WATERSHED RESTORATION ACTS 



TUESDAY, JULY 19, 1994 



House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Envi- 

 ronment and Natural Resources, Committee on 

 Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 



Washington, DC. 



The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:10 a.m., in room 

 1334, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Gerry E. Studds 

 [chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding. 



Members present: Representatives Studds, Hochbrueckner, 

 Unsoeld, Furse, Hamburg, and Gilchrest. 



Staff present: Daniel M. Ashe, Staff Director; Frank Lockhart, 

 Professional Staff; Suzanne J. Waldron, Press Secretary; Marvadell 

 Zeeb, Legislative Clerk; Margherita Woods, Minority Staff Assist- 

 ant; Sharon McKenna, Minority Professional Staff. 



STATEMENT OF HON. GERRY E. STUDDS, A U.S. REPRESENTA- 

 TIVE FROM MASSACHUSETTS, AND CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMIT- 

 TEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES 



Mr. Studds. The Subcommittee will come to order, as best it can. 



Over 20 years ago, and with the help of young Turks like John 

 Dingell, this Committee had a hand in several pieces of legislation 

 that marked the birth of what we now know as the environmental 

 movement. Laws like the Endangered Species Act, the Marine 

 Mammal Protection Act, the National Environmental Policy Act 

 (NEPA), and the Coastal Zone Management Act helped define the 

 environmental movement and have been invaluable for correcting 

 many of the problems that occur when economics override all other 

 concerns. 



However, as good as these laws have been in helping to prevent 

 further damage to the environment, our past investments in envi- 

 ronmentally damaging activities continue to pay dividends of de- 

 struction today. The preventative medicine of NEPA, Endangered 

 Species Act (ESA), the Clean Water Act, and other environmental 

 laws is vital, but we now need to begin the search for a cure to the 

 decades-old disease of environmental degradation. We need to 

 make the patient whole and healthy again. 



Today's hearing is about restoration of the aquatic environment. 

 So far, Federal restoration efforts have addressed this need on a 

 case-by-case basis. In the restoration of our Nation's aquatic 

 ecosystems, examples of this approach abound. This step-by-step 

 approach might be fine if our Nation's aquatic restoration needs 

 were less daunting. If we are to effectively deal with this problem, 

 a case-by-case, bandaid approach simply will not work. To have any 



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