[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2937]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 REDUCING SEDIMENT AND NUTRIENT LOSSES IN UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER BASIN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KIND. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing an important bill aimed 
at reducing sediment and nutrient losses in the Upper Mississippi River 
Basin.
  Over the last 6 months, I have worked closely with many of my 
colleagues here in the House, farmers, the navigation industry, 
sporting groups, conservation groups, and government agencies, to come 
up with an effective, basin-wide, and non-regulatory approach to 
dealing with this increasingly serious problem in our Nation's 
heartland.
  Why is this important? Run-off from the land represents one of the 
greatest environmental threats to the Mississippi River. Huge 
quantities of sediment and nutrients flow into the river, filling in 
backwaters, degrading the wetland habitat on the river, and cutting off 
vital lifelines for a wide variety of wildlife.
  The Upper Mississippi River Basin is North America's largest 
migratory route, with more than 40 percent of the waterfowl using this 
area as a flyway.

                              {time}  1830

  Ongoing habitat loss and degradation threatens the river's $1.2 
billion recreation and $6.6 billion tourism industry, and the river is 
the primary water drinking source for over 22 million Americans.
  Impacts on the commercial navigation industry are severe, with barge 
traffic impeded by sediment buildup and the Corps of Engineers spending 
over $100 million each year on dredging to maintain a navigable channel 
in the main stem of the river.
  Soil erosion reduces the long-term sustainability of family farms 
with farmers losing more than $300 million annually in applied 
nitrogen. This affects farm income at a time when we have a crisis in 
rural America.
  As lawmakers, we must move beyond our current after-the-fact damage 
repair efforts and instead pass legislation that targets cost-effective 
measures to reduce sediment and nutrients from entering the river basin 
in the first place.
  In order to reduce sediment and nutrient losses from the landscape, 
it is imperative that we develop sound scientific information from 
which to make our conservation decisions. My bill calls for the 
creation of a basin-wide sediment and nutrient monitoring system and a 
state-of-the-art computer modeling program to identify hot spots in the 
basin.
  Armed with this information, we will be able to better target 
landowner-friendly financial and technical assistance to areas where it 
is most needed.
  My bill calls for an expansion of four highly successful USDA 
conservation programs; CRP, wetland reserve, EQIP and wildlife habitat 
incentives program.
  In addition, the bill includes strong protections for the privacy of 
personal data collected in connection with monitoring, modeling and 
technical and financial assessment activities.
  This legislation calls for a comprehensive consensus approach to 
reducing sediment and nutrient intake in order to prevent damage from 
occurring in the river system. This legislation is collaborative and 
brings together the relevant Federal agencies in a holistic and 
comprehensive manner.
  This approach, I believe, will have the greatest positive effect for 
the environment, for our farmers and for our communities in the Upper 
Mississippi Basin and will do so without creating new Federal 
regulations.
  In 1875, Mr. Speaker, Mark Twain wrote a series of essays that were 
collected and published under the title Life on the Mississippi. 
Reflecting on his experiences as a steamboat pilot, Twain penned the 
following words about his beloved Mississippi River, and I quote,

       The face of the water in time became a wonderful book, a 
     book that was a dead language to the uneducated passenger but 
     which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its 
     most cherished secrets as clearly as if it uttered them with 
     a voice. And it was not a book to be read once or thrown 
     aside, for it had a new story to tell every day. Throughout 
     the long 1,200 miles, there was never a page that was void of 
     interest, never one that you could leave unread without loss, 
     never one that you would want to skip thinking you could find 
     higher enjoyment in some other thing. There never was so 
     wonderful a book by a man.

  The book of the great Mississippi River is one that I have been 
fortunate enough to read and reread throughout my life based on 
personal experience growing up on the river. For the sake of our 
children and for future generations, we must take measures today to 
ensure that a healthy and beautiful Mississippi River will be there for 
them to read as well.
  I ask my colleagues for their support of this important legislation, 
and I look forward to working in this body and with my friends here to 
ensure passage as soon as possible.

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