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The Waterways Restoration Act would amend the Soil Conservation Service's existing 

 authority for the Small Watershed Program. This 1954 program, authorized by Public Law 

 83 -566, initially focused on building structural facilities or projects, such as dams and 

 channelization projects, which tend to be high in cost and high in environmental impact. In 

 the last 10-15 years, the Small Watershed Program has shifted emphasis and has become 

 more environmentally sensitive in addressing flood control and watershed protection needs 

 in an ecological manner. However, the original perception of the program's high impact on 

 the environment remains. Further, the Small Watershed Program addresses local needs 

 and the national benefits are not always apparent. As a result, support for the Small 

 Watershed Program has diminished. 



The Small Watershed Program currently requires that at least 20 percent of the total benefits 

 of each project relate directly to agriculture, including rural communities. With this 

 restriction removed, the Small Watershed Program could serve as a tool for solving local 

 urban and rural waterway restoration problems. One concern is that the legislation requires 

 a specified percentage of the Small Watershed Program funding for waterway restoration. 

 In general, it would be more appropriate to have greater flexibility to adjust the proportion 

 of funds as opportunities and priorities arise. Another issue we always need to be 

 concerned with is making certain that this and other programs do not overlap, especially 

 where they may already be an Administration priority. 



The Waterways Restoration Act also proposes to broaden the focus of the Soil 

 Conservation Service's Small Watershed Program by adding a grant program to fund 

 community-based environmental restoration projects. If Congress chooses to continue 

 appropriating resources to the Small Watershed Program, riparian habitat restoration, 

 wetland restoration, water quality and watershed management are the activities that should 

 be funded. We suggest that this initiative can be more fully and effectively considered in 

 the context of the 1995 Farm Bill. 



