House
passes FY2010 energy & water appropriations bill; Senate bill clears full
committee
On Friday, the U.S. House of
Representatives passed the FY2010 energy & water appropriations bill
(H.R.3183) with a vote of 320-97. This spending
bill funds the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Energy, and Bureau
of Reclamation.
The House bill funds the Corps at $5.5B
for FY2010, which runs from October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2010. The Bureau of Reclamation would receive
$1.1B.
Several amendments were offered to
remove specific earmarks; all were defeated.
An amendment from Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R, TN-7) would have cut funding
for all programs in the bill by 5%, and was also defeated.
Construction: $2.12 billion
O&M:
$2.5 billion
Investigations: $142 million
The budget for the agency was $5.4B in FY2009, and has
been proposed for $5.1B by the Administration for FY2010. The House bill proposes $5.5B, an increase of
$416M over the Administration budget.
PNWA members will also remember that the Corps received $4.5B in the
stimulus package (ARRA), with many Northwest navigation projects receiving
critical investment.
PNWA has been working with our Northwest
Congressional delegation to increase funding for several Northwest projects. The House project tables indicate that the following PNWA-supported navigation projects are
recommended for funding increases:
-
Elliott
Bay seawall study, unfunded in budget, $800K in House bill (supported by Reps.
Dicks, Larsen and McDermott)
-
Coos
Bay O&M, $4.591M in budget, $5.091M in House bill (supported by Rep.
DeFazio)
-
Siuslaw
O&M, $647K in budget, $817K in House bill (supported by Rep. DeFazio)
The Senate's version of FY2010
energy & water appropriations (S.1436) has passed the full Senate
Appropriations Committee, and now awaits floor time for eventual passage. The Senate bill proposes to keep funding at the $5.4B level,
an increase of $280M over the Administration's budget. The Senate bill follows the President's
budget proposal fairly closely.
The following PNWA-supported
navigation projects are recommended for funding increases in the Senate bill:
-
Lower
Monumental Lock and Dam, $2.735M in budget, $6.735M in Senate bill (supported
by Sen. Murray)
-
Elliott
Bay seawall study, unfunded in budget, $255K in Senate bill (supported by Sens.
Murray and Cantwell)
-
Coos
Bay O&M, $4.591M in budget, $5.043M in Senate bill (supported by Sens.
Wyden and Merkley)
-
Columbia
River at Baker Bay (Port of Ilwaco), $86K in budget, $727K in Senate bill
(supported by Sens. Murray and Cantwell)
-
Columbia
River between Chinook and Sand Island (Port of Chinook), $7K in budget, $847K
in Senate bill (supported by Sen. Murray)
-
The
Senate also added language directing the Corps to be flexible in addressing the
needs of the Ports of Ilwaco and Chinook, including saving money by combining
the projects into a single mobilization.
The Senate bill also included $3M for
the Bureau of Reclamation to fund the PNWA-supported Odessa Subarea Special
Study.
Once the Senate passes their bill,
the House and Senate committees will appoint conferees to meet and iron out the
differences between the two bills. The
eventual compromise bill will need to be passed again by both chambers before
being sent to the President to be signed into law.
PNWA's updated FY2010 navigation funding
document can be found at www.pnwa.net. Please note
that PNWA's document will continue to be updated when the House and Senate
committees conference the bill, as well as with any changes provided by
regional Corps officials regarding navigation-oriented capabilities at projects
our members support.
PNWA staff contact: Kristin Meira
|
Columbia River channel deepening's
final major contract awarded
On
July 16th, the Portland District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
awarded the final major construction contract associated with the Columbia
River Channel Improvement Project. The
$51.9 million contract was awarded to J. E. Mc Amis Inc. out of Chico, CA. The contract includes $26.6 million in
funding from the stimulus package, as well as funding from FY2009 energy &
water appropriations and non-federal sponsors.
This
contract will allow the Corps to begin removing one mile of rock near St.
Helens in November 2009. All dredging
work is expected to be finished by December 2010, completing the 103-mile-long
project and fully deepening the navigation channel from the mouth of the Columbia
River to the Ports of Portland and Vancouver to its authorized depth of 43 feet.
PNWA
staff contact: Kristin Meira
|
PNWA submits comments on CEQ's proposal to revise
Corps' Principles and Guidelines
In the Water Resources
Development Act (WRDA) passed in 2007, Congress directed the Secretary of the
Army to revise the Economic and Environmental Principles and Guidelines for
Water and Related Land Resources Implementation Studies (P&Gs). The P&Gs are used to evaluate water
resource development projects prior to authorization. Under the Bush
Administration, the Corps and OMB each drafted revisions in 2008 and requested
public comments. Neither drafted a final version.
Now, the Council on
Environmental Quality (CEQ) is leading the Obama Administration's effort. CEQ is part of the White House, and coordinates
federal environmental efforts and works closely with agencies and other White
House offices in the development of environmental policies and initiatives.
The current P&Gs were
written in 1983, and directed agencies to consider National Economic
Development benefits and consider environmental impacts. The Administration's
new effort will take a "more balanced approach, looking at all benefits and impacts,
monetary and non-monetary", according to CEQ. The P&Gs were originally
designed to address new projects prior to Congressional authorization. The proposed
revision will apply to work proposed both pre- and post-authorization. Another
change is that the original applies primarily to Corps and Bureau of
Reclamation projects. The revision is proposed to apply more broadly to any
federal agency engaging in water resource projects.
The first phase will be a
revision of the Principles section. Once that is finalized, the Guidelines on
how to implement the Principles section will be drafted. CEQ expects to
complete a draft of the Principles, and put it out for public comment. CEQ will send that draft to the National
Academy of Sciences for comment. Publication of a final draft of the Principles
appears to be a year or more away.
On behalf of our membership, PNWA
submitted written comment to CEQ regarding their proposal to begin revising the
P&Gs. In these comments, we
recommend CEQ consider several policy changes as they embark on a revision of
the Principles:
- Consider regional
economic development benefits when determining whether a project may move
forward.
- Implement peer
review as directed by Congress and do so early on, rather than at the end of
the study. This will ensure that projects move forward in a timely manner,
- Include data on
fish landings in setting project and funding priorities.
- Analyze only
alternatives based on some existing federal authority, whether it be the Corps
or another agency.
- Develop surrogate
measures for Endangered Species Act and other environmental benefits that can
be added to the quantitative economic benefits when setting project and funding
priorities.
PNWA looks forward to working
with CEQ to address our concerns as this process begins. To view PNWA's comments in full, please visit www.pnwa.net/new/Environment.aspx.
PNWA staff contact: Kristin Meira
|
PNWA published in the
Sunday Oregonian
As part of our work to defend navigation in the FCRPS BiOp
lawsuit, PNWA recently responded to the July 11 Oregonian guest opinion "The salmon stalemate sheds light on global warming conflicts to come". The PNWA letter to the editor "Don't breach dams" was published on Sunday, July 19 in The Oregonian and voiced our
continued support the Snake River dams and the economic and environmental
benefits they provide to our region. The
PNWA letter highlighted improved fish runs on the Columbia and Snake Rivers,
unprecedented collaboration between states, tribes and federal agencies, and
the environmental repercussions of dam removal.
To read the PNWA letter in full, please log on to our website at www.pnwa.net.
PNWA Staff contact: Heather Stebbings
|
