WSP01144 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

22120 000864 .. the coordinated planning of water and related land resourc~. and tor other purposes. Mr. MANSFIELD. Mr. President, I 8U~gest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk wlll call the roll. The legIslative clerk proceeded to call the roll. Mr. ANDERSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that further pro.. ceedings under the quorum call may be dispenSed with. r The PRESIDING OFFICER. WIth- out objection, It is so ordered. Mr. ANDERSON. Mr. President, I ask unanImous consent that the com.. mlttee amendments to B. 1111 may be agreed to en bloc Bnd that the blU. as so amended, be considered original text for the purpose of amendment. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the request by the Senator from New Mexico? The Chair hears none, and It Is 80 ordered. Mr. ANDERSON. Mr. PresIdent, the bm now belore the Semite, S. 1111, 1m- plements the report of one of the finest select committees ever created by this body-the Senate Select .Committee on National Water Resources. TIle comm.1ttee was authorized by Senate resolution 48 of the 86th Congress and was composed of members of the Public Works, Commerce, Agriculture and Forestry, and Interior and Insular AITalrs Committees. The late Senator Robert S. Kerr was Its chairman. Sen- ator THOMAS H. K'vCHlL of California. the dIstinguished minority whip, was vice chairman. Servtng on it were Den-. nIs Chavez, chairman of the Public Works Committee: Senator Allen El- lender, the distinguished chairman of the Agriculture and Forestry Commit- tee; Warren Magnuson, chairman ot the. Commerce Committee: Senator HellrJ' Jackson, the present chairman of the Interior and Insular Affalrs Conunlttee; - and such distinguished minority Bena-, tors as Senator Mllton Young of North Dakota, Andrew Schoeppel of Kansas, Francis Case of South Dakota, and Ben- ator Hugh Scott of pennsylvania. It was a blue-ribbon group, from both sides at the aisle. Hearings were held the. length and breadth at the Nation under the guid- ance of the chairman, Senator Kerr. The committee studIed firsthand In a great majority ot States the water prob- lems of each individual area. Wl1lle the hearings were being held, expetts on water and water':related re- sources In the Government and private life, prepared tor the committee a series of 32 studies pUblished as committee prints. An outstandlng authority on water problems has described these prtnts as t.he finest collection or: matel1al on the Nation's water resources ever brought mto 6 inches on shelf space-. it would take books. covering 1000 feet of shelving to find the same material a.nywhere else, and much of It could not be found elsewhere. On January 30, 1961, the eommlttee- ftled lto report and recommendatIons with the Benate. They bad found that six ty]>eB of water Il!Ol>leUlB confront the i I I I , I I. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SEl'ol.. TE December -' various area.s of the Nation: supply, dls- the same as the objectives in the pend- tributlon, natural quality, pollution, var.. log bill, as was much of the language. iabtuty, and floods. Title I of President Kennedy's bill pro.. The committee found that :five major vlded for a Federal Water Resources regions in the Nation w1ll have lnade- CounclI, giving It responsibility tor the quate water supply in 1980 to meet an- biennial water surveys, stimulation of ttcipated increases in population and river basin planning, and adm1n1stratlon economic activity even with full devel- of aid to the States. opment. They are: Title IT of President Kennedy's bill First. South pac11lc. proVided for the establishment of river Second. Colorado River Basin. basin planning commLssIons, Including Third. Great Basin-Utah. Nevada, representatives of the States, whose California. members would all. however, be ap- Fourth. Upper Rio Grande-Pecos. pointed by the President. Filth. Upper Missouri River Basin. TItle III of the Presldent.s bill pro- By the year 2000, the conunittee fore- vlded for $5 million aid to states each . saw supply shortages also in the upper year tor 10 years tor water resources Arkansas-Red River Basins, the west- planning, as proposed in bills then pend.. ern Great Lakes States, and the Loul- ing in Congress by Senator Kerr, chalr- slann-Texas western gulf areB. man of the select committee, and myself. Other major areps of the Nation, the In August 1961~ the Interior and In- committee found, would have adequate Bular Affairs Committee and the Public usable water only If they Invest billions Works Committee held Joint hearings on of dollars in pollution control, recycling, President Kennedy's bUI. There was a storage reservoirs to level out variable good deal of opposition to it from the sea.sonal :flows, and establish more em- States represented by the Interstate clent management practices. Conference on Water Problems and trom The whole great Industrial area of the water organizations. They wanted the United States from Boston south to bUl amended to declare that the states. Norfolk, Va.. and then sweeping west in had primary interest in water, to pro- a great band to Kansas City and Sioux vIde that planning could not be under- :Falls, B. Oak.. was found to be in the 1at- . taken In a bas~n unless two-thirds of the ter category-facing shortages of usable States requested It, and that the Com- water unless they spend billions to con- mIssion would have a voting arrB.llge- serve and manage it right. ment in which the States would pretty The Senate select committee made much dominate the decisions. The pres- five major recommendatlons. Short- ident's bill gave the Federal Government ened, they were: all at the final authorities. First. The Federal Government, in co- In 1962, the Interior and Insular AI- operation with the States, should. pre- fairs Committee held a further hearing pare and keep up to date plans for com- to receive the dctalled views of the state preheruslve water development and man- . governments as they had been gathered fl,gement for all major river basins In the by the Interstate Conference on Water United States. . Problems. The Conference submitted an Second.., The Federal Government extensively revised version of the bill should stimulate more active partlclpa- which was not acceptable to some of us tion by States In planning and undertak.. on the committee. But we felt that with Ing water development and management patience and diplomacy on both sides, an activities by setting up a 10-year pro- accePtable b1ll might be worked out. gram ot grants to the States tor water re... I regarded. thLs as an extremely im- GOurces p1a.nning. A minimum of $5 mll- portant project. I did not want to see lion should be made avallable annually the reports and the work ot the Senate tor matching by States. select committee entombed In the Third. The Federal Government Archives and forgotten as a dozen major should undertake a coordinated scientlftc water reports had been .filed and forgot- research program on water. ten In the past. Fourth. The Federal Government This country has been struggling since . should prepare biennially an assessment 1908 to do something about river basin of the water supply-demand outlOcE tor planning-a span of 55 years. On Feb- . each of the water resources regions at' rnary 3. 1908, President Theodore Roose- the United States. veU's Inland Waterways Commission Fifth. The Federal Government In co- recommended "prompt and vigorous ac- operation with the States should take tion by the States and Federal Govem- 6teps to encourage efficiency In water de- ment to this comprehensive plan for all velopment and use. the Nation's river basins." .There have The U.S. Senate has acted to lmple- been repeated efforts in the past half ment the third recommendation by the century to bring about that river basin passage of S. 2, the Water Resources Re- plan. They have succeeded in getting search Act, now under active consJdera- the Job done In less basins than there are tion by the House committee. 1lngers on one hand. President John F. Kennedy on July 13. Because of the increasing urgency of 1961, transmitted to Congress the orlgt- _ our water problems, committee mem- nal river basin planning bill. which be- bers and staff have spent weeks and came S. 2246 of the 87th Congress. Its months negotiating with representatives objectives-to proV:tde for development of the Interstate Conference on Water of comprehensive river basin plans, blen- Problems and the various water organi- nJal assessments. at regional water needs zatloDB on an acceptable b1ll. and. supplles, aid to the States. and en.. In these negotlatlons, agreement was couragement of more e~c1ent water de- flrst reached that the bill would be kep~ velopment, management, and use-were enUrely' out of the Federal versus state ,. .. .. ~.!.