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Water Projects Are Drying Up as Lawnlukers j/eel Budget lleal By Ward Sinclair Wuhlnil-<>n POO Stall Wnu. On the surface, it appeared that Rep. Robert E. Wise Jr. (D.\\',Va.), a rookie who has hardly been here long enough to be intimidated, had bLoomed one of those rare first.time- at-bat home runs into the bleachers. Wise persuooed the House this month to vote against its powerful Appropriations Committee and kill a $26 million appropriation fot the, Stonewall Jackson 1l00d-conlrol dam in his home district. The committee is rarely rever.led on water projecls, but this time 8 freshman did so-and by a thump- ing 213 to 161. He did it in part by getting other freshmen, Democrats and Republicans, conservativ~ and liberals, to go along with him. No one is ready to say that Con- gress is breaking its dam habit, but there are signs that the traditional pork barrel is filling leSs readily than in the past. Environmentalists long critical of costly water-resources pro- jects are finding new, unacCusto'med allies among fiscal conservatives, "Ves, the mood is' changing,- agreed Rep. Tom Bevill (D.Ala.), chairman of the Appropriations sub- committee that provides the money for locks, dams, lakes, dredging pro. jects and other goodies supposed to .....arm constituents' hearts. "With the big budget deficit and the critical eronomic bind that the country is in, Congress is going to be more cautious-and rightly so, - he saic!, One of those flashing the caution light is Rep, Gerald B. Solomon (R. N.Y,), a fISCal conservative who last year engineered passage of, an amendment requiring reclamation beneficiaries to reimburse Uncle Sam for $650 million worth of dam safety improvement.!. That WBS reo garded as an audacious move, for it went counter to' a pet of retiring Rep. John J, Rhodes (R.Ariz.), -Six years ago, when I carne here," Solomon said, -an amendment like mine would have gone dO....ll to It resounding defeat. But everyone is now concerned about budget deficits . . , . J believe the beneficiaries of federal water projects should con. tribute based on the benefits they receive, , ,. We've made significant headway in the last several yean in getting that across" Bevill's and Solomon's views are supported by a series of votel\ OIL water issues in recent months con. - firming that time!, are changing, per- haps more in the House than the Senate, but changing nonetheless. Some examples: . The House energy and water. appropriations bill left out a $22 mil- lion Reagan administration budget request for the large and controver- sial Garrison irrigation project in North Dakota. And last December, in the continuing resolution, the House denied $4 million for Garrison by 100 votes. . Similarly, the, House bill omitted money for the O'Neill irri. gation project in Nebraska. The House in Oeceptber voted against any more money for O'Neill by a WI-vote margin, . The House overwhelmingly 'Voted against a bill that would have required the federal government lu spend $1.8 million on replacement pump casings for the Southern Ne- vada WaU!r Project In effect, the House said make the users pay, Longtime environmental lobbyists Ed Osann of the National Wildlife Federation and Pete Carlson of the Environmental Policy Center agree tilere has been a change on the Hill. "The fiscaJ arguments now pro. vide an acceptable rationale for a large number of members who would not be with us on environmental grounds: Osann said. Carlson added, -With the budget clouds looming overhead, many of these members no longer have to go along to get along. They can look at these projec18 on their merits and vote against them if they don't measure up.. . There's another factor at work in the equation: pressure 10 build pro- jects. Controversy and overreach by the authorizing committe~ have combintd,.to prevent Congress from passing a major W8U!r resources au. thorization bill since 1976, even though flood-control and navigation, needs have continued to mount. President Carter's attempts in 1977 to stop the porkiest projects and the Reagan administration's in. sistence that states, local communi- ties and users pay a larger share of project costs have contributed in a major way to the impasse. Cmgresa, complaining about administration inflexibility on cost-sharing, has re- . fused to provide money for 14 new Corps of Engineers projects sought by the While House. William R. Gianelli, assistant sec. retary of the Army for civil .....orks, insisls that the administration's vie....'S on cost-sharing and user fees be adopted before new projecls are allowed. Congressional resistance to the hard line was characterized this way by an aide to Senate Appropriations Chairman Mark 0, Hatfield (R. Ore,): -Gianelli hasn't handled it well. He has come forward with a unilateral administration policy, yet he wllnts new projects on their terms , , . . If they demand huge amounts of money up front from beneficiar. ies, especially those that are hard. pressed, Congress won't 1:0 along." Feelings thus still run high, and if Congress has changed on the surface, it. may not have changed under. neath, One sign was the quick reac. tion that Wise's victory provoked in the Senate. West Virginia's Democratic sen, ators, Minority Leader Robert C. Byrd and Jennings Randolph, both strong supporU!rs of the $205 million Slonewall Jackson, got on the tele- phone and began calling House members to ask for their votes if the dam issue surfaced ngain there. It is almost certain to surface again, because Byrd got the Senate Appropriations Committee to put the Stonewall money back in the bill, which will make the issue a topic of a House.Senate conference to work out differences, MI intend to reach everyone [in the Housel that J can: Byrd said. "I know of nothing in the law, no moral reason for me not to make c.all:i. That project wus autilorizcd after the due proces.s of hellfin!:s and un Army Corps of Engineel'li recommen, dation for it J have worked. for it fot years, and I'm not going to t.o.ke this lying down. "I have no feelings against Mr, Wi~e, lJUt it's my di~lrict, too. I'm doing what I feci I .hould do for West Virl:inilln:i. f'll be Ii conferee. J'm not going to Lake lUlything lyinJ:" down. Any member here, faced wilh having a project like thill knocked out, would say the &ame thing: North Dakota Sens. Marlc. An. drews (H) and Quentin N, Burdick (0) also got the Senate Appropria- tions Committee to put $22 million back into the bill for the Garri:olOn irrigation project., which has divided farmers in the state and betn sharp. ly criticized by Canadions who fear it will endanger the fishing indwlry in Manitoba. Garrison, too, willl.le a House.Senate conference item. liut Nebraskllllli, ~eing the hand. WEDNESDAY, wriling on the fucal wall, have t.tun another approach on the O'Nejll controversy, Sen, J, James Exon 10. Neb.) hns won approval oC a stody of lower-CQ8t .Itern.ative:l, hoping some. how to save the project The fre,hm&n from West Virginia. Wise, hns picked up II special ta5te of cont:res&ional uaJity from his vic. tory in the Howa. -I'm coming vul of this with ,000 lltld bad imprn. aioM,- he aaid, MI fetl good be<-a\1.'>e of the win. Dul this fight seems to Nave t.r:r.ken on more imporwnct: thoin $26 million and an ool.ttd dam, '1'00 many chipl are bting called in. Anytime a ,~'s ioerUor Ioellator and the Sensu minority 1eadtr art makin&: phont: calls, the sLak..t.a are larger than thia small dam. It', being fought not on the meril.a, but on pt-r. 8tmal and political appea!.. WL<.e added, -'The boys tire playing hard- ball. Tho question now is whether the HOU'MI will r~pl."C't. my amtnd- ment. If. ..o..ome vote CM.1I't bend a m~c to the confert-ea. we've got tome concerna,.,.- JUNE 22, 19B3 art d5bington os1