[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 35 (Thursday, March 11, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E358]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS AND HYPOXIA RESEARCH AND CONTROL AMENDMENTS ACT OF 
                                  2010

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                               speech of

                        HON. BLAINE LUETKEMEYER

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 9, 2010

  Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Madam Speaker, yesterday, the House voted down H.R. 
3650, the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control 
Amendments Act. This bill would have cost an estimated $153 million of 
taxpayer dollars for 2010 through 2014 and $22 million after 2014 to 
establish a new task force charged with responding to hypoxia events 
and, among other items, implementing and overseeing the regional 
research and action plans. I joined with 141 of my colleagues and voted 
against this misguided bill. I understand and appreciate that the 
health of our rivers is of vital importance to the 9th district of 
Missouri and to the Nation, and I believe that responsible 
environmental management is critically important to national commerce 
and infrastructure. However, agriculture has been forced to bear the 
brunt of environmental attacks for long enough. While the Environmental 
Protection Agency, EPA, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration, NOAA, point the finger at agriculture as a contributor 
of gulf hypoxia, particularly through the dumping of sediment and 
runoff of fertilizer, the Army Corps of Engineers, Corps, at the 
direction of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is digging chutes that are 
up to 25 feet deep, 200 to 300 feet wide, and sometimes over one mile 
long to provide shallow water habitat for the endangered pallid 
sturgeon. According to the Missouri Clean Water Commission, the Corps 
will dump 34 million metric tons of sediment into the Missouri River 
annually. This soil contains a significant amount of phosphorous, a 
known cause of hypoxia. All of this without facing fines from the EPA, 
which have been levied against farmers and businesses along the river, 
because the Corps was able to obtain a Clean Water Act Section 404 
permit granted by themselves. Instead of continually attacking 
agriculture and small business and trivially spending hard earned 
taxpayer dollars, perhaps the Federal Government should spend some time 
investigating its own actions.

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