interest: And provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior shall have the right to assume the management and administration of such lands in behalf of the National Migratory Bird Management Program if the Secretary finds that the State agency has withdrawn from or otherwise relinquished such management and administration. [p. 9] 1.27f (2) SENATE COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE AND S. REP. No. 1981, 85th Cong., 2d Sess. (1958) AMENDING THE COORDINATION ACT JULY 28, 1958.-Ordered to be printed Mr. MAGNUSON, from the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H.R. 13138] The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (H.R. 13138) to amend the act of March 10, 1934, to provide for more effective integration of a fish and wildlife conservation program with Federal water-resource developments, and for other purposes, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass. PURPOSE OF THE BILL This amendment to the Coordination Act would grant authority to the agencies of Government engaged in construction to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service before and during the building of Federal water development projects. The Fish and Wildlife Service would make known to these construction agencies, such as the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation, the project necessary to protect fish and wildlife. Considerable study would be required in some cases, with suggested changes in construction plans to the great advantage to our wildlife resource. Under the bill suggestions regarding changes could be made previous to the commencement of construction. Such plans, or recommendations, whether accepted or rejected by the construction agency, would be submitted to the Congress at the time authorization legislation for the project was under consideration. The bill would amend the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act which is administered by the Department of Agriculture. It is designed to provide for greater consideration of fish and wildlife conservation in the Federal water-resource development program. Enactment of the bill would not retard that program but should help significantly in permitting Federal water development to serve the interests of a much larger share of our population. [p. 1] The Secretary of Agriculture would be required to notify the Department of the Interior on any construction plans which concern the conservation and development of wildlife resources. The Secretary of Agriculture would give full consideration to any plans submitted to him by the Fish and Wildlife Service. The Congress recognized the need for greater emphasis on fish and wildlife conservation through the enactment of the Fish and Wildlife Act of August 8, 1956 (70 Stat. 1119). This act specifically pointed to the need to maintain and increase these resources through proper development and management. The Congress also directed the Secretary of the Interior to take such steps as may be required for the betterment of fish and wildlife resources, and to make such recommendations for additional legislation as deemed necessary. H.R. 13138 in the form reported by your committee is based on the recommendations of the Secretary of the Interior contained in a letter to the Committee dated April 1, 1958. That letter stated, in part: we have discussed this proposed legislation with other interested departments, including particularly, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Army. The bill as transmitted herewith has their concurrence. The bill enjoys exceptionally enthusiastic and widespread support. Every one of the 48 State governors, or their authorized representatives, had expressed general endorsement of an earlier version of this bill, according to the Secretary of the Interior. Every major national conservation organization supports it. The bill has the wholehearted endorsement of the commercial fishing industry. As noted above, the Secretary of the Interior sponsored the bill and states that the administration, including all of the other affected Federal departments, supports the bill. The committee has received a very large number of written endorsements from all parts of the country. COSTS The Department of the Interior is of the opinion that the cost of this bill will be little above the amounts now being spent on studies of water development projects. GENERAL DISCUSSION The fish and wildlife resources of the Nation are tremendously important, not only to the physical and spiritual well-being of our people, but to our national economy as well. A survey made by an independent sampling organization in 1955 found that 1 out of every 3 of all the households in this Nation contains at least 1 person who hunts, fishes, or both. These people spent in that year some $3 billion in pursuit of their sports. One in every 5 persons, 12 years of age or over-a total of 25 million in this age group-hunts or fishes, or both. In addition to the business these activities generate to provide profits and wages in the sporting goods, recreation and related industries, these 25 million people gained much in physical and spiritual health. [p. 2] Not all of the recreational benefits from fish and wildlife accrue to those who hunt and fish. It has been estimated, for example, that 66 million people find recreation and release from tension in wildlife photography, bird watching, and other forms of nature study based on fish and wildlife resources. Commercial fisheries are of major importance to our Nation. This industry provides employment, both direct and indirect, for about half a million workers. The commercial fisheries industry supplies somewhat more than 5 billion pounds of fish to our markets each year, nearly 3 billion pounds of which are used for human food, providing proteins and vitamins of great value in the national diet. The remainder, as well as most of the waste from filleting, canning, and otherwise preparing food fish for market, is used in the production of supplements to animal feeds and as special-purpose materials in industry and the arts. Fishmeals, when incorporated in poultry diets, enable the farmer to bring his birds to market weight in a period of 8 weeks, resulting in a significant saving in feed and a significant improvement in poultry quality. Fish solubles, another product derived from the fish wastes, are an acknowledged superior source of vitamins, minerals, and unknown growth factors and are universally used in feeds prepared for use by the poultry and swine-raising industries. The commercial fish catch, when processed into human food and industrial products, is valued at well over a billion dollars annually at the retail level. Some of the more desirable and most valuable commercial fishes such as salmon, striped bass, menhaden, shrimp, and other shellfish, are affected by water-use projects. The anadromous fishes, which include the salmon, striped bass, and shad, must migrate to locations in streams to perform their spawning act. After the eggs have hatched, the resulting young fish must make their way downstream to the ocean to achieve their growth. This two-way migration is particularly vulnerable to interference by dams. In some instances, shellfish may also be affected by dams, as these dams may alter the salinity of the water in river estuaries. Finally, the nursery and feeding grounds of valuable crustaceans, such as shrimp, as well as the young of valuable marine fishes, may be affected by dredging, filling, and diking operations often carried out to improve navigation and provide new industrial or residential land. It is particularly important that adequate provision be made for fish and wildlife conservation in the water resource program, in view of the very great increases in demand for water in the Nation's expanding population and economy. Since 1950, water demands for use by humans have increased by 35 to 40 percent. This is roughly three times the increase in population, even though the population itself is increasing very rapidly. Fish and wildlife species, like other living things, need land and water. Adequate provision must be made for the conservation and preservation of fish and wildlife in our water program if we are to continue to have them as part of our economy and way of life. H.R. 13138, as reported, is intended to provide more adequately for the conservation and preservation of fish and wildlife without unduly restricting needed development of our water resources to meet man's various requirements. Despite the considerable accomplishments under the [p. 3] 1946 Coordination Act, the results have fallen far short of the results anticipated by the conservationists who sponsored the 1946 law. The limitations and deficiencies of that act will not permit the Fish and Wildlife Service and the State fish and game departments to accomplish the objectives of fish and wildlife conservation and river basin development that are clearly essential if we are to preserve our fish and wildlife resources on a scale demanded by the people of the Nation. Principally the 1946 act does not provide clear, general authority for the Federal agencies who construct water-resource projects to incorporate in project construction and operation plans the needed measures for fish and wildlife conservation. The act is mainly concerned with compensatory measures to mitigate the loss of or damage to fish and wildlife resources; it contains no clear authority to permit the planning of installations of appropriate means and measures to take advantage of opportunities provided by water projects for enhancement or improvement for fish and wildlife resources. Existing law is of questionable application to many authorized projects, a very serious shortcoming. The Corps of Engineers, for example, has a backlog of 650 active authorized projects with an estimated cost of about $6 billion on which construction has not yet started. Many of these cover vast areas, containing some of the most important fish and wildlife resources of the Nation. The Bureau of Reclamation has about 150 projects or units at an estimated cost of $3.7 billion in this category. Most of these projects have never been investigated from the standpoint of their effects on fish and wildlife resources. Many of them were authorized 15 or 20 years ago or more. It would make good sense to have the policies and procedures of the Coordination Act applicable to them in order that the wishes of the Congress in enacting the 1946 statute and the proposed amendments can be observed. The bill provides for the inclusion of fish and wildlife conservation features in these authorized projects so long as they are "compatible with the purposes for which the project was authorized." It is understood that some benefits from authorized project purposes may have to be diminished in some slight degree in order to obtain benefits from fish and wildlife conservation measures adopted to compensate for losses to these resources or to enhance and develop fish and wildlife. The legislation would provide that conservation measures for the prevention of losses to fish and wildlife should be included "to the extent justifiable" in authorized projects. It is the understanding of your committee, however, that these measures would not have to be justified under the usual benefit-cost type of analysis. They would not produce "benefits." These measures would be for reducing or compensating for losses. Similarly, it is the understanding of your committee that the "estimation of wildlife *** losses" provided for in the bill would not require a dollar evaluation. Existing law has questionable application to projects of the Corps of Engineers for the dredging of bays and estuaries for navigation and filling purposes. More seriously, existing law has no application whatsoever to the dredging and filling of bays and estuaries by private interests or other non-Federal entities in navigable waters [p. 4] under permit from the Corps of Engineers. This is a particularly serious deficiency from the standpoint of commercial fishing interests. |