[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 87 (Friday, May 25, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1149]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF THE LOWER COLORADO RIVER MULTI-SPECIES CONSERVATION ACT

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                         HON. HARRY E. MITCHELL

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 24, 2007

  Mr. MITCHELL. Madam Speaker, today Representative Dean Heller and I 
introduced the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Act. The 
bill is a companion to S. 300, which was introduced in the Senate 
earlier this year by Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona.
  The bill provides for a long-term, comprehensive, cooperative program 
among 50 Federal and non-Federal entities in Arizona, California, and 
Nevada to protect 26 endangered, threatened and sensitive species on 
the Lower Colorado River and to provide assurances to affected water 
and power agencies of the two States that their operations may continue 
upon compliance with the requirements of this program.
  The program will create over 8,100 acres of riparian, marsh and 
backwater habitat for protected species, and includes plans for the 
rearing and stocking of more than 1.2 million fish to augment 
populations of two endangered fish covered by the program.
  The program will operate on and around the Colorado River from Lake 
Mead to the U.S.-Mexico border, but like most water issues relating to 
the Colorado, its effects will be felt throughout Arizona, and across 
the southwestern United States.
  This bill has been more than a decade in the making, and I believe it 
is a worthy, bipartisan compromise. The program's cost will be divided 
50-50 between the Federal Government and the non-Federal participants. 
California participants will pay 50 percent of the non-Federal share, 
and Arizona and Nevada participants will pay 25 percent of the non-
Federal share.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues in the weeks and months 
to come to make this long sought program a reality.

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