Tuesday, December 18, 2007

U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Floor Statement on Water Language in Federal Spending Bill
Remarks as Delivered on the Senate Floor

Mr. President, I associate myself entirely with the remarks of the distinguished Senator from Georgia. Secondly, I express my appreciation to Senator Reid for his attempt when this was discovered to allow us a chance to debate the merits of the proposal in division C of section 134 of the Omnibus appropriations act. Unfortunately, that could not be done. Senator Chambliss and I are left with expressing our deep disappointment on the floor of the Senate tonight.

I ask unanimous consent to print in the Record the complete article of a December 18, 2007, front-page article from the Marietta Daily Journal entitled "Drought Talks to Speed Up."

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:

[From the Marietta Daily Journal, Dec. 18, 2007]

Drought Talks To Speed Up
(By David Royse)

TALLAHASSEE, FLA.--The governors of three drought-stricken Southeastern states agreed Monday to speed up talks on sharing water during scarcities, hoping to end a nearly 18-year fight over the issue by March.

The governors of Florida, Alabama and Georgia and federal officials also agreed not to reduce for now the minimum amount of water that will flow into the Apalachicola River, which feeds a major oyster breeding ground in the Florida Panhandle. That eases the minds of some fishermen and Florida officials--they had feared the flow could be further reduced to meet drinking water needs in Atlanta. Florida's Charlie Crist, Georgia's Sonny Purdue and Alabama's Bob Riley said they agreed that their staffs will continue to work together to come up with a plan for dolling out the region's water by March 15.

That was hopeful news to fishermen along the Panhandle Gulf Coast, who were looking at the prospect of water flows remaining lower than they say they can tolerate until June 1, when an interim agreement on flow levels originally had been set to expire. Now, there's a possibility of agreeing on raising the amount of water coming into Florida earlier.

"We're cautiously optimistic," said Kevin Begos, the director of the Franklin County Oyster & Seafood Task Force.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, who also participated, said he was pleased the governors have agreed to try to end the states' nearly two decades of disagreement on the issue as early as this spring.

"This was real. It was meaningful," Kempthorne said. "The atmosphere today reinvigorates me that we can get this done."

One of the worst droughts in years in the Southeast has created a sense of urgency, all three governors acknowledged.

"We're talking about solving something we've been working on for 18 years within the next two months," Riley said.

The fast-growing Atlanta area gets most of its water from Lake Lanier, at the head of the river basin shared by the states. But drawing more water from the lake means less for downstream uses in Alabama and Florida.

Alabama is concerned about water for the Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant, near Dothan.

Florida is concerned about freshwater flowing into Apalachicola Bay, a prime shellfish producing area, that produces about 1 in 10 of the oysters eaten in the country.

The amount of freshwater flowing through the Apalachicola-Chathoochee-Flint river system into the Gulf at the mouth of the Apalachicola River has been reduced to near historic lows, threatening the fishing industry there.

The flow increased in recent days because of a downpour over the weekend, but it had been reduced to a level that fishermen had said wouldn't sustain their industry. Making them more nervous, U.S. Corps of Engineers officials had said they might reduce the flow further. And it wasn't likely to be renegotiated until June 1.

At a Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority meeting on Monday, authority General Manager Glenn Page said that for the first time since May, the level of Lake Allatoona increased.

At full pool, Lake Allatoona is 840 feet above sea level. Page said the lake on Monday was at 819.15 feet, about 5.5 feet below average for this time of year. On Friday, the lake level was 818.88 feet.

But fishermen have said that to keep the low amount of water going into the bay through the spring spawning season would devastate the industry.

Crist said he understands the needs of the bay's fishermen and oystermen, who complained in a recent meeting that the river mouth and bay are already so salty that oysters can't survive. Speeding up the timeline could mean earlier relief.

"Florida's oyster industry faces an uncertain spring, due to the current drought," Crist said. "Spawning season is critical to our northwest Florida economy."

Crist also hinted that Georgia might need to increase its conservation--noting Florida has made moves to cut use since the drought began.

"We all share the difficulties of the current drought--all three of our states must provide for comprehensive water conservation efforts," Crist said.

None of the governors, however, would talk specifics about where their chief remaining obstacles lie.

Water flows into the bay are also a concern for environmentalists, who worry about the effect of less water on other species besides oysters.

The endangered Gulf sturgeon, and two species of mussel, the fat threeridge and the threatened purple bankclimber, are also imperiled by lower flows.

In early December, authorities said there was less than four months of available water left in Lake Lanier. Perdue said recent reductions in flow that Florida opposed have aided in raising the lake's level.

"The flow reductions have helped, the ability to recover some of the rainfall and store that has helped," Perdue said. "But we've got to have a protocol that determines how we're going to share in times of scarcity, and that's what we're all trying to figure out."

Just last week, Florida water managers approved restrictions on water use in the southern part of the state. Starting early next year, outside watering will only be allowed once a week from Orlando south to the Keys.

The meeting also follows a major agreement signed last week that will allow seven western states to conserve and share Colorado River water, ending a divisive battle among those states.

I would like to read one sentence from that article: Governors Charlie Crist of Florida, Sonny Perdue of Georgia, and Alabama's Bob Riley said "that their staffs will continue to work together to come up with a plan for doling out the region's water by March 15."

That common goal stated by those three Governors today in Florida puts us within less than 90 days' reach of what has been out of the grasp of the States of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida for 18 years, since 1989. At the last minute, because of a broken process for an Omnibus appropriations bill to contain legislation that directs, potentially limits, or sets the parameters by which the Corps of Engineers might be able to implement control of the waterways is just not right. It is my sincere hope at some time in the future those who might have thought this was a good idea will recognize it is actually contrary to what we in the Senate from the three States have attempted to do when we had a summit in Washington less than 2 months ago with our three Governors and the Secretary of the Interior.

There is no more precious gift than water, no better and more precious resource than water. There also is nothing better in the legislative process than a spirit of cooperation between each of us who shares borders in our States so as to find the right way to solve problems, not have dilatory tactics to postpone or delay problems.

I conclude by expressing my deep disappointment that the Omnibus appropriations bill contains division C, section 134, which has those potentially limiting factors and urge my colleagues to look to the future to find solutions, rather than a way to protract and delay and find confusion.