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<br />Page 5 WRW washn x x x bill
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<br />The 1991 energy and water development appropriation bill is due
<br />to come up directly in the Senate. The Senate version provides a
<br />total of $20,782,405,000 in new obligational budget authority (BA)
<br />for fiscal year (FY) 1991 beginning October 1990 for federal water
<br />and power agencies and several independent federal agencies. The
<br />House-passed bill provided a total of $20,775,518,000 for these
<br />agencies. Both are record or near-record sums. The Senate bill pro-
<br />vides $3,436,362,000 for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers civil works
<br />program for 1991; the House-passed bill provided $3,562,291,000 for
<br />515 Corps water projects in planning and construction under Title I.
<br />The Senate bill provides $948,034,000 for the BU/Rec; the House-pass-
<br />ed bill provided $957,109,000 for 122 Bu/Rec water projects in plan-
<br />ning and construction under Title II. The Senate bill provides $15,
<br />762,039,000 for the Department of Energy (DOE), primarily to move
<br />forward with clean-up of nuclear wastes at DOE defense installa-
<br />tions. (See last week's WRW.) The House-passed bill provided $15,
<br />640,486,000 for DOE under Title III. The Senate bill provides $635,
<br />970,000 for several independent agencies included in the bill. The
<br />House-passed bill provided $615,632,000 for these agencies.
<br />For the BU/Rec, the largest sum in the Senate bill is $198,466,
<br />000 for continued construction of the Central Arizona project, $3.5
<br />million less than allowed by the House. The next largest sum in the
<br />Senate bill is $81,773,000 for continued construction of the Bonne-
<br />ville Unit of the Central Utah Project, the same as the House allow-
<br />ed. The Senate bill provides $35 million for the Garrison project in
<br />North Dakota, $5 million more than allowed by the House. The Senate
<br />bill provides $13,415,000 for the Animas-LaPlata Project in Colorado
<br />and New Mexico, the same as allowed by the House, despite a recent
<br />draft report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the endanger-
<br />ed squawfish affected by this project. The Senate bill directs the
<br />Bu/Rec to use $500,000 to continue work on the Velarde community
<br />ditch project in New Mexico. The Senate bill provides up to $250,000
<br />in funding out of the BU/Rec $6.4 million technology/environmental
<br />research program "to continue studies... (on) mine water treatment and
<br />related problems in the... Leadville, Colo., area," in addition to
<br />$3,360,000, the same amount as provided by the House, to continue
<br />rehabilitation work on the Leadville mine drainage tunnel.
<br />In the water technology field, the Bu/Rec was given $14,085,000
<br />for fiscal 1991 in the energy and water funding bills to finish in
<br />the next year a desalting plant at Yuma, Ariz., plus $210,000 for
<br />fish and wildlife mitigation features to be built into the plant.
<br />This desalter is designed to produce up to 73 million gallons of de-
<br />salted water per day, or about 67,000 acre-feet per year, by treating
<br />drainage return flows from the Well ton-Mohawk project near Yuma. It
<br />will salvage drainage water from Wellton-Mohawk, desalt it, and put
<br />it into the Colorado River to provide a portion of the water deliver-
<br />ies that the U.S. must make to Mexico under the U.S.-Mexican Colorado
<br />River treaty. Two status reports on the Yuma desalter released this
<br />month indicate $180 million has been spent on the plant to date, out
<br />of a total project cost of $262 million. The remaining costs are
<br />mainly to buy plant materials and for a support system.iii-HCM-30-
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