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flO'l5W' . ESTERN TATES ATER ,"'<>""\ r"".\-' . \ ,"f ~~-~- i > .____-oJ~-. L.;..".-.l;;';';'-' September 9. t994 Issue No. 1060 THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER OF THE WESTERN STATES WATER COUNCIL Creekview Plaza, Suite A-20ll 942 East 7145 So. 1 MidvaIe, Utah 84047 1 (801) 561-5300 1 FAX (801) 255-9642 Chairman - Larry Anderson; Executive Director - Craig Bell; Editor - Tony WiIIardson; Typist - Carrie Curvin WATER RESOURCES Floodplain Management and Environmental Restoration . Responding to a report recently issued by a floodplain managemen.t review committee established by the Administration, Senator Baucus (D-MT) has introduced S. 2418, the "Floodplain Management, Environmental Restoration, and Recreation Act of 1994." According to staff sources, Senator Baucus, Chair of the Senate Environment and. Public Works Committee, hopes to move directly to committee markup without hearings and to incorporate the bill, or substantial portions thereof, as part of the biennial Corps of Engineers reauthorization bill. still pending before the Congress. In his remarks introducing the bill August 24th, Baucus states: "Congress still has time to incorporate some of the recommendations of the flood task force into current law, and we have an obligation to move quickly." (Cong. Rec. S 12468) . The bill would amend the Water Resources Planning Act to designate the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality as the Chairman of a resuscitated . Water Resources Council. The Council would "serve as the primary center for assistance concerning the coordination and resolution of interstate and interagency water resources management issues." It would also prepare by March 1, 1996 a report to be submitted to Congress evaluating the efforts of the Secretary of the Army to change the poliCies and practices of the Army Corps of Engineers concerning the use of structural solutions to water resources management problems: The Council would also oversee the activities of the Upper Mississippi River. Flood Management Coordinating Committee, the Lower Mississippi River Management Coordinating Committee, and the Missouri . Riller Flood Management Coordinating Committee, established under separate sections of the bill. The Missouri Coordinating Committee WOUld be established as a subcommittEle of the Missouri River Basin Association. Like the. other coordinating committees, it would review and recommend approval or disapproval of projects developed under new. program . authority for the "planning, construction and evaluation of measures for fish and wildlife habitat restoration and enhancement, long-term resource monitoring, and planning and construction of recreation projects." Besides the governors of the states within the Missouri River Basin, the new coordinating committee would also include the Secretary of Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Transportation. The new organization on the Missouri and the two on the Mississippi would also be charged with developing a . comprehensive river basin management .plan that addresses "the long-term ecological, economic, and flood controi needs" ofihe respective basins. The bill would also change the determination of flood control benefits associated with a proposed.water. resources project, provide for use of funds for non- structural measures, establish new directions regarding levy maintenance and repair, and create a "Missouri River Floodway Project" for which the Secretary of the Army would pay the federal share of up .to 80% for purchasing "from willing sellers" lands along the Missouri River between Sioux City, Iowa and St. Louis, Missouri. The bill would also establish a separate buyout program for purchase of lands. or easements and relocation of willing sellers in other flood prone areas. Title II of the bill deals with environmental protection and recreation. Among other things, it requires a mandatory review of constructed projects to determine the need for environmental restoration projects to