URGENT NOTICE -- from the Midwest Sierra Club office,
forwarded by Jane Clark

        Late last week the waterway advocacy group MARC 2000
started peddling a bill in Congress which they call the
Export Facilitation Act of 1999.  While we do not know all
of the details of this proposed legislation, we know that it
would authorize extending the locks at the lowest five dams
on the Upper Miss (20 to 25) and at the down most downstream
dams on the Illinois.

        We need calls to the offices of River state delegations
on MONDAY, urging the Senators and Congressmen NOT to
cosponsor what we should call the Mississippi River
Destruction Act (thatÆs MRDA, pronounced murder with a
Boston accent) of 1999.

At this point we
believe that Nussle, Boswell (both Iowa) and Hulshof
(Missouri) are the principal movers in the House, and Bond
(MO) is believed to be in the Senate.  Please do not wait
for us to be in touch with you:  rather try to reach offices
as early as you can.  The Capitol switchboard number is 202-
224-3121.  If you do not know a staff person in an office,
ask for the aide who handles environmental issues.  We
should take no member for granted, even among those who have
been consistent friends or consisten adversaries.  But I at
this point I would judge the following to be particularly
important

        Senate:
                Wellstone (MN)
                Harkin IA !!!!
                Durbin, IL !!!!
                Fitzgerald, IL
                Kohl, WI

        House:
                Gutknecht, Luther, Ramstad (MN)
                Leach, IA !!!!
                Gephart, MO !!!!
                Talent, MO
                Evans, IL !!!!

        I am including below the text of a press release that
was issued by national environmental organizations Friday,
and in addition here are some points that should be made:

        --      Even though the construction is geographically
limited, expansion of these locks will encourage the
doubling of barge traffic throughout the system -- all the
way to the Twin Cities and Chicago.

        --      The Corps itself has found that this expenditure
is not economically justified.  It is a purely a give-away
to huge agribusiness corporations.

        --      The Corps is winding up a multi-year, $50
millilon, study on the economics and enivironmental aspects
of navigation expansion.  It would be absurd fjor a member
to sign on to a bill authorizing lock extensions just months
before the CorpsÆ study is concluded and made public.

        --      Increases in navigation will cause many kinds of
environmental harm, from loss of aquatic vegetation due to
wakes from passing tows to increases in truck traffic in
River communities.

Without threatening, please make clear that a MemberÆs
position on the Mississippi River Destruction Act is
politically a make or break issue for environmentalists in
the Upper Midwest!!

Please share this with your friends and colleagues in other organizations
and
ask them to make calls as well.
                  ------------------  MORE --------------------

*American Rivers * Environmental Defense Fund *
* Izaak Walton League of America * Mississippi River Basin Alliance *
Sierra
Club *

                                Conservation Groups Oppose River Navigation
Bill

Conservation groups objected today to a $1.2 billion proposal by barge
advocates to authorize the construction of five 1,200-foot-long locks on
the Upper Mississippi River, ignoring a $51 million Corps of Engineers
study which found longer locks economically unjustified.

MARC 2000 proposed the Export Facilitation Act during a Congressional
hearing Thursday, and Reps. Kenny Hulshof (R-MO), Jim Nussle (R-IA) and
Leonard Boswell (D-IA) signaled their support for the measure. MARC 2000 is
a navigation industry trade association.

The Export Facilitation Act would authorize the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers to replace 600-foot locks at Locks 20 through 25 with 1,200-foot
locks to ease congestion and permit additional barge traffic. Two locks on
the Illinois River would also be replaced.

"It takes unprecedented hubris for some of the wealthiest companies in the
world to ask the taxpayers to fund a boondoggle that even the Corps of
Engineers won't support," said Tim Searchinger, Senior Attorney for the
Environmental Defense Fund. "Even the Corps of Engineers - which has
supported these sorts of projects for two centuries -- found this project
economically unjustified."

"Expanding five locks could double barge traffic on the Mississippi River,
potentially doubling truck traffic in riverside communities and
accelerating the loss of habitat for river wildlife," said Rick Moore,
Mississippi River Project Director for the Izaak Walton League of America,
a national conservation group. "This would be the final nail in Old Man
River's coffin."

Barge wakes push sediment into backwaters and side channels, important
nurseries for river wildlife, and uproot marsh plants, an important food
source. "More barges will compound the problems already facing the river,"
said Jonathan Ela, a spokesman for Sierra Club, a national environmental
group.

The dams and training structures which provide sufficiently deep water for
commercial navigation have robbed the river's ability to create new
habitat. In the past, side channels which filled with sediment were
replaced during floods. Today, they are replaced by federal restoration
programs. "But, we're not able to replace those important habitats as
quickly as they're being lost," Ela said. "More barges will only accelerate
the loss of side channels and marsh plants."

The Corps of Engineers is studying whether expected increases in barge
traffic would justify increasing the length of locks from 600 to 1,200
feet. In recent months, preliminary findings of the Corps' $51 million
study show that longer locks will not be economically justified until 2020.


"Far more than fish and wildlife are threatened by additional barges," said
Jeff Stein, Mississippi River Regional Representative for American Rivers,
a national conservation group. "More than 12 million people annually
recreate on the Upper Mississippi River, generating more than $1.2 billion
in economic benefits."

For more information, contact:

Rick Moore, Izaak Walton League of America (651) 649-1446
Carl Zichella, Sierra Club (608) 257-4994
Scott Faber, American Rivers (202) 347-7550 x 3015
Jeff Stein, American Rivers  (630) 886-5066
Mark Beorkrem, Mississippi River Basin Alliance (309) 343-7021
Tim Sullivan, Mississippi River Basin Alliance (612) 870-3441
Tim Searchinger, Environmental Defense Fund  (202) 387-3500

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