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Pat Ramold, I'r(',~ident Riparian :h,~ociati()n Seb,.a..~ka ('it:,>, ;\'ebra..~ka First of alii want to t"xplain what riparian mean:" It means lowland farmer. So when we formt-d this as- sociation we thoug-ht that fit us so we call Durseln''' the Riparian Association. The inct"ption of this caml' forth in 19i1, thl:'n we sort of wt-nt to slet"p and hayt" become very actiw in the last thrh' or four ~'ears due to the flooding. I also want to thank my Hoard of Din..nors, most of whom are here. We haw somt" lowland farmer~ up and down the ri\'er almost to the muuth of the ~lis' souri RiYer and I am proud to see you ht"re, You art" not listed on the atiendance list becau:<f' I wanted to pay for it all in one time. I am kind of consf'rYatiyf' that way, I want to thank Congressman Lightfoot for gt'tting us togetht'r and also the :\IBSA. I would hate to think ofthi:, organization not bf'ing funded, becaust' I havt" had the most cooperation from Don and ~tr, Peterson and I feel badly it will not he a ]astin~ thing. We want to thunk again the ~tissouri Basin States Association for pro\'iding the timt' slots and the op- portunity to make our remarks on the issUl;>s at hand, :\amely, flood control slon!! tht, :\lii'souri Hi\'er from Sioux City to Kansas City to tht' mom h, We want to insure economic stability among Ollr riparian farmN'; and to lessen human misery among that same group of people, It has been alnlOst a constant Ilo"d the ht.t- ter part of this decade. It's not the intent of the Hi- parian Association to prt'sume that other conl1icts within the ba:,in ~ystE'm are It's~ important than the llood control of the riparian farmer, But rather in thf' task of informing tho~e in control of our plij:ht and how be~t we can ,.:erve them and ho.... hest they can serve u~, Taking from the language of the Flood Control Act of 1944, thi", i" some of the most fertile land in the entirt" world. This is thf' basi,. of (hE' whole sy:'tem of the ~Iissouri Riwr that i:, in force today. We .....ill, ho.....ewr, in the long \'iew remain firm in our com'ic" tions and lirm]y support the riparian farmers in tht' lloodplains. We are a voice for ag:ricuhure and we do feel .....e are repre:'enting about :2 million acres of land. " Pat Ramold Pat Ramold, PreSIdent 01 the Rapanan ASSOCIation, was an educator tor thirteen years and 8 pobbc otllCJal lot 8IQI11 years. both as a coonI)' COI'IVT1tSSiooe and as c:ounl)' cler1l.. :\othing is as beautiful as the ~lissOllri Riwr .....hen it's hehaving itself, and nothing is as ugly when ifs not behaving itself. I had one of my memhers tell me a .....hile ago that tht'y fl"e] Jih a floating cork most of the time. It's \'ery true because Duane sho.....ed some pictures and I ha\'e :'OO1e piclllft.s that hB\'t' bt'en taken o\'er a three-year period. and tht' tremendnu>i loss .....e ha\'e hud is unbearable to our farml'r, to our ~.:oung person. and 10 people my age that ha\'e gotten used to it, but it's still unbearahle. We don't want to alienate anyone of the b€'nefits of tht' ri\'er becaust' we kno..... that ri\'er is in place. Thank goodness they thought of it at that time flffauf;€, w€' couldn't afford it no...... They did it at tht. right time. Their foresight ht'lped them put it in place and what we haw 10 do is liw .....ith what tht'y did and what we\'e done. We'w g-ot to make this thing work. Our association wants to impress and fo{'us on the immense investment that lies within the scope of this basin. I think in this Pick-Sloan Act they were talking about 1.8 million acres, I use that, but I think it is more than that with some of the accretion land that has been formed since that limf'. Some of Ihis land is outside thE' !evE'E', But ag'ain, that land has changed hands, the prior owner if: no lungE'r (here, he's probably dead. We art' not aware of the give and takt' at that timt' and ho..... that It''we .....as huilt, The r('venue de. partments in all the state!' de{'jded this is one of the most precious bits of land ther(' is, they\e nicknamed it the breadbasket ufthe world, and they certainly tax it like that. We haw to live with that. Our taxt's alone are around ;~6 million dollars if I take an awrage amount pt"r acre. I don.t think we are going to lost' 1.8 million acres to lloodinj: at one time, but I can saft']y say a million acrt's is not out of the ballpark. W(' have a real problem and we are bsnkmpting: a lot of young farmN;: and we ar(' making a lot of old farmers wry tired and \'ef)' an~f)' and read.... to quit. I think it's interesting to know the reaMm the whole systE'm was built was beeausE' of a political thing. Thirty-fivE' million dollar:, W8!' lost in a 11000 in 194:1,