108 



These types of activities, and their environmental impacts, continue still today. In the ongoing 

 South Fork Watershed Project in Kansas, several flood-control dams are being installed to protect 7.214 

 acres of cropland at a projected federal cost of about $5.4 million. Thus, almost $750 will be spent per 

 acre for dams to protect cropland that SCS estimates is worth only about $750 per acre. Those funds 

 could have purchased easements on most of the floodplain cropland, restored natural vegetation, improved 

 water quality and retained natural flood-reducing capacity of the floodplain. Instead, the project sponsors 

 chose, and SCS agreed, to degrade the river and its wildlife by erecting dams. 



The Small Watershed Program was authorized in 1990 to acquire wetland and floodplain 

 easements, but its proponents have elected not to use that authority. One reason easements have not been 

 used is that the federal cost-share rate for easements is only 50 percent, while the cost-share rate for 

 structures such as dams, levees and channels is 100 percent. Another reason is that neither the program 

 nor SCS places appropriate emphasis on such long-term, environmentally compatible solutions. 



SCS, to its credit, recently has begun acknowledging problems with the program and is initiating 

 administrative actions to solve them. For example, a review of the feasibility of the $2.2 billion in 

 backlogged projects has begun, focusing especially on projects with structural components. Since March 

 1994, SCS has eliminated more than 2,000 miles of infeasible channels from the backlog of about 5,400. 

 The agency indicates it will cut additional infeasible channels in the next year so that about 1,500 miles 

 of approved channels remain in the project backlog. In addition, SCS recently has created interim 

 guidelines on planning and installing nonstructural projects. Finally, the agency's evaluation criteria for 

 proposed projects is stressing nonstructural measures more than ever. Only 1 percent of the first 800 PL- 

 566 projects were for water quality. About 38 percent of the 100 projects currently being planned 

 purportedly have water quality components. 



However, administrative actions alone are not a sufficient solution to ensure this program and its 

 proponents are cured of their addiction to quick-fix structural projects. A subsequent administration easily 

 could undo these positive changes. The program's traditional supporters, especially at the local level, 

 generally are committed to structural solutions and resistant to redirection by agency staff. 



For example, even as SCS was pronouncing new directions and increased environmental sensitivity 

 for the program early in 1993, the new Administration proposed its "Jobs Bill" with a potential funding 

 windfall for PL-566. The ensuing scramble for projects for the new money caused a strong push from 

 local sponsors as well as SCS staff and Congress to fund some of the old structural projects that had been 

 waiting in the program's backlog for 20 years or more. This reaction provides strong evidence that the 

 administrative reforms underway are tentative and easily could reverse if more permanent changes are not 

 made legislatively. 



Because of the deeply entrenched "culture" of PL-566 supporters, WMI's first preference would 

 be to make a clean break with the past by eliminating the entire program and creating a new, 

 environmentally compatible watershed planning and management program. However, if the existing 

 program is to be retained and improved, WMI believes legislative changes to PL-566 are needed to ensure 

 that most of its harmful elements are permanently eliminated or minimized, leaving the positive side of 

 the program to flourish in the future. In addition, the existing limited opportunities in the program for 

 ecological or fish and wildlife restoration need to be broadened and fostered by legislative action. 



WMI believes H.R. 4289 offers sound, constructive solutions to many of these long-standing 

 problems. 



