Contact: Rob Ostrander 202.224.7627 Shana Stribling 202.224.0309
Thursday, June 16, 2005

WASHINTON, DC – U.S. Senators Kit Bond and Jim Talent announced that they secured almost $200 million in federal funds for key energy and water projects in Missouri and throughout the nation.

“This money will help protect our rivers, increase opportunities for alternate energy sources, and meet Missouri's critical water transportation, flood protection and environmental needs and opportunities," said Senator Kit Bond, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“Sen. Bond and I are absolutely committed to protecting our people and creating jobs in Missouri,” said Senator Jim Talent. “It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to get our products to market, we need to update our energy infrastructure, our locks and dams are old enough to collect Social Security and frequent flooding is keeping communities poor by stifling economic opportunity. This funding addresses these and other concerns on behalf of Missouri.”

Highlights of the funds Bond and Talent secured include:

* Locks Modernization -- $20 million for Pre-construction, Engineering and Design of new 1,200 foot locks on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers necessary to provide clean and efficient water transportation this century.

* Environmental Restoration - $60 million to improve fish and wildlife habit on the Missouri River, ensure compliance with the Endangered Species Act, and prevent unnecessary river closures. Additional environmental projects include: $1.75 million for the Missouri and Middle Mississippi Rivers Habitat Protection legislation; and almost $1 million for Kansas City Riverfront enhancement; $300,000 for Confluence State Park where the big rivers join.

* Flood control – Funds for construction for: Blue River Channel, Kansas City ($5 million), Meramec River Basin, Valley Park ($7.6 million), Bois Brule in Perry County ($2.4 million), and St. Johns/New Madrid ($5.5 million). Also, funds were included to study flood control projects proposed in St. Joseph, Swope Park, River Des Peres, St. Louis-area, Kansas City-area, and Springfield-area.

* Port Construction – Funds to enable operation of small Mississippi River ports in New Madrid, Hannibal, Cape Girardeau, and Caruthersville. Additional funds are provided to operate lake facilities including Smithville, Stockton, Table Rock, Pomme de Terre, Clearwater, Clarence Cannon, Truman, and Wapappelo lakes.

* Power Grid Modernization - $1.5 million for the University of Missouri-Rolla project. In response to the blackouts becoming more common, this critical project will develop new hardware and software technologies to enable the U.S. transmission system to operate more reliably and economically.

* Nuclear Facility Upgrades - $20 million for facility upgrades and infrastructure improvements at the Kansas City Department of Energy Plant. The Kansas City plant supplies various materials to the National Nuclear Administration's Weapons program

Bond and Talent secured the nearly $200 million for critical Missouri environmental projects in the fiscal year 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, which funds water projects under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and energy projects within the Department of Energy. The spending bill passed the Senate Appropriations Committee this afternoon. Before being signed into law the bill must be passed by the full U.S. Senate and reconciled with the House of Representatives' bill.