Department of the Interior

 

 

Remarks Prepared for Delivery
By The Honorable Gale Norton
Secretary of the Interior

Multi-Species Conservation Program
September 14, 2004

 

While water has always been wanting in the arid West, it has become even more scarce in recent years. According to researchers, the Colorado River Basin is in the midst of perhaps the worst drought in 500 years.

That we are not at a crisis point in the Colorado River Basin is thanks to the prudent measures that states continue to take and to the foresight of our forefathers who saw that water scarcities would be a constant source of consternation and conflict. To assure steady supplies of water, they built great dams and filled vast reservoirs.

To meet future needs we will need lots of tools in our tool-kits. We believe that partnerships and cooperative agreements are the best bulwark against water crises and the best assurance of reliable water flows.

The Water 2025 program embodies this administration's proactive, protective approach.

Clarifying rights and responsibilities is important: We have formed a number of cooperative agreements on water use, such as the Colorado River Water Delivery Agreement, which we celebrated last fall at Hoover Dam. It resolved issues outstanding for 75 years and respects the rights of the seven basin states.

We are working with states regarding arrangements if the drought persists. We have entered into several Indian water rights settlements, and are cooperating in several ongoing negotiations.

We are facing several problems. The well-intended strictures of the Endangered Species Act can have unfortunate consequences, as has been seen on the Klamath Basin and the Missouri River.

In 2001, irrigation water was cut off in the Klamath Basin to protect endangered fish. We have taken many actions to avoid repeating that experience, including installing fish screens, expanding wetlands, improving irrigation efficiency and continuing scientific study of the area.

On the Missouri River, a fifteen year battle has raged regarding the endangered pallid sturgeon. Farmers want more water flow for the travel of barges carrying fertilizer and crops. Fish need low flows for hatching. Earlier this year, engineers and biologists of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the construction of more than 1,200 acres of shallow water habitat for the endangered fish.

It is important that we continue to perform long-term projects and look for creative solutions. The questions we face are complex. For instance, we need a great deal of research to determine what role hatcheries should play on the Colorado River: They are helpful for some, but not for others.

Meanwhile, almost all of the breeding habitats of the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher are close to water. When reservoirs are low, willows grow down closer to the water. As a consequence, its management moves from crisis to crisis as the reservoirs rise and fall.

Eradication of the invasive tamarisk (salt cedar) will continue to demand creative thinking and developing partnerships. Today's important step in furthering multi-species conservation plan prepares us to deal with issues like them.

This administration has always believed that partnerships have profound power. Today is proof that partnerships have the power to protect and preserve.

We have gathered to reinforce a long-lasting agreement that will assure the flow of Colorado River water to those whose lives and livelihoods depend on it, from Lake Mead to the border of Mexico.

Through today's signing of this memorandum of agreement, Arizona, California and Nevada are reconfirming the partnership with my department in the Lower Colorado Multi-Species Conservation Program.

The Program is a coordinated, comprehensive approach to conservation that exemplifies this administration's ethos of conservation through cooperation.

The Program is of unprecedented scope - 50 years - and is designed to protect currently endangered species and those that are at risk. It will bring more than $310 million in non-federal funds to assist in habitat enhancement along the lower Colorado River. Another $310 million is expected in federal funds. Over 8,100 acres will be restored, enhanced and protected.

Conservation on this scale has required many partners and many participants. The signatures by the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California represent only a portion of the many water users involved.

The program has been in formal development since 1997, when the Bureau of Reclamation and the Fish and Wildlife Service came together with the three lower basin states and other concerned parties. Several tribes have gotten involved, and so has the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The program also includes those who rely on power generated by the Colorado River.

It is appropriate that we work together to address the needs of endangered species and protect the southwest's access to the Colorado. This administration is convinced that environmental protection can, and should be a partner with economic growth.

Phoenix is a case in point. Last year, more than 41,000 jobs were created in Phoenix, an average of almost 800 every week. Phoenix's job growth rate was more than double the national average, making it the hottest market in the country.

The President and I are convinced that the best conservation decisions are often made by state and local authorities, with the federal government playing a supporting role. We believe that there not always need be a conflict between economic need and environmental protection, that cooperation can be the rule, not coercion.

It is not always easy to see the potential for cooperation. A decade ago, circumstances seemed to dictate that there would be a conflict between the need to preserve the threatened wildlife on the Colorado River and the need to supply state populations with water and power.

In 1994, much of the Colorado River was designated as critical habitat for four fish species. Now, in the lower Colorado River corridor there are seven species listed under the Endangered Species Act, including birds and tortoise.

At the same time and in the same area, human populations have exploded. Between 1990 and 2000, Arizona and Nevada experienced the highest percentage population growth in the nation.

People need that water. So does the wildlife. Constant confrontation and conflict seemed the most likely outcome of the water scarcity coupled with the well intended strictures of the Endangered Species Act.

Some believed that enforcement of the act would have required a drastic reduction of water deliveries and taken away the livelihoods of many who depend on the water.

The partnership strengthened today has changed that tortured course. As a consequence, instead of being faced with the potential for years of conflict, we can now foresee fifty years of cooperation.

This proactive planning and conflict resolution is a great break with the past. It's essential that we continue on this new course.

Today's agreement is a shining example. Never before have we undertaken a program of this scope. The partnerships reinforced today will protect endangered species and help ensure the continued orderly management of the Colorado River for the next half century.

Fifty years from now, the communities that depend on the Colorado River will still be thriving; the power that it produces will still be flowing. The states will have a certainty of water supplies; the at-risk species will still have a certainty of protection.

Completing analysis and development of the Multi-Species Conservation Program is one of the major environmental priorities of the Administration. It anticipates - and averts - potential crises, and enables cooperation along the Colorado for a long time to come.

Ultimately, the agreement proves that partnerships have the power to change the course of conflict; to preserve the lives of species and the livelihoods of people.

Thank you.

 

-DOI-


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