UMB Stewardship Initiative

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to provide the views of the Department of the Interior on H.R. 4013, the "Upper Mississippi River Basin Conservation Act of 2000."  The Administration supports many of the provisions of H.R. 4013; we especially appreciate the emphasis within the bill on the need for reliance on sound science.  The Administration has strong reservations concerning Title IV of H.R. 4013, which we will discuss later.  We also have concerns about the financial resources that would be required for the United States Geological Survey to carry out this bill.  Implementation of this bill would be subject to the availability of resources in the context of overall Administration priorities.  We are continuing to review H.R. 4013 and the Administration will be able to provide views on it at a later date.

The bill directs the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture, through the Natural Resources Conservation Service, to establish a cooperative effort to reduce sediment and nutrient loss in the Upper Mississippi River.  This would be accomplished through establishing a sediment and nutrient monitoring network; conducting sediment and nutrient modeling; conducting research and demonstration projects regarding best management practices; providing financial and technical assistance; and establishing advisory groups consisting of local, State, and Tribal stakeholders.

USGS has the scientific expertise to address a significant resource-management problem—nutrient and sediment loss in the Upper Mississippi River Basin.  As you know, nutrients and sediment in the Upper Mississippi River Basin and their relation to the hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico is a very controversial issue.  The USGS as a non-regulatory, non-advocacy, scientific agency collects additional monitoring data, conducts modeling and research, and examines the effectiveness of alternative management measures.  The information and analysis USGS provides, when linked to the fact that we do not serve as advocates, often helps to diffuse controversy that attends issues such as this.

The role identified for USGS in this bill is consistent with the bureau’s leadership role in monitoring, interpretation, research, and assessment of the health and status of the water and biological resources of the Nation.  As the Nation's largest water, earth, and biological science, and civilian mapping agency, USGS conducts the largest single ambient non-regulatory water-quality monitoring activity in the Nation.  The Office of Management and Budget (OMB Memo 92-1) established the Department of the Interior, through USGS, as the lead agency of the Water Information Coordination Program.

The overall purpose of the Program is to improve water information for decision making regarding natural resources management and environmental protection.  The Program works with all levels of government, Tribal interests, and the private sector through the Advisory Committee on Water Information, which identifies water information needs, evaluates the effectiveness of water information programs, and recommends improvements.

The USGS is an active member of the Mississippi River, Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force representing the DOI, Assistant Secretary for Water and Science. This Task Force, which has representation from Federal agencies, and State and Tribal governments in the basin, is charged with fulfilling requirements of The Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998, by preparing a plan for controlling hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico, and shares a common goal of improving water-quality conditions in the Mississippi River Basin.  This Task Force has expressed many of the same concerns as addressed in H.R. 4013, and has identified the importance of many of the same science and management activities as proposed in this bill.  Task Force discussions have emphasized the need for a science-based, adaptive management framework for its management action plan.  The USGS has had a lead role in the preparation of a science report that uses available water-quality information to define a recent baseline condition for nutrient sources and loads in the Mississippi River Basin – a baseline from which future water-quality trends and improvements will be measured.  This report identifies parts of the Upper Mississippi River Basin as having some of the highest nutrient yields in the basin.

As identified in H.R. 4013, an essential element of an efficient monitoring and interpretation program in support of nutrient and sediment management in the Upper Mississippi River is the incorporation of existing monitoring activities.  The USGS has offices in each of the five Upper Mississippi River Basin States.  These offices have a long history of conducting water-quantity and water-quality monitoring and assessment activities within the basin.  Existing USGS programs, such as our National Water-Quality Assessment Program, our National Stream Quality Accounting Network, and our Federal-State Cooperative Water Program, currently provide information on nutrients and sediment within the basin that would serve as a foundation for the activities proposed by this bill.

H.R. 4013 would also enable existing USGS monitoring and science programs in the Upper Mississippi River Basin to better meet future information needs by filling data gaps between existing programs and accelerating development of models.  These models are tools for defining how water-quality conditions are affected by human activities and natural climatic variations and how management actions may best improve water-quality conditions at a wide range of scales from the farm field to the main stem of the Mississippi River.  Furthermore, the bill will enable improved integration of activities conducted in cooperation with other Federal partners and will emphasize and expand the existing USGS role of coordinating and assisting State monitoring programs.  For example, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Partners for Fish and Wildlife program restores wetland habitat in watersheds across the country, including the Upper Mississippi River Basin.  The Service is available to apply its expertise to the reduction of sediment and nutrient loss in the basin through participation in demonstration projects, technical assistance, and working groups.

In addition, for the past 20 years, the USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) has provided research support in the Upper Mississippi River Basin to Department of the Interior agencies and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to address complex issues of navigation, contaminants, and other natural resource concerns.  More recently, this Center, which is based in La Crosse, Wisconsin, has developed an active partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service on sediment and nutrient concerns of the agencies.  For 15 years, the UMESC has provided the scientific and management leadership for the Long-term Resource Monitoring Program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s Environmental Management Program for the Upper Mississippi River Basin main stem rivers.  This monitoring program of water quality, fisheries, vegetation, land use, and other critical indicators of river health is the largest main stem river assessment program in the Nation.  The USGS leadership of this program documents the agency’s ability to conduct large-scale data collection and scientifically-based analyses, as well as to manage and serve extensive data files to resource managers and the public.

With regard to State efforts, the USGS also conducts monitoring activities in cooperation with many States and local governments in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Coordination and enhancement of these cooperating activities and ensuring that State data collection efforts adhere to standard practices would provide the needed scientific basis for implementation of sound, science-based management strategies in the Upper Mississippi River Basin.  We also recognize the need to ensure that future monitoring activities complement and do not duplicate State monitoring activities.

With regard to Title IV, it would generally prohibit the release or disclosure of information and data, collected pursuant to Federal conservation programs, to the public or any governmental agency outside the Department of Agriculture.  Passage of Title IV would make coordinated implementation of the wetlands provisions of the Clean Water Act and the Swampbuster provisions of the Food and Security Act extremely difficult.  For example, under Title IV, USDA would no longer be allowed to share its wetland delineations on agricultural lands with EPA or the Corps of Engineers, ending the coordinated implementation of these statutes and implementation of administrative reforms that provide a single point of contact for farmers.  In addition, Title IV would undercut Federal and State programs designed to control the discharge of pollutants and the degradation of wetlands by routinely depriving government agencies and the public of critical information concerning wetlands delineations, cropping histories, and prior converted crop land.

In summary, the bill contains provisions that the Administration supports and are well within the scope and expertise of USGS.  However, it also contains a very problematic provision restricting the use of data.

Finally, funding for the activities in H.R. 4013 is not included in the fiscal year 2001 President's Budget proposal, or the current versions of the House and Senate Interior appropriations bills.  Financial support for these activities would have to be redirected from ongoing USGS monitoring and data collection activities at a time when the USGS already faces significant budget constraints.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to present this testimony.  I will be pleased to answer any questions you and other members of the Subcommittee might have.