74 



I was asked to specifically address five issues associated with H.R. 4289 for this hearing. 

 They are: 



1. The status of our nation's aquatic resources and the greatest needs and opportunities for 

 their restoration. 



2. To give examples of successful and unsuccessful restoration projects and to present 

 common elements of each. 



3. To compare economic, ecological and social benefits of the non-structural restoration 

 restoration methods which are encouraged through H.R. 4289. 



4. To assess three goals established in H.R. 4289: a), promotion of local projects to restore 

 urban waterways; b). facilitate restoration efforts in low income and minority communities 

 and c). provide job creation and job training opportunities for at-risk youth, displaced 

 workers and national community service corps. 



5. The appropriateness of the U. S. Soil Conservation Service and Public Law 566 as vehicles 

 to achieve the objectives outlined in H.R. 4289. 



6. To assess whether changes are needed to ensure H.R. 4289 meets the objectives of our 

 Coalition. 



STATUS OF THE NATION'S AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS 



There are abundant federal, regional and local studies that indicate our nation's aquatic 

 ecosystems are degraded and that an aggressive national effort to restore the physical and 

 biological integrity of our waters is sorely needed. We know, for example, that as early as 1954 

 this country had lost over 40% of its wetlands and that we continue to lose wetlands at the rate 

 of approximately 400,000 acres per year 2 . In the late 1960's Congressional hearings and a 

 report from the Council on Environmental Quality called attention to the degradation of our 

 nation's aquatic ecosystems from clear cutting, wetland drainage, alteration of hydrology, 

 lowering of groundwater, reduced flows, increased water temperatures, bed and bank erosion, 

 sedimentation, loss of in-stream habitat and urbanization 3 . In the 1980's it was determined that 

 70% of the country's floodplain forests had been converted to urban and agricultural uses and in 

 some regions such as the lower Mississippi, Colorado, Sacramento and Missouri Rivers these 

 riparian habitat losses are as high as 95%. A Council on Environmental Quality report finds that 

 only 5-6% of the nation's rivers are capable of supporting a high quality sport fishery and that 

 over 40% of our perennial streams have been degraded by siltation, bank erosion and 

 channelization. 



In addition to these more well-known problems there have been many unanticipated 

 impacts to our nation's waterways through well-intentioned but poorly conceived structural 

 projects. Scientists have documented for over twenty years the negative impacts of these 

 projects on environmental and ecological resources. However, they are now also documenting 

 the unanticipated performance problems with channelization, levee and bank stabilization projects 

 which are not providing reliable protection from floods or erosion. It is now recognized that we 

 must return river and stream channels to their state of "dynamic equilibrium." Creation of 

 unnaturally constrained channels is not only an elusive to impossible goal, but also has severe 

 environmental drawbacks. The biological diversity of these systems will return through the 

 restoration of natural river and stream flooding; stream morphology and riparian and wetland 



