Contact: Rob Ostrander 202-224-5721 Shana Stribling 202-224-0309
Friday, February 27, 2004

WASHINGTON, DC U.S. Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) today issued the following statement regarding today's release of the Army Corps of Engineers report on the Missouri River:

"There remains the opportunity to make some positive changes in the plan, but as it stands, it fails to meet the commitment to protect the welfare of Missouri citizens. The way it is written, it undermines the value and the reliability of the resource to real people and compromises or eliminates Congressionally-authorized project purposes such as flood control, river transportation as well as energy production.

"Unless the Fish and Wildlife Service can agree to habitat restoration proposals, water transportation is eliminated on the Missouri and power generation and Mississippi River transportation are threatened. There are no protections against the near total flexibility the FWS is given under “adaptive management” to modify flows further at the expense of downstream needs.

"With "adaptive management", there is no reliability on which people can count and the Master Manual is an empty document which effectively turns ultimate management authority over to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

"So-called drought conservation measures - discretionary and unrelated to the demands of the Endangered Species Act - re-allocate water to the benefit of upstream states at our expense when droughts occur, and the “spring pulse” demanded by the Service will increase flood risk in the years ahead.

"Unless the proposal is modified prior to the final action, it fails to protect the priorities of Missouri and other downstream states. We, as downstream coalition members, must make our voices heard during the abbreviated public comment process so that improvements can be made to protect the needs of citizens who rely upon the river. While this is a very disappointing and unexpected development, we can and will fight for modifications so that downstream states do not have to bear the burdens exclusively as has been proposed today."