Ken Calvert

Mr. CALVERT

Mr. CALVERT. I may. I may support the amendment. I do not know what the final bill is going to be after all the amendments are over with.

Mr. CALVERT

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to my good friend the gentleman from upstate New York (Mr. Boehlert). (Mr. BOEHLERT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to point out that there is an existing 30 years of studies on the shelf. Quite literally, thousands of pages and millions of dollars have been spent and the time for action has finally come to move from the study phase to a consensus-based Federal, State, local, NEPA approved engineering solution. Every day compounds the environmental problems of the sea, adding time and expense to the solution. Act now or the sea dies, period. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman in California (Mrs. Bono).

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I have heard the point from the minority that this is a salinity-only bill. That is nonsense. This bill takes a holistic approach to restoring the Salton Sea. At the request of this Secretary and the Salton Sea authority, $5 million is earmarked for wildlife resources studies to provide real-time science to support the decisionmaking processes during the feasibility study. Additionally, $3 million is included to improve water quality in the Alamo and New Rivers, the major sources of water for the Salton Sea. The New River, which has been explained earlier, is the most polluted river, in some estimation, in the North American continent. But if we do not address the sea salinity, we might as well just write the sea's ecosystem off. No leading scientist, none that I am aware of, dispute this fact. In a speech by Dr. Milt Freed, Chairman of the Science Subcommittee, delivered on July 29 at the U.S. EPA Ecosystems Restoration, a national symposium to bring together practitioners and researchers, he notes the salinity of the sea has reached 43,000 parts per million, a level that is 26 percent greater than ocean water. Salinity is increasing at a rate of approximately 1 percent per year and will soon reach a level that will cause a collapse in fish populations, thereby eliminating the food base for fish-eating birds that come to the sea. This will also end the sports fishery. The salinity issue is analogous to passing the particles from one end of an hourglass to another. The time frame is finite, and no amount of discussion or study will alter the end result. The collapse of the biological components of the ecosystem due to the physical parameter will have far-reaching impacts on many of the other values humans expect from the sea. So let us quit talking about, let us get something done, let us defeat the Miller-Brown substitute and get on with saving the Salton Sea. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Amendment Offered by Mr. Boehlert

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. Amendment Offered by Mr. Boehlert

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, we have talked about many of the reasons why the Salton Sea is worth saving. I think that there is agreement on both sides of the aisle that we want to save the Salton Sea. The difference between the approach of the majority and the minority in this case is that we actually want to do something about it. For over 30 years I have been reading newspaper articles about this study and that study, about amounts of money that have been going in to look at the catastrophe of the Salton Sea, and nothing has happened, and yet again today we talk about yet another study that leads potentially nowhere. The great difference between the proposal today by the Salton Sea Task Force is that we actually are going to do something about a problem that has existed for a long time, not talk about it, but actually do something about it. People have talked about the birds, the fish, the recreational resources that are going to waste. We can talk about that until the sea dies. And, Mr. Speaker, Sonny was a person that spoke plainly, so I will speak plainly: It is time that we do something about this, and that is why we are here. Fifteen million people live near the Salton Sea. Actually much more than that around the southwest United States utilizes it and have for many years. It would be a shame if today we let this opportunity pass us by. So I am hopeful that today we will pass the bill, we will defeat the Miller substitute, and we can be proud of the fact that we are going to save the Salton Sea for future generations. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Bono) who represents the beautiful area of Palm Springs and a good part of the Salton Sea who has really taken over the fight to save the Salton Sea.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Santa Clara, California (Mr. McKeon), my good friend.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Ewing). (Mr. EWING asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.) I would like to thank Representatives' Mary Bono, Duncan Hunter, and Ken Calvert, as well as the rest of my colleagues who worked diligently to bring H.R. 3267 ``The Sonny Bono Memorial Salton Sea Restoration Act'' to the floor today. This is an important piece of legislation which I am proud to be a cosponsor of. The Salton Sea, located in both Riverside and Imperial counties in California, is the State's largest inland body of water. It has been determined that the Salton Sea has about only 12 years of life left before it becomes a dead sea, whereby no life can be sustained. Passing H.R. 3267 goes a long way in preventing that from occurring. What H.R. 3267 attempts to do is to simply improve the water quality of the Salton Sea by reducing the salinity, and to stabilize the elevation along the shoreline. It does this by authorizing $22.5 million dollars for a feasibility study, environmental review, and an engineering design of a construction project. The bill also authorizes 350 million dollars for a construction project for the Salton Sea. There is also a 50/50 cost share between the federal government and non-federal entities to finance such a project. It is important to note that the Salton Sea is also a major stop over for avian species along the Pacific Flyway. This is the primary reason why the Salton Sea is of national importance, and why if it dies, it stands to take many birds with its decline. In the past five years, hundreds of thousands of birds have died at the Sea. In fact, at least 17,000 birds have died at the Salton Sea this year along. It is vitally important that we act now, and not wait to address this desperate situation. I believe we must take action to save the Salton Sea now, or risk losing a major environmental resource for not only the state of California, but the nation as a whole. Again, I would like to thank Representatives' Bono, Hunter, and Calvert for all their hard work in bringing H.R. 3267 to the House floor today. This bill is a fitting tribute to my good friend, the late Sonny Bono. H.R. 3267 is a good bill and I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this important piece of legislation.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter), a gentleman who has a substantial portion of the Sea in his Congressional District and who has the privilege to represent Imperial County.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from California. As my colleagues can probably tell, he is not feeling well and so I will fill in for our able friend from California. I have a statement to read on his behalf. Mr. Speaker, I appear on behalf of the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Don Young) for consideration of H.R. 3267, authored by our colleague the gentleman from California (Mr. Duncan Hunter). As many of my colleagues are aware, restoration of the Salton Sea was a primary concern of our late colleague, Sonny Bono. This bill, H.R. 3267, the Sonny Bono Memorial Salton Sea Reclamation Act, is designed to promote Sonny's dream of quickly and effectively restoring the Salton Sea. This legislation will provide the authority to deal with issues affecting salinity and water levels at the Salton Sea. A great deal of work has been done to evaluate the causes of increased salinity as well as the periodic inundation and exposure of lands around the Sea. If we are ever to find and implement the solutions, the time for action is upon us. Water quality is at an all time low. The Sea can no longer serve as the recreation resource it once was, and wildlife populations continue to be adversely affected. Land, recreational, and ecological values associated with the Sea have declined over the last two decades, due in large part to the rising salinity and surface elevation. Without efforts to reduce and stabilize the salinity levels, they will continue to rise and will have severe impacts on surrounding landowners, individuals who wish to use the Sea for recreation, and the existing fish and wildlife species. H.R. 3267 establishes the process for determining and implementing an engineering solution to save the Sea, while also continuing the analysis to evaluate and ensure the long-term health of the Sea's wildlife populations. Additionally, this measure will authorize a water reclamation project along the New and Alamo Rivers, the major sources of water flowing into the Sea. With that, Mr. Speaker, we obviously are in favor of moving this bill and opposing the Miller substitute. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California, my good friend from Covina, for not only putting together a good rule but for his support for saving the Salton Sea. Here we go again. We have been studying the Salton Sea now for well over 30 years. There have been many reports, many studies, many millions of dollars on how to save the Salton Sea. Today finally we are going to establish the groundwork to do exactly that; that is, to save the sea, the birds, the fish, and most importantly, we are going to save an opportunity for people to visit the Salton Sea. Not too many years ago more people visited the Salton Sea than they did Yosemite, on an annual basis, it is so close to so many millions of Americans in the southwest United States. I as a young man, boy, would go waterskiing at the Salton Sea. It was probably the best waterskiing in all of California, and certainly, I think, throughout the southwestern United States. It is unfortunate that people do not have that same opportunity anymore, or at least not with the quality of water as it exists today. The other gentleman from California, our esteemed friend from Imperial County, mentioned the New River and how polluted it is, and what is going on there. It is certainly horrible. We have a chance today. We have this rule. Sonny Bono certainly dreamed of this day. I think he is looking down on us right now wondering what we are going to do finally. Sonny, we are going to pass this rule. Furthermore, we are going to pass this bill, and we are going to vote against the Miller-Brown substitute and move ahead.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from San Diego, California (Mr. Cunningham).

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I also thank the gentleman for his hard work in moving this Salton Sea project. With the gentleman's help, we are going to get this done today.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Redlands, California (Mr. Lewis).

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 7 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter).

Mr. CALVERT. That is correct.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield further, the Secretary of Interior and EPA can designate those appropriations.

Mr. CALVERT. I would not expect any single source of funding for this legislation on any major project. As the gentleman knows, we have probably never had very many that have had a single source of appropriation.

Mr. CALVERT. Obviously, the Bureau of Reclamation is a source that has been talked about, Fish and Wildlife resources, resources within the appropriations process.

Mr. CALVERT. If the gentleman would yield further, the standard appropriations process, it does not preclude the appropriators to appropriate funds from various accounts that they appropriate from.

Mr. CALVERT. Certainly the Secretary of Interior can designate those funds from various accounts.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I do not control the appropriations process.