[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 23, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E212]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             INTRODUCTION OF COLUMBIA RIVER RESTORATION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EARL BLUMENAUER

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 23, 2010

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, today I am pleased to introduce the 
Columbia River Restoration Act. The Columbia River is the largest river 
in the Pacific Northwest, supplying fishermen with jobs, serving as a 
recreational resource, and providing power to the Northwest. The river 
and its tributaries provide significant ecological and economic 
benefits to the Pacific Northwest and the entire country. Approximately 
8 million people, including my constituents, inhabit the basin and 
depend on its resources for their health and survival. The 14 
hydropower dams in the Columbia Basin provide over 75% of the power for 
the Northwest. Half of the 7.3 million acres of income producing farm 
and ranch land in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington are irrigated with the 
Columbia River; sales from these exceed $10 billion annually. 
Traditionally, the Columbia and its tributaries have been the largest 
salmon producing river system in the world, with annual returns peaking 
at up to 30 million fish. Recognizing the river's importance, the 
Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, designated the Columbia River as 
an Estuary of National Significance in 1995 and a Large Aquatic 
Ecosystem in 2006.
  Sadly, after years of treating this great river like a machine, we 
know that the Columbia River is plagued by habitat loss and degraded 
with dangerous PCBs and other chemical pollutants that are detrimental 
to fish and wildlife, including thirteen species of salmon and 
steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act as threatened or 
endangered. Legacy contaminants such as DDT that were banned in the 
1970s are still detected in juvenile Chinook salmon. According to EPA 
and tribal surveys, these contaminated fish are consumed in large 
quantities by tribal populations, putting them at risk. Other 
pesticides and contaminants, such as hormone disrupters from 
pharmaceutical and personal care products, have been found in the river 
and salmon and may impair salmon growth, health, and reproduction. 
These contaminants threaten not only the health of fish and wildlife, 
but the humans who depend on them.
  I am proud that stakeholders in the Columbia Basin have come together 
in a partnership including states, tribal governments, public and 
private entities, and key federal partners to look with a hundred-year 
vision toward the future of the river, and to clean it up and make it a 
sustainable resource for generations. The Lower Columbia River 
Partnership (LCREP), for example, works to protect the estuary's 
ecosystem and its species, reduce pollution, and provide information 
about the river to the public. The partnership has restored 2,600 acres 
of habitat, opened 41.7 miles of stream habitat, completed toxic and 
conventional pollutant water quality monitoring, and engaged in 
innovative public involvement and restoration efforts in the region. 
LCREP has worked with the EPA to complete a Comprehensive Conservation 
and Management Plan to guide recovery efforts in the lower basin. EPA 
has also worked with stakeholders to develop a Toxics Reduction Action 
Plan to reduce toxics throughout the Basin. While there have been 
numerous studies and projects for toxics reduction and habitat 
restoration on the river, it is time for a broader, more comprehensive, 
and better funded effort.
  The bill I am introducing today would authorize the EPA to work with 
LCREP, the States of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, Columbia Basin 
tribal governments, local governments, citizen groups, industry, and 
other Federal agencies to develop and implement a collaborative and 
comprehensive strategy to increase monitoring and reduce pollution in 
the basin. Through a new Columbia River Program Team located in EPA's 
Region 10 Oregon Operations Office, EPA will assist and support the 
implementation of the Toxics Action and Comprehensive Plans to reduce 
toxics, coordinate the major functions of the Federal government 
related to the plans, track progress toward meeting the goals and 
objectives of the plans, and share this information with the public. 
The legislation authorizes $40 million a year for this effort.
  Restoration projects, toxic monitoring and other activities 
associated with the restoration effort will create between 700 and 900 
jobs a year in the region for biologists, construction workers, and 
others. It will also enable the river to continue supporting jobs in 
the farming, hydropower, recreation and transportation industries.
  I am pleased to be joined by some of my colleagues in Oregon and 
Washington in introducing this legislation. I look forward to working 
with stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest to move it quickly.

                          ____________________