Issue 264
March 2, 2007
In this issue:
Update on FY2008 energy & water appropriations and
WRDA
Work on WRDA 2007 begins
Crapo bill offers
incentives to help ESA listed species
PNWA welcomes new member:
Seattle Public Utilities
Northwest Senators respond to
the Administration�s FY08 budget proposal
PNWA Mid-Year Meeting Announcement
Update on FY2008 energy & water
appropriations and WRDA
The President�s budget
was released on February 5th. When compared with general funding levels for
Northwest navigation projects in previous years, the levels included in the
budget this year showed some improvement. However, shortfalls still remain.
Following is a snapshot of PNWA-supported projects, indicating those we
believe are adequately funded, and those needing additional funds in the
appropriations process.
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Construction General
�
Columbia River Channel
Improvement, increase to $25 Million (M)
�
Lower Columbia River
Ecosystem Restoration, increase to $2.2M
�
Lake Washington Ship Canal seismic analysis, increase to $450K
General Investigations
�
Elliott Bay Seawall,
increase to $770K
�
Lake Washington Ship Canal restoration study, increase to $770K
Operations and Maintenance
(O&M), Deep Draft Navigation
�
Columbia River at
the Mouth, increase to $13.195M (includes $1.145M to complete the jetty
rehab report)
�
Columbia and Lower
Willamette, increase to $27.212M
�
Columbia River between Vancouver and The
Dalles, increase to
$1.153M
�
Coos Bay, increase to $7.378M
�
Yaquina Bay and Harbor, increase to $2.632M
�
Lake Washington Ship Canal, increase to $5.952M
Operations and Maintenance
(O&M), Inland Navigation
Note: these numbers include Columbia River
Fish Mitigation funding; the actual O&M numbers for these projects are
much lower.
�
Bonneville, increase to
$24.572M
�
The Dalles,
increase to $28.150M
�
John Day, maintain at
$28.124M
�
McNary, increase to $17.573M
�
Ice Harbor, increase to $11.262M
�
Lower Monumental,
increase to $13.712M
�
Little Goose, increase
to $19.767M
�
Lower Granite, increase
to $8.251M
Operations and Maintenance
(O&M), Coastal Shallow Draft Navigation
�
Chetco River, increase to $681K
�
Tillamook Bay and
Bar, increase to $6.323M
�
Rogue River,
increase to $1.516M
�
Siuslaw River, increase to $1.297M
�
Yaquina River, increase to $848K
�
Umpqua River, increase $1.341M
�
Swinomish Channel, increase to
$600K
�
Columbia River at Baker Bay, increase to $640K
�
Columbia River between
Chinook and Sand
Island, increase to
$769K.
PNWA is working hard to ensure
that long-term rehab studies and five-year funding plans for the Columbia
River jetties and locks on the Columbia and Snake Rivers are funded and completed this
year.� Also, we will be opposing the
regionalization of operations & maintenance (O&M) funding, opposing
new navigation user fees proposed in the President�s budget, and opposing
the distribution of Columbia River Fish Mitigation (CRFM) funding over the
eight locks and dams of the Columbia Snake River System.
We have distributed our PNWA
FY2008 Energy & Water appropriations requests to every Member of
Congress from Washington, Oregon,
Idaho, and Montana.�
We have also forwarded our request to the appropriate staffers in
the House and Senate energy & water appropriations subcommittees.� Finally, senior Corps staff
from the Northwestern Division and the Walla Walla, Portland, and Seattle Districts have
received our documents.
Please see PNWA FY 2008 Energy
and Water Appropriations Requests for more detail on all
requests.� We look forward to another
successful year of developing the highest funding levels possible for
Northwest water projects.
Staff Contact: Kristin Meira
Work on WRDA 2007 begins
During several trips
to DC in January and February, PNWA has been
talking with staff from the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee
and the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee to emphasize
our support for several policy provisions that should be incorporated in
the 2007 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) this year.� All provisions have been included in
previous House and/or Senate versions of WRDA, and we are keen to see their
inclusion in the new versions of WRDA that will be released in the coming
months.
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All Members of
Congress from Oregon, Washington,
and Idaho
have received our PNWA 2007 WRDA document.�
We have also been working closely with staff from select Northwest
Congressional offices, particularly for the Members who sit on the
aforementioned committees, to ensure that our provisions are readily
available as work begins in earnest on this long overdue bill.
Please visit our
website for a copy of PNWA�s 2007 WRDA document.
Staff Contact: Kristin Meira
PNWA Executive Committee member become
the Port of Skagit County Executive Director
PNWA
would like to congratulate Patsy Martin for being named Executive
Director at the Port of Skagit County.�
Patsy has been with the Port since 1995 and has served as the Planner
and Environmental Manager, and most recently as Deputy Director.� Patsy was originally to accept the
promotion to Executive Director upon Jerry Heller�s eventual
retirement, but due to Heller�s acceptance of a position with the Port of Everett, this succession plan
was set into motion earlier than anticipated.� In her new post, Patsy will initially
be focusing on continuing the expansion and business promotion that
Heller brought about during his tenure and will also work to improve
the Port's wetlands mitigation program
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Staff Contact: Heather Kenneson
Crapo bill offers incentives to help
ESA listed species
Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID)
introduced legislation in the Senate Finance Committee this week that could
give $2 billion in tax breaks to land owners who help endangered species.
Crapo said 80
percent of the plants, animals and fish listed under the Endangered Species
Act use habitat on private land. He hopes the bill will encourage and
reward landowners who take steps to protect and improve that habitat.
"It provides
tax incentive for private property owners who are willing to undertake
action on their property for the benefit of species that are threatened or
endangered," he said.
The bill would give
a tax break to landowners who sign conservation easements on their land,
give tax credits to landowners who spend money to improve habitat for
listed species, change Internal Revenue Tax code so grant money given to
landowners to improve habitat for listed species is not counted as taxable
income, and it would give incidental take coverage to landowners who
perform habitat improvement projects.
There are 16
co-sponsors, including Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, (D-MT), Larry
Craig, (R-ID) and Gordon Smith (R-OR).
Staff contact: Glenn Vanselow
PNWA welcomes new member: Seattle Public
Utilities
PNWA is pleased to announce Seattle
Public Utilities as a new member of our association.� Seattle Public Utilities provides over
1.3 million customers in the Puget Sound Region with safe drinking water, and
the conveyance of stormwater, wastewater and
solid waste to protect public health and safety for their customers in an
economic, social and environmentally responsible manner.
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The designated contact for
Seattle Public Utilities is Joy Keniston-Longrie, who may be reached at joy.kenistonlongrie@seattle.gov or 206-684-5972.� Joy is the
Director, Major Interagency Projects Division, Seattle Public Utilities for
the City of Seattle and manages all aspects
of customer & utility impacts for drinking water, storm water,
wastewater and solid waste during all phases associated with the Puget Sound region�s
Major Interagency Projects.� Joy is
also the City of Seattle�s
federal permit liaison for CIP and O&M projects, which require federal
permits but do not have federal funding.�
Joy has been a valued contact in the effort to make Section 214
permit funding authority permanent, and we welcome her continued
contributions as a member of PNWA.
Staff contact: Heather Kenneson
Northwest Senators respond to the
Administration�s FY08 budget proposal
In a letter to OMB Director Rob
Portman, Northwest Senators responded to the Administration�s FY08 budget
proposal that they believe would increase BPA customer electricity rates by
between 5.5 and 11 percent.� Senators
Ron Wyden, Gordon Smith, Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell, Mike Crapo, Jon
Tester, Larry Craig and Mike Baucus all endorsed the letter opposing the
proposal that would require BPA to use any annual surplus revenues over
$500 million to make early payments on its federal bond debt to the U.S.
Treasury.� Although a similar
proposal in the FY07 budget was rejected by Congress, the Administration is
again trying to force Bonneville and its Northwest ratepayers to build upon
the $1.8 billion dollars they have voluntarily made in early payments to
the U.S. Treasury.� The FY08 proposal
would also encourage a discussion about BPA�s
ability to meet its long-term capital investment needs with a minimal
impact on rates, something that BPA�s stakeholders
are already actively discussing.� The
letter also expresses a concern that this proposal would increase the
burden on a region that is still recovering from the 2001 Western Energy
crisis in which wholesale energy rates increased 46%.�
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PNWA joins with the Northwest
Senate delegation in opposing the Administration�s proposal, and encourages
Congress to remove this provision during the appropriations process this
year.
Staff contact: Heather Kenneson
PNWA Mid-Year Meeting Announcement
Mark your
calendars!� PNWA would like to
announce that our 2007 Mid-Year Meeting will be held at the Red Lion
Richland Hanford House in Richland,
Washington, June 20-22.� The negotiated room rate is $79.95 for
both single and double rooms, with an option to pay an additional $15 for a
river view upgrade.� You can
call as early as today to make your reservation; please be sure to mention
that you are with PNWA when you call.
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Red Lion Richland
Hanford
House
802 George Washington Way
Richland, WA� 99352
For reservations call:
1-800-Red-Lion or go to www.redlion.com
Registration will be
available online shortly at www.pnwa.net.
Staff contact: Heather Kenneson
Pacific
Northwest Waterways
Association
www.pnwa.net
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