Sorry for the cross postings From the Corps Reform Network Kelly Miller Associate Director of Water Resources and Outreach American Rivers 202-347-7550 American Rivers * Audubon * Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy * Izaak Walton League of America * Mississippi River Basin Alliance * Sierra Club FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 3, 2003 For further information contact: Kelly Miller, American Rivers, 202-347-7550; Dan McGuiness, Audubon, 651-290-1695; Mark Muller, IATP, 612-870-3420; Rick Moore, IWLA, 651-341-1870; Mark Beorkrem, MRBA, 217-526-4480; Bill Redding, Sierra Club, 608-257-4994 President’s FY 2004 Budget proposal is good news for the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers Conservationists applaud the President’s FY 2004 budget for fully funding the Mississippi River’s environmental restoration program, and for targeting ongoing problems with the scandal-plagued Upper Mississippi/Illinois River Navigation Study. The FY 2004 budget not only fully funds the highly successful Environmental Management Program (EMP) at its authorized $33.32 million level, but it also establishes it as one of eight projects considered by the administration to be “the highest priorities now under construction.” This is a welcomed change from FY 2003 funding levels, which is at $15 million in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill currently being wrangled over in conference committee, and from the $20 million appropriations it has received in recent years. "For more than a decade the EMP program has been struggling financially to meet a proven need for habitat restoration and long term monitoring on the river. With a $33 million appropriation this program can begin to make a real difference in reversing 150 years of habitat degradation. We will work hard to support this initiative at every opportunity," commented Dan McGuiness, Director, Audubon Upper Mississippi River Campaign. The President’s budget release also targeted the Upper Mississippi/Illinois River Navigation Study, citing the controversy over Corps handling of projecting benefits from expanding commercial navigation system locks on the river. Specifically, the budget review chides the Corps for not seriously exploring other congestion-relief alternatives besides lock expansion, and for using the antiquated Tow-Cost model in its current economic modeling for the Upper Mississippi River. The budget states, “The Corps should make greater efforts to reduce traffic congestion through scheduling and other demand-management approaches.” Citing the National Academy of Sciences recommendations that the Corps needs a new model for evaluating commercial navigation benefits, the budget also calls on the Corps to “develop a new economic model to estimate properly the benefits of major new investments [such as the navigation locks].” "We're very encouraged that the Administration seems to recognize the serious disagreements over the soundness of the Corps' economic projections on the Upper Mississippi," said Rick Moore, Upper Mississippi River Regional Coordinator with the Izaak Walton League of America. “Our hope has been renewed that we can possibly resolve these disagreements before the study schedule forces us into a train wreck." “This budget is great news for the Mississippi River,” said Melissa Samet, Senior Director of Water Resources for American Rivers. “We remain hopeful that the Corps will follow the administration’s recommendations, and Congress will maintain the restoration funding levels.” Additional Background: The Environmental Management Program (EMP) funds critical habitat restoration projects throughout the Upper Mississippi and Illinois River reaches as well as supports a long term resource monitoring program backing the restoration work. The program has received universal support from the environmental community, state agencies participating in river management and from navigation and agriculture interests affected by river management. Over 68,000 acres have been rehabilitated through projects funded by the EMP in five states and on the Upper Mississippi River refuges. The Upper Mississippi/Illinois River Navigation Study is wrangled in controversy due to the Corps’ handling of projecting benefits from expanding commercial navigation system locks on the river. The scandal plagued study dismissed attempts by the original economist on the project, Donald Sweeney, to incorporate modern economic modeling processes into evaluating costs and benefits of dealing with congestion at some locks on the two rivers. Sweeney later turned whistleblower regarding the Corps’ handling of his economic work, which resulted in a halt and later reorganizing of the study. The Corps is expected to release their Navigation Feasibility report in 2004. Just as the administration has recommended in their budget, the environmental community has urged the Corps to adopt a new economic model. In comments to the Corps following release of the Interim Report for the Navigation Study in June of 2002, environmentalists stated: “We urge the Corps to comply with the NRC recommendations by rejecting the Tow Cost Model, deleting the grossly optimistic traffic projections prepared by the Sparks Companies, and immediately focusing the study on the investigation and implementation of small-scale measures. If the Corps had followed the NRC recommendations in 2001, a revised Spatial Equilibrium model would nearly be complete; instead, the Corps proposes to use models and methods that reflect a major step backward from the draft feasibility study. We also urge the Corps to abandon its "scenario-based" approach and instead employ a credible benefit-cost analysis that (1) explicitly recognizes the uncertainty and risks associated with attempting to forecast the future, and (2) recognizes adverse environmental impacts and reasonably accounts for environmental mitigation and restoration costs. As importantly, we urge the Corps to submit the model the agency proposes to use in the revised feasibility study for review and approval by the NRC panel.” For Immediate Release Contact: February 3, 2003 Melissa Samet, (415) 482-8150 Eric Eckl, (202) 347-7550 President’s FY 2004 Budget Supports Corps Reform (Washington, D.C.) The Bush Administration’s 2004 budget sends a clear signal to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), and is a bright spot for the environment according to American Rivers. The budget funds much needed restoration efforts while reducing or cutting funding for some harmful Corps projects. The Budget also identifies principles for improving the Corps’ program performance that mirror some key Corps reforms long sought by local, regional, and national environmental and taxpayer organizations. “The Budget couldn’t be clearer. The President wants the Corps and Congress to break with the failed practices of the past,” said Melissa Samet, Senior Director, Water Resources at American Rivers. “For the sake of the environment and the taxpayers, we hope the President will fight to make real Corps reform a reality.” The budget sends a strong signal that the Corps should not be building outdated, antiquated projects like the Yazoo Backwater Pumping plant in Mississippi. The President’s Budget provides no funding for the Yazoo Pumps. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned that the Yazoo Pumps will drain more than 200,000 acres of ecologically significant wetlands, including tens of thousands of acres that the federal government has already paid to protect. And an independent economic analysis commissioned by EPA shows that the project will return far less than one dollar of benefit for each tax dollar spend to build it. The Yazoo Pumps are opposed by EPA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, environmental and taxpayer organizations, and citizens from throughout the State of Mississippi and the nation. “Its high time that the government stopped asking taxpayers to subsidize wetland destruction,” said Samet. “Zeroing out funding for projects like the Yazoo Pumps protects the environment and makes more money available to serve real national needs.” Four out of the top nine budget and construction priorities identified in the President’s Budget are for environmental restoration efforts. The President’s priorities include the Upper Mississippi River System Environmental Management Program, Missouri River Fish and Wildlife Mitigation, Columbia River Fish Recovery, and Everglades Restoration. The Budget also identifies principles for improving program performance that mirror some of the reforms long sought by the environmental community. These include: *External Review of Corps projects to ensure use of sound and modern science, economics, and analytical techniques. *Pursuit of only those authorized projects that “meet current economic and environmental standards and that address contemporary needs.” *Pursuit of only those projects that provide “a very high net economic or environmental return to society relative to their cost.” *Prioritization of projects within a watershed based on the comparative net economic or environmental return. *Deauthorization of projects outside the Corps’ main mission areas, of navigation projects with extremely low commercial use, and of inactive projects. *Requiring local entities to pay their fair share for Corps projects. It is disappointing, however, that the Corps’ Flood Mitigation and Riverine Ecosystem Restoration program (“Challenge 21”), remains unfunded. The Challenge 21 program, which is designed to assist communities in implementing non-structural and sustainable solutions to reducing flood losses, has never been funded. Equally troubling is the Administration’s failure to propose sufficient funding for the Corps’ Section 1135 program, which allows the Corps to make modifications to existing Corps projects to improve the environment, and the Corps’ Section 206 program that provides for small-scale projects to restore aquatic ecosystems. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp