[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 56 (Tuesday, April 23, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2863-S2864]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FISHING BARRIERS
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, seeing no other Senator here, I would
like to turn to another matter. In his biography of Thomas Jefferson,
Jon Meacham writes that Jefferson liked to fish. Jefferson ``had a
favorite spot,'' Meacham writes, ``below the old dam on the Rivanna
River.'' Thomas Jefferson, if he were alive, would be pleased to know
Americans followed his example. Americans like to fish, and in
Tennessee we have nearly 900,000 Tennesseans who bought fishing
licenses last year, and they like to fish below the dams just like
President Jefferson liked to do because they know that is where the
fishing is sometimes the best.
That is why there is such an uproar in Tennessee and in Kentucky and
from fishermen all over the country about the unreasonable obstinance
of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in seeking to put up physical
barriers to fishing below the 10 dams on the Cumberland River.
The Corps of Engineers is an honorable institution. The flooding
season is upon us, and we all remember the terrific job they did last
year and the year before when we had such serious floods along the
Mississippi. We are grateful to them for that. But for whatever reason,
the Corps of Engineers is rejecting every reasonable proposal from the
States of Tennessee and Kentucky to say let us work with you to ensure
safety below the dams on the Cumberland River in a way that continues
to allow fishing when it is safe and that allows us to attract the jobs
into our area.
Senator Corker, Senator McConnell, Senator Paul, Congressman
Whitfield, Congressman Cooper, Congresswoman Blackburn--we have all
introduced legislation we call the Freedom to Fish Act. I met with
every general and colonel I could find. I even talked to the Secretary
of the Army and said: What in the world are you doing here? On these 10
dams ever since they have been built in the 1960s, people have been
fishing there with their children and grandchildren. Some of the most
ardent fisherman are retired Army Corps of Engineers people.
[[Page S2864]]
They always come back and say: We have to ensure public safety. Of
course they have to ensure public safety, but there are various ways to
do that. They do not have to put up physical barriers across the dam.
So they are on a path to take $2.6 million, during a time of sequester,
that is needed for other projects to build these monstrosities across
the river below these 10 dams.
Up to now it has been mostly those of us in Congress who registered
the complaints of the men and women who like to fish. I went to a rally
at Old Hickory Lake about a month ago. There were a lot of people
there. They were not of any particular party, I would say. They were
tea party, environmentalist, outdoors men and women, retired Corps of
Engineers people, a lot of grandparents--people were mad because they
fished there with their grandchildren and wanted to keep doing it. Then
I went up to Kentucky to Lake Barkley a week ago with Senator
McConnell, Senator Paul, and Congressman Whitfield and found the same
sort of thing there.
The argument is that it is unsafe. Of course it is unsafe when the
water is spilling through the dam. That is about 20 percent of the
time. The rest of the time it is safe. Restricting fishing below the
dams 100 percent of the time when it is only dangerous 20 percent of
the time is like keeping the crossing gate down over the railroad track
100 percent of the time. We could do that. I think we have nearly
130,000 railroad crossings, but if we had a gate down on them all the
time we could never go anywhere. People expect drivers to have enough
sense to stay off the track when the train is coming. The track is not
dangerous when the train is not coming and the water is not dangerous
for fishing when it is not spilling through the dam.
One reason we are outdoorsmen in this country--and the great American
outdoors is a part of the American character and our ethic--is we want
to go outside and evaluate the risk. We want to be on our own. We want
to be able to make decisions. We don't want a government that is so all
powerful and all knowing that it makes it risk free when we go into the
great American outdoors.
Now we have an additional voice that comes from the Democratic side
of the aisle, and more important from the legal side. The Corps of
Engineers, in talking with me, said: You know, we have legal liability.
Here is an article that was in the Tennessean yesterday about the
comments of Jerry Martin, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of
Tennessee, who retired last week. He was appointed by President Obama
as a leading Democrat in the area. This is the U.S. attorney position
that was first held by Andrew Jackson at one time. This is what the
article said:
Responding to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' proposal to
limit fishing on dams along the Cumberland River and its
tributaries in Kentucky, former U.S. Attorney Jerry Martin
said that the Corps' plan is not worth the effort.
Martin, who just weeks ago would have been responsible with
carrying out the Corps' wishes, said the Tennessee Valley
Authority's siren system, which goes off when water is
released from the dams, is enough to ensure public safety.
The Corps has proposed barriers along the river that would
limit fishing access, citing safety concerns. Detractors say
the move could cost millions of tourism dollars every year.
``These waters belong to the citizens,'' Martin, who was appointed by
President Barack Obama in 2010, said in a prepared statement. ``In
light of the tremendous protection from liability enjoyed by the Corps,
I don't think it's reasonable for the Corps to ban everyone at all
times from these public places.
I am concluding my remarks because I see the Senator from Wyoming has
arrived.
Let's stop and think about this a minute. The Corps of Engineers now
already has everybody in Tennessee of any political stripe saying: You
are taking an unreasonable step. They have the wildlife agencies of
Tennessee and Kentucky saying: We would like to work with you to help
you do a better job of ensuring safety below the dams when the water is
spilling through the dams, which is 20 percent of the time. We have the
Tennessee Valley Authority with dams on the Tennessee River, which
makes the Cumberland look like a stream, and the TVA allows fishing
below the dams. It has sirens, it has signs, it has whistles. It
assumes people are wise enough not to roll up just below the dam when
the water is spilling through it. Just like we assume we are wise
enough, if we put on a siren and put on the red lights, not to sit on
the railroad tracks when a train is coming.
Now the former lawyer who would have been responsible for defending
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a liability case says:
These waters belong to the citizens. In light of the
tremendous protection from liability enjoyed by the Corps, I
do not believe it is reasonable for the Corps to ban everyone
at all times from these public places.
I call on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to recognize the voices of
the people of our country--all over the country--who fish below these
dams and accept the offer of the two States, Kentucky and Tennessee, to
work with the corps to develop a reasonable attitude, a reasonable way
of ensuring public safety for fishing below the dams. That is our
opinion. We will pass a law to make it happen if we have to, but given
the statement, especially of the retired U.S. attorney, Jerry Martin,
who would have been the corps's lawyer in defending lawsuits about
this, the corps needs to change its mind, act reasonably, and spend
that $2.6 million on some more needed project.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schatz). The Senator from Wyoming.
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