Contact: Ernie Blazar 202-224-7627 Shana Stribling 224-0309
Thursday, November 1, 2001

Washington, DC - U.S. Senator Kit Bond today announced that the Senate gave final approval to his legislation including an addition $21 million in energy and water projects important to Missouri. The bill will now be sent to the President to sign.

“I am pleased with the number of increases in funding we were able to achieve during the course of Congressional consideration. I am particularly pleased with the additional money for MU’s state-of-the-art cancer research and treatment program,” Bond stated. “Additionally, we won funding for a balance of flood control, navigation and environmental improvement projects. Congresswoman Emerson, who serves on the conference Committee, was particularly effective in representing a broad range of Missouri interests at the table.”

* $2 million for continuation of the University of Missouri-Columbia’s state-of-the art cancer research and treatment program. No funds were requested in the Administration’s budget. The University facility currently provides nationally ranked cancer treatment, and possesses one of the most powerful university research reactors in our country and is one of the few in the world configured to produce medical isotopes. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States.

* $2 million increase for Kansas City Blue River Channel, for a total of $10.4 million. This is Kansas City's largest flood control project which, when completed, will protect industries which employ nearly 12,000 citizens.

* $1 million for Kansas City Riverfront Restoration. These funds will help compliment the work of the Port Authority and the City in improving the waterfront located immediately north of Kansas City’s downtown Central Business District. The Port Authority is donating the land to construct 5 acres of wetlands and 16 acres of native vegetation and the project will be integrated with the pedestrian/bicycle link between the River Market and Riverfront Park.

* $320,000 increase for Kansas City flood control for a total of $900,000. Extra funds will help complete a study they need to raise multiple levees and flood-wall units within the system of levees on the Kansas and Missouri Rivers located in downtown and suburban Kansas City that nearly over-topped during the 1993 flood.

* $280,000 increase for Kansas City Turkey Creek flood control, for a total of $400,000. The additional money will help complete study of flood risk mitigation in the Turkey Creek project area which is a highly traveled business corridor in Kansas City.

* $290,000 total for New Madrid Harbor. This money will help fund necessary maintenance dredging at three small ports in southeast Missouri.

* $240,000 total for Caruthersville Harbor in Southeast Missouri. This money will help fund necessary maintenance dredging at three small ports in southeast Missouri.

* $400,000 total for Southeast Missouri Port, Mississippi River. This money will help fund necessary maintenance dredging at three small ports in southeast Missouri.

* $3.6 million increase for Missouri River operation and maintenance for a total of $6.88 million. This money will help fund aquatic habitat restoration projects, maintaining the safe river navigation channels for shipping, and enhancing facilities to help accommodate the additional recreational traffic associated with the Lewis and Clark bicentennial celebration.

* $1.6 million increase for Missouri River for a total of $12.6 million to improve fish and wildlife habitat along the river. This program will provide additional wetlands restoration and riverine habitat for fish and wildlife and is a proven, safe alternative to dangerous schemes to change water-flow along the Missouri river.

* $1 million increase for the Upper Mississippi River Comprehensive Plan. The money will help fund the beginning of a study to address water resource and related land resource problems and opportunities in the Upper Mississippi and Illinois River basins from Cairo, Illinois, to the headwaters in the interest of systemic flood damage reduction.

* $500,000 increase for St. Louis river-front study to identify commercial, recreation, safety and environmental opportunities and challenges in the diverse metro area where the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers join.

* $5.322 million for St. Francis Basin in Southeastern Missouri for a total of $12 million. The money will help with the operation and maintenance of the flood control project protecting the nation's largest drainage district covering 1.2 million acres and serves some of the nation’s most productive farmland and some of the poorest communities in Missouri. Funds are necessary to complete ditch and channel work, address chronic blockages, culvert replacement and levee repairs.

* $1 million increase for St. Francis Basin in Southeastern Missouri for a total of $4.23 million. This money will help complete the channel for ditches one and six.

* $1.9 million increase for Brois Brule Levee and Drainage District, Perry County Flood Control. This money will help correct a design deficiency discovered during the 1993 flood that subjected the local community to severe Mississippi River flood damage. The failure in 1993 flooded 26,000 acres of land.