    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [September 11, 1997]
    [Pages 1153-1155]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Announcing the American Heritage Rivers Initiative
    September 11, 1997

        Thank you, Jose. I think we should send him around the country to
    organize other young people, don't you? [Laughter] Thank you, Mr.
    Carlino; to the members of the administration who are here, and the
    Senators and Members of the House and all the rest of you.
        We did not intend to regale you today with the natural splendor and
    riverfront aura of Room 450--[laughter]--of the Old Executive Office
    Building. I can't really take responsibility for the weather. I wanted
    to welcome you to Mount Vernon. The Vice President suggested I blame it
    on climate change. [Laughter] But we haven't had time to have the
    requisite number of studies done. [Laughter] So we're here to make the
    best of it.
        Before I start and make remarks about this subject, I do want to say
    that something has occurred in the United States Senate this morning
    about which I am personally very pleased and for which I am grateful. I
    have been working, as everyone knows, since the day I became President
    to allow all our people to participate in the opportunities that this
    country offers and will offer in the new century. I think clearly the
    most important way to do that is to guarantee a world-class education to
    every young person. Just this morning, an overwhelming bipartisan
    majority in the Senate, 88 Senators, voted to move forward with the plan
    that I have advocated to establish national standards of learning in
    reading and mathematics, and to test our children in the fourth and
    eighth grades by 1999.
        They have voted to make sure that these examinations would be
    written by a truly independent, nonpartisan board, and the measure that
    they have embraced will help parents to ensure that their children will
    master the basics of reading and math and to help measure the
    performance of the schools and teachers involved. This is another
    example of what can happen when people of good will of both parties get
    together and look to the future and not the past. And thank you,
    Senators, and I think this is very, very good news.
        And what we're here today to talk about is also very good news and
    profoundly important. If you think about the stories of Pittsburgh and
    Chicago--I don't know how many of you have been to Pittsburgh to see the
    rivers there and see the changes in the community that are truly
    astonishing, in all the other little communities outlying Pittsburgh in
    southwest Pennsylvania. As you know--I think all of you know, Hillary is
    from Chicago, so I spent a lot of time in Chicago, and I've spent a lot
    of nights and days looking at the Chicago River.
        And I think it's very important to remember that many of our
    greatest cities became what they are because they were built on rivers.
    And now if we want them to be even greater as we move into a totally new
    era and where their economies are changing, we have to make sure that
    the rivers that run through them are good,

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    clean rivers that offer the potential for young people like Jose to do
    something they can be proud of, to have a place that they can be proud
    to be a part of, and to preserve a heritage for their own children and
    grandchildren.
        Rivers have always been the lifeblood of our Nation. They nourish
    our cities. They feed our soils. They allow us to expand our territory
    in commerce. They permit us, millions upon millions of us, to fish. You
    heard the Vice President putting in his little gig about the Tennessee
    rivers. You know, those of us who come from the States with a lot of
    rural land, all of us grew up living with the rivers, and all of us have
    these vivid memories of the rivers. When I graduated from law school and
    I went home to the hills in north Arkansas to live, before Hillary and I
    married and I bought a home, I rented two different places out in the
    country on two different rivers. I spent a lot of the happiest days of
    my life along the Buffalo River in the Ozark Mountains in north
    Arkansas, which was the very first river set aside by Congress in the
    National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. You can't get there from here.
    [Laughter] But if you do, it's worth the effort. [Laughter]
        Nineteen years ago, when I first ran for Governor of my home State,
    I called my great-uncle at--who just passed away at the age of 91, and
    who had only an elementary school education but a very high IQ and a
    great wit. And we were having a heated election for the United States
    Senate that year, and I asked my uncle, I said, ``Who do you want to win
    this Senate race?'' He said, ``I don't care, and I wouldn't care who was
    going to be Governor if you weren't my kinfolks.'' [Laughter] And I
    said, ``Well, if I get elected, what do you want me to do?'' Then he got
    dead serious. He said, ``I want you to make sure that the rivers are
    clean and pure, so the fish will be in them and I can run my feet in
    them in the springtime.'' That was his platform for my campaign.
    [Laughter]
        And there were many people of his generation of modest means who
    knew that if all else failed they could still go to the river in the
    springtime. And so this is a big part of what we are.
        When I leave this office and I go home, I hope to continue a project
    I've been working on for many years--I worked on as Governor--to help
    both restore and enhance the development of our capital city at home
    along the Arkansas River. And the river has to be clean and pure and
    fully developed in its natural potential in order for us ever to make
    the most of that.
        So this is a big deal to millions of people. And I suppose that it
    may be too free of controversy to arouse great interest today here, but
    we're all trying to change that, just like the Senate did this morning
    on the education issue. When I saw the two gentlemen before me speaking
    and then I was looking out here at all the mayors and all the
    representatives of the local community, about every third sentence
    they'd be nodding their heads: Yes, what they're saying is absolutely
    right. And that's a very, very good thing.
        Today we are going to rededicate our country to restoring our river
    heritage and to reaffirm one of our oldest values, the importance of
    safeguarding our national treasures for all generations to come.
        You know, we didn't get to go to Mount Vernon, but I think it's
    important to say a few words about the Potomac, since that is our river
    here. George Washington considered it one of the finest rivers in the
    world. But regrettably, for most of this century the Potomac suffered in
    ways that President Washington would have been perfectly appalled by. By
    the 1960's, when I came to school here, the river was so polluted that
    students on the boating teams at Georgetown actually had to get typhoid
    shots to go out on the water. But today, thanks to the ongoing--I was
    not on the crew team; that was my excuse. [Laughter] That's a true
    story. But today, thanks to the ongoing cleanup efforts in communities
    all up and down this river, the Potomac once again is a genuine,
    legitimate source of national pride.
        All across the country we're seeing this kind of river renaissance.
    You heard about Chicago and Pittsburgh. We could have talked about
    Evanston, Wyoming; Cherokee, Iowa; Chattanooga, Tennessee--communities
    coming together to restore their rivers, to make them both attractive
    and natural and pure and commercially viable.
        Today we take an important step to support and celebrate these
    efforts when, in a few moments, I will sign an Executive order to launch
    the new American Heritage Rivers initiative. Through this voluntary
    program which I first proposed in the State of the Union Address, we
    will lend our hand of assistance to community-led waterfront projects
    that protect natural

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    resources, promote economic revitalization, and preserve our cultural
    heritage.
        For 90 days, starting today, communities that have developed plans
    to restore and reconnect with their rivers may submit nominations to
    participate in this innovative initiative. Shortly thereafter, a panel
    of experts will help me select 10 finalist rivers from among the
    nominations, each of which will earn a designation as an American
    Heritage River. These rivers, most likely a mix of rural, suburban, and
    urban rivers, will receive targeted and coordinated assistance to help
    bring the community plans to life.
        Here is how the initiative might work for an urban river linked by
    junkyards and abandoned buildings. If the riverfront community comes
    forward with a good revitalization plan and wins American Heritage River
    designation, we'll first work with the community to select a skilled,
    full-time liaison, which we call a river navigator. Maybe we should have
    called it a river rat. [Laughter] The river navigator will then help the
    community line up Federal and private resources for everything from
    improving water quality to cleaning up brownfields to designating a
    riverfront plaza and finding loans for local entrepreneurs.
        Every step of the way, the initiative will be driven by the needs
    and desires of the communities that choose to participate. There will be
    no Federal mandates, no regulations, no restrictions on property
    holders' rights. All communities interested in this collaborative
    concept will be able to learn from the success of the program
    participants by tapping into a very impressive American Heritage Rivers
    website.
        The reason I'm so pleased by the American Heritage Rivers initiative
    is that it neatly combines three of the concepts that are closest to my
    heart, as the Vice President said: First, the notion of environmental
    stewardship; second, the idea of offering citizen support for a
    reinvented Government that actually works better and costs less; and
    finally, once again, that economic prosperity and environmental
    protection go hand in hand.
        We must continue to embrace these three ideas. We must believe in
    them. We must live by them. The American Heritage Rivers initiative is a
    great first step. Let the nominations begin.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:52 a.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive
    Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to Jose Lopez, member of
    the Chicago River Restoration Crew, known in Chicago as River Rats; and
    August Carlino, executive director, Pittsburgh Rivers of Steel. The
    Executive order is listed in Appendix D at the end of this volume.