[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 16, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H665]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                            DISASTER RELIEF

  (Mr. McADAMS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. McADAMS. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 268, the 
legislation that we voted on earlier today to provide disaster relief, 
including relief for my home State of Utah.
  Specifically, this bill includes money for the Utah Reclamation 
Mitigation and Conservation Commission for critical environmental work 
in the Strawberry River watershed and part of the Diamond Fork 
drainage.
  Last summer, the Dollar Ridge fire burned an area of almost 70,000 
acres, centered over the Strawberry River watershed. This area has been 
a critical focal point of the Central Utah Project for almost 40 years. 
The Central Utah Project diverts, stores, and delivers large quantities 
of water from numerous Utah rivers to meet the needs of central Utah's 
citizens.
  In cooperation with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and the 
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the mitigation commission is working to 
repair tremendous damage to the area, both from the fire itself and 
subsequent rain and runoff events.
  Water quality has suffered greatly. Money from this legislation will 
be used to reseed, replant, and set up monitoring stations to better 
respond to the future mudslide and sediment flows.
  A portion of the funds will also be used to begin restoring an area 
in the Diamond Fork Canyon that was affected by a second fire.
  I also commend my Utah colleague Representative Chris Stewart for his 
amendment to the bill, providing much-needed funding for fire 
protection

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