for 
granted how much water is necessary to grow that food. Well, here is a 
good example of what is necessary. If we have one loaf of bread, by the 
time we grow the grain and so on and so forth to produce that one loaf 
of bread, we have used 150 gallons of water, 150 gallons of water. To 
give us an idea, I am sure many of my colleagues drink bottled water 
like I do. I stop at the convenience store. I am trying to get away 
from a pop and buy a bottle of water. Multiply, think of what you have 
in that container, see how many of those containers it takes to make a 
gallon and then multiply that times 150, and that is how much of the 
water you are holding in your hands is going to be required for one 
loaf of bread.
  Mr. Speaker, one egg, one egg is 120 gallons of water; 120 gallons of 
water is necessary to produce 1 egg. A quart of milk, one quart of milk 
requires 223 gallons of water. These are numbers we cannot even 
imagine. If you would have given me this chart, given me just to you 
the right-hand side of the chart, colleagues, and ask me to fill in the 
gallons, I would not have even come close to these numbers. One pound 
of tomatoes, 125 gallons of water for a pound of tomatoes; 1 pound of 
oranges, 47 gallons; 1 pound of potatoes, 23 gallons of water. As we go 
down here, it takes more than 1,000 gallons of water to produce three 
balanced meals a day for one person.

                              {time}  2215

  So for every person, every one of my colleagues, if we have three 
balanced meals in a day, it has taken over 1,000 gallons of water to 
produce that food for us.
  What happens to 50 glasses of water? If we had 50 glasses of water, 
very interesting, now, remember that evaporation is considered a 
portion in this, but what happens to our 50 glasses of water, if we had 
50 glasses of water lined up, 44 glasses, as demonstrated right here, 
44 of these glasses would be used for agriculture, for growing the food 
products that we eat; three glasses would be used by industry; two 
glasses would be used by the cities; and a half a glass would be used 
in the country.
  I think this chart demonstrates just how critical water is. Now, 
obviously, we all know most of our body is made up of water, so we do 
not have to educate people about the importance of water. But it is 
interesting to just see how water interplays with everything that we do 
in any given day and how the circumstances of water are a lot different 
in the West than they are in the East.
  Let us go back to Colorado. As I mentioned to my colleagues earlier, 
Colorado is the only State in the continental United States where all 
of our water flows out. We have no free-flowing water that comes into 
Colorado for our use. That is a very important issue here. So I thought 
I would point out particularly, colleagues, why in Colorado water is 
our lifeblood. It was written by Thomas Hornsby, the poet, and it is 
inscribed in our State capital that out in the West life is written in 
water. Life is written in water.
  Here is an idea of what flows out of the State of Colorado. It gives 
us the average annual outflow of major rivers through 1985. So while 
the statistic is through 1985, it still holds pretty accurate today. 
Our total that we show here is about 8 million acre feet. The total of 
all rivers in Colorado is about 10.5 million acre feet.
  We have up here, out of the South Platte, about 400,000 acre feet of 
water that flow out every year. We have the Republican River, about 
14,000 acre feet. Over here we have the Arkansas River, which is 
133,000 acre feet. Down here on the Rio Grande we have 313,000 acre 
feet. Over here on the Animas River we have about 663,000 acre feet. Up 
here on the Yampa River we have 1,500,000 acre feet. And here on the 
Colorado River, the river that I mentioned earlier in my remarks known 
as the mother of rivers, the Colorado River, earlier named by the 
Indians as the Red River and then later changed to the Grand River and 
then later Colorado, Colorado is the Spanish name for red, is 4,540,000 
acre feet; 4,540,000 acre feet out of just the Colorado River.
  What is interesting here are our different river basins, and I will 
go through those very briefly with my colleagues. We have a good map 
here in color that gives a pretty clear demonstration of what we call 
the four major river basins. We have four major basins that drain most 
of Colorado. All of these river basins in this State are at the apex of 
those 14 States which consume over half the Nation.
  Lots of statistics here but, needless to say, Colorado is the 
critical piece of the puzzle for western water. When we take a look at 
that, we have four major river basins. We have the South Platte, also 
known as the Missouri River Basin; we have the Colorado River Basin 
here in the purple; here in kind of the bland green we have the Rio 
Grande River Basin; and over here in the lighter green we have the 
Arkansas River Basin.
  I thought I would talk about each of these river basins. First of 
all, the Missouri, which is up here in the red, and that is up in what 
I would call the northeastern part of the State of Colorado. Its 
primary river in the Missouri Basin or the South Platte River Basin is 
the South Platte River. Now, the South Platte River drains the most 
populous section of the State and serves the area with the greatest 
concentration of irrigated agricultural lands. So the greatest 
concentration of irrigated agricultural lands in Colorado is up in this 
section of the State.
  The main stem of the river flows north, then east, and meets the 
North Platte in southwestern Nebraska. The South Platte River, which 
starts here, follow my pointer here, that is the South Platte River, up 
into Nebraska, is 450 miles long, with 360 miles of that in the 
Colorado River.
  Rivers east of the divide. Now, remember that we have what we call a 
Continental Divide which runs from Mexico to Canada. And through 
Colorado it basically goes, following my pointer, basically goes like 
this. And on the east side, rivers east of the continental divide 
eventually will flow to the Atlantic Ocean from Colorado. Rivers here 
on the west side of the Continental Divide eventually flow to the 
Pacific Ocean and to the Gulf of Mexico. All the way from here to the 
Gulf of Mexico or to the Pacific Ocean.
  The Arkansas River Basin, again down here in this lighter green, 
begins in the central mountains near Leadville, Colorado. It flows 
south and east through the southern part of Colorado towards the Kansas 
border. The Arkansas River, this river right here which I am following 
here with my pointer, that river is 1,450 miles long, and 315 miles of 
that river are in the State of Colorado.
  We move over here to the Rio Grande River. Again, back to my pointer 
here, that is the Rio Grande in this kind of bland green here. The Rio 
Grande drainage basin is located in south central Colorado and it is 
comparatively small, with less than 10 percent of the State's land 
area. The Rio Grande River is 1,887 miles long, with 180 miles in 
Colorado.

[[Page H7863]]

  And now, let us talk for a moment about the Colorado River Basin. The 
Colorado River Basin, of course, is this area that is located right 
here in the purple. That is the Colorado River. We can see how many 
rivers and tributaries come into the Colorado. There is the Gunnison, 
the Roaring Fork, and in that river basin we also have the Yampa River, 
the White River, and the Animas River, and we could continually go 
down, but the Colorado River, the Colorado River system, drains over 
one-third of the State's area.
  Twenty-five million people use water out of this basin for drinking 
water. Twenty-five million people depend on Colorado, specifically the 
Colorado River Basin, which is a good portion of western Colorado, 25 
million people depend on their drinking water from this area of 
Colorado. Less than 20 percent of the Colorado River basin lies inside 
Colorado. So the length of the Colorado River Basin, less than 20 
percent of that Colorado River is in that basin. But 75 percent of the 
water, 75 percent, goes into this basin comes from the State of 
Colorado.
  It provides clean hydropower. We have 2 million acres of agriculture 
in the Colorado River Basin, and the Colorado River is 1,440 miles 
long, with just 225 miles of it in Colorado. Although, as I said, 
Colorado, in that 225 miles, puts 75 percent of the water into that 
river.
  Now, the Colorado River Basin, our native flow, basically is close to 
11 million acre feet a year. There are a lot of statistics here, but 
let me say to my colleagues that what we have become very dependent 
upon, if we flip this over very briefly, or if we pretended for a 
moment that this was the United States of America and we divided the 
country in half and we were to call this the western United States and 
we would call that the eastern United States, the critical factor to 
remember about water is that geographically there are two entirely 
different systems.
  Water in the East has many, many different dynamics than water in the 
West. That is why when I talk with my colleagues, when I talk with them 
about water issues in the West, it is so important for my colleagues to 
remember that the water issues my colleagues face here in the East are 
different. There are different dynamics, there are different 
geographical constraints, there are even different uses and storage of 
the water.
  Storage in the West is absolutely critical. If these States in the 
western United States did not have the water storage, for example, like 
Lake Powell, we would be in a real hurt. We could not exist on these 
lands, one, if we did not divert water from the streams; and, two, if 
we were not able to store the water.
  I just pulled out Lake Powell. I do not know, I wonder how many of my 
colleagues have ever been to Lake Powell. It is spectacular. In fact, 
Lake Powell is so large that it has more shoreline than the entire 
Pacific West Coast. More shoreline in Lake Powell than the entire 
Pacific West Coast. It is one of the primary family recreation spots in 
the western United States. There are not many families in the western 
United States that do not know about Lake Powell, but there are a lot 
of families in the eastern United States that are not aware of the 
importance of Lake Powell, not just for recreation, family recreation, 
but to the whole western water system, for water storage, for clean 
hydropower.
  The dam will hold about 27 million acre feet. The surface area is 
about 252 square miles; about 161,000 acres. This dam is so critical 
for our power. It provides power for millions of people. And needless 
to say, in the last couple of years we have seen a serious effort by 
the national Sierra Club to take down Lake Powell; to drain Lake 
Powell. And this is an example that points out the naivete, in my 
opinion, and I say that with due respect, but the naivete of an 
organization out of Washington, D.C. which comes out to the West to 
dictate what is in our best interest with western water.
  There are a lot of physical characteristics, some of which I have 
mentioned about Colorado, that are important to remember when we talk 
about western water. First of all, the fact that all of the water in 
our State runs out of the State; the fact that we have an arid State. 
We do not get lots of moisture year-round. Out here in the East, in an 
average year, there is pretty steady moisture. In the West, the primary 
moisture we get is in winter, and most of that moisture is in the 
Colorado mountains, the high Colorado Rockies. As I mentioned to my 
colleagues earlier, for the Colorado River, for example, 75 percent of 
that River Basin comes off that snow melt that we get in the high 
Colorado Rockies.
  I mentioned earlier as well the different rivers that we have. That 
is why Colorado, and again we have the four major river basins, and why 
when we talk about water in the West, when we talk about water in this 
Nation, Colorado always surfaces. It is kind of a centerpoint.
  Now, when this country was first formed, the Federal Government said, 
just because all the water in the West falls in one State does not mean 
that one State should own all of that water. We have to have interstate 
compacts. Let us create agreements between the States so that the 
States have a way for reasonable use of the water but they share the 
water as a country instead of keeping all the water as a State. And 
those interstate compacts, as most of my colleagues on the floor know, 
are critical for the use of this water.
  So, for example, we do not go to war, and I can tell my colleagues 
that there have been plenty of so-called water wars, not the kind of 
wars where there are lots of deaths, although there have been deaths, 
but we had water wars in the past, and the interstate compacts have 
primarily brought peace to the region by fairly dividing up, or at 
least what was considered fair at the time, those water resources.

                              {time}  2230

  There are a lot of interesting facts about these Federal river 
compacts. For example, the Colorado River Compact, believe it or not, 
the country of Mexico is entitled to parts of the Colorado River. In 
fact, the country of Mexico is entitled to a million and a half acre 
feet of the surplus water, a million and a half acre feet of the 
Colorado River.
  How did that come about? A very interesting story. In World War II, 
the United States and Mexico were afraid, that is right, that the 
Japanese were going to invade Mexico; and Mexico came to the United 
States and said, would you enter our country and help protect us 
against the Japanese? And the United States also had a concern. We did 
not want the Japanese on our border coming through Mexico. So we agreed 
to enter the country and defend Mexico.
  But Mexico understood our superior bargaining power, so they said, 
now look, if you are going to defend our country of Mexico, you really 
ought to give us some water for it. So the United States agreed to give 
about a million and a half acre feet of water every year to Mexico.
  Now there is even a dispute where that water comes from. We have 
under the Colorado River Compact upper States and lower States, and 
even the dispute is how does that get split. It is supposed to be split 
evenly, 7.5 million acre feet with the lower States and 7.5 million 
acre feet with the upper States. But the lower States at times have 
argued, wait a minute, it comes out of surplus water and since there is 
no surplus water in the lower States, it all ought to come out of the 
upper States.
  As you can see, the water arguments are intense throughout this 
Nation. But tonight the purpose of my comments on speaking on water, 
and as I summarize, my purpose here is that I hope my colleagues in the 
East understand that in States in the West like Colorado and Wyoming 
and Montana and California and Arizona and Utah and New Mexico, that 
these States are unique water States, States with unique water 
problems.
  Colorado, as I said, is right at the apex. We have got the 
Continental Divide where the water on the east side of the divide flows 
to the Atlantic Ocean and on the west side of the Divide it flows to 
the Pacific Ocean.
  We have 25 million people that depend on the Colorado River Basin for 
drinking water. These are issues that should not be downplayed. You 
know, on the East you do not feel the pain that we have in the West 
with our water. But I am asking that you understand the pain and I am 
asking that,

[[Page H7864]]

before you agree with legislation and before you sign on the dotted 
line, for example to take down reservoirs like Lake Powell, that you 
have a clear understanding of the circumstances that are created when 
you alter the water system in the West.
  In Colorado, we feel that water is for Colorado people; but we 
understand in Colorado that we have an obligation under the compacts to 
share that water. At the same time, we think there is a responsibility 
from neighboring States and from our fellow citizens in the eastern 
part of the country to understand what the unique needs are of the 
people of the State of Colorado.
  Why multiple use and the protection of that water, whether we keep it 
there for minimum stream flow or whether we use it for agriculture uses 
that it has been well thought out over hundreds of years, 150 some 
years in Colorado, it has matured as we go through time.
  It has matured, the uses of this water. And it should not be easily 
dismissed by political movement coming out of some of my colleagues on 
this floor.
  So, in summary, I know tonight primarily the discussion has been on 
water. To many of you perhaps it has been somewhat boring because water 
is not your primary focus in Congress. But I can tell you from those of 
us in the West, those of us in the Rocky Mountains, water is probably 
the number one issue when we talk about what can we do for future 
generations.
  So I appreciate your understanding this evening. And, in conclusion, 
let me tell you some phrases that we take credit for coming out of the 
waters in the West.
  The phrase ``sold down the river.'' We do not want to be sold down 
the river in the West by those of us in the East. And we do not intend 
to sell you down the river in the East, either. We want a good cohesive 
partnership when it comes to water issues.
  ``Swallowed hook, line, and sinker.'' There are people that want you 
out there to swallow hook, line, and sinker that Lake Powell should be 
drained.
  ``Doesn't hold water.'' They want you to think storage does not hold 
water or there is a better way to do it.
  ``Not worth a tinker's damn.'' We think water in the West is an issue 
that is worth a tinker's damn.
  And finally, ``fish in troubled water.'' We in the western United 
States will be a fish in troubled water if we do not have interests and 
understanding by our colleagues and our citizens in the East. It is the 
United States and it does require understanding between these two 
graphically different areas of the country as to our water issues.

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