|
 |
||
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
||
|
Tip
Sheet: Business, Law & Economics Tip sheets highlight timely news and events at Washington University in St. Louis. For more information on any of the stories below or for assistance in arranging interviews, please see the contact information listed with each story. For comments on the Business, Law & Economics news tips service, please contact the editor, Robert Batterson at (314) 935-5202 or batterson@olin.wustl.edu. Missouri River master plan is focus of July 10 Senate hearings Media assistance: Gerry Everding - (314) 935-6375 Source: William Lowry's Web site - (314) 935-5821 Related: Statement by U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) [St. Louis, Mo., July/August 2002] - As America commemorates the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark's epic expedition up the length of Missouri River, the United States remains locked in a 13-year political, economic and environmental stalemate over how the river and its flow should be managed. On July 10, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Water and Power began hearings on a much-debated and long-proposed management plan for the Missouri River, a plan under consideration since 1989. Describing the ongoing delays as "utterly absurd," U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) opened the hearings with a statement (http://dorgan.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=184451) calling for the Bush Administration to stop its delay tactics and get on with issuing the master plan.
"I'm not sure Dorgan offers much new about the whole debate, but I do agree with him that the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark trip gives some urgency to action," said Lowry, an associate professor of political science in Arts & Sciences. "My own sense is that it's time for Congress to step up to the plate and make some decisions of their own." In his forthcoming book, "The Politics of Restoring American Rivers" (Georgetown University Press, 2003), Lowry explores forces behind the increased willingness of U.S policymakers to consider new approaches to river management. These include the removal of dams on the Neuse and Kennebec rivers, the failed attempt to restore salmon runs on the Snake, the ongoing effort to simulate seasonal flows on the Colorado, and the long debate over how to manage the Missouri River to provide more natural conditions With hundreds of miles of river way, six major dams and storage capacity for more than 70 million acre feet of water, the Missouri River system ranks as North America's largest reservoir and as one of its most intractable water management quandaries. Proposed changes in Missouri River management have been hotly contested by a range of powerful interest groups: environmentalists, recreational users and the barge, transportation and agriculture industries. The debate has a direct impact on 10 million people in the eight Missouri River Basin states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Montana, Kansas, and Wyoming. Congress first requested a revised management plan in 1989, but specifics of the proposal remain mired in special interest politics. Most agree that an updated plan is long overdue. As Dorgan noted in his July 10 statement, the Army Corps of Engineers now manages the immense economic, environmental and recreational resources of the Missouri River using a master plan originally published in 1962. And, as the General Accounting Office reported a decade ago, the Corps' Missouri River management plans are based on assumptions made in 1944 about the amount of water needed for navigation and irrigation -- assumptions that are no longer valid and do not reflect the current economic conditions in the Missouri River Basin. "It is clear that the navigation interests yield about $7 million in economic benefits annually, while the recreation and tourism benefits yield about $80 million annually," Dorgan said. "Recreation and tourism are increasing, while barge traffic continues to decline." It is the balancing of multiple and competing interests such as these that make it especially challenging for federal agencies and politicians to undertake sweeping reforms in river management policies, said Lowry, who has researched and written extensively on the politics of the National Park System and other environmental issues. "I think the Corps is caught in a bind and doesn't know quite what to do," Lowry said. "They are getting intense pressure from all sides on the seasonal flow debate and can't make any decision without antagonizing some powerful constituents." According to Lowry, the ongoing debate over management of the Missouri and other rivers signals the onset of a new era in the way Americans manages its waterways. "Many people live by or near rivers, and all of us are affected by how they are managed," Lowry said. "Rivers are vital ecosystems, but beyond that, how we manage them says much about us as a people. Our ability to solve the political challenges of river management has interesting implications for the general ability of American society to change directions in public policies." |
|
News & Information Home | Office of Public Affairs | WUSTL Home
Please contact us and let us know how we can assist you. Technical problems with this Web site? Please contact news_bugs@aismail.wustl.edu. Please review the WUSTL News & Information copyright/privacy policy.
|