House Subcommittee Passes Watershed Rehab Bill

July 22,1999

The House Agriculture Subcommittee on Resource Conservation has approved a bill designed to improve the nation's water projects, mostly small flood prevention dams. The bill calls for federal support of 65% of total cost to local communities to make the improvements necessary.

More than 10,000 small flood prevention dams, mostly in Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas, have provided conservation and other economic benefits since 1948. The infrastructures of many, however, are at or near designated life spans and need to be rehabilitated.

"Over the years these dams have played a vital role in the economies of rural areas and the livelihoods of countless ranchers and farmers," said subcommittee Chairman Bill Barrett (R-NE). "Now many of them are in desperate need of repair, but the communities simply don't have the resources to rehabilitate them. If they are going to survive, the federal government needs to play a significant role in protecting its own investments."