Lower Columbia River Recovery Act

A post hearing update:

The Columbia River Act was introduced along with reauthorization/authorizations for four other great water bodies. the Columbia River Restoration Act bill number is HB4652. No Senate number yet.

Senator Merkley gave excellent testimony to the needs of the entire Columbia River Basin. He was very complimentary of the Estuary Partnership and the work we have done. And he made noted that the Columbia continues to be the only great water body to receive no funding pursuant as a great water body.

Peter Silva, EPA Assistant Administrator for Water, testified for the five water bodies. Mr. Silva described the EPA large aquatic ecosystem program (aka great water bodies) in his testimony and he discussed their goals for the Columbia. In his concluding remarks, he expressed concern about not wanting to duplicate NEP and LAE efforts. You can hear or read all testimony at www.epa.senate.gov.

Senator Merkley’s staff felt the hearing went very well.

Following the I hearing, I met with staff from our delegation and I had the opportunity to personally thank Congressman Blumenauer and Congressman Baird for their sponsorship. Like all legislation, this will go through changes; we’re working on a few already with the Congressional offices. (I’ll work with EPA headquarters and Region 10 on the NEP/LAE issue. With the Columbia, the NEP is a very small subset of the basin, the duplication issue wouldn’t be the same as say Puget and Long Island Sound whose geographies for both the NEP and LAE are nearly the same.) We don’t know yet if there will be a hearing in the House and what the schedule is from here.

I think the Estuary Partnership has taken a great approach: we took our time to demonstrate our capabilities, support local efforts and fill gaps, and show results with the investment that was being made in us as a National Estuary Program before we asked for more money. And of course we are far from there! The Estuary Partnership will continue to work to ensure that the bill addresses our primary goal: get funding to expand our ability to implement the Management Plan, especially monitoring and toxic reduction actions.

All of the Delegation have been incredibly dedicated to this. Congressman Blumenauer’s DC and district staff and Senator Merkley’s DC have taken the lead on this --- and all the staff with Senators Wyden, Murray and Cantwell, Congressmen Baird, Wu, even Congressmen DeFazio and Walden who only have a small piece of our study area is in their districts, have been right there with us.

The hearing room and the event was impressive; it reminded me how important it is to see the processes of our government and understand its history. I wish every school kid could witness this at least once especially at our State level. Our Congressional members and State members have been so accessible to us.

Please let me know if you have questions, concerns or any thoughts about this,

Debrah

Executive Director

Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership

811 SW Naito Parkway, Suite 410

Portland, Oregon 97204

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We have very exciting news! The Columbia River Recovery Act will be introduced in U.S. Congress today. Senator Merkley from Oregon will introduce it in the Senate and Congressmen Blumenauer, Wu, and Baird will introduce it in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Estuary Partnership has been working for years to raise awareness for the Columbia River with Congress. We worked since 1995 to raise the stature of the estuary and in recent years extended our support for the entire Columbia River Basin. We appreciate EPA Region 10 elevation in 2006-2007 of the Columbia River Basin to one of its national priorities and the efforts of the Toxics Reduction Workgroup. As a reflection of the Estuary Partnership’s long term commitment and involvement with this work in Congress, Debrah was invited to testify in the Senate this week on behalf of the Columbia River Basin and the lower Columbia River Estuary.

We are delighted by the momentum this work has received from our entire Congressional delegation. We will keep you posted as things move along.

Sincerely,

Maggie Codding Jones

Development and Communications Specialist

Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership

811 SW Naito Parkway, Suite 410

Portland, OR 97204