Byron Dorgan: “I brought to the floor a little container of water. Now I know this looks very much like coffee. It is not coffee. It is…”

“I brought to the floor a little container of water. Now I know this looks very much like coffee. It is not coffee. It is well water from a well at Keith and Ann Anderson's place in North Dakota. The water that comes from that well, looking like the color of coffee, is water that will be replaced by water behind the Garrison Dam from the Missouri River. That new water, the fresh water, coming out of the mountains from Montana in that large reservoir now in North Dakota can be moved around our State and can replace this water and we will have safe, wholesome and healthy drinking water in communities and on farmsteads in our State. That is one part of this project. This chart shows what I have just showed a moment ago, the color of some of this water, the quality of the water that is being used, forced to be used in some communities, in some farmsteads in North Dakota and why we must find a supplemental supply for it. That is what this project is about. Water delivered to rural North Dakota by pipeline behind the reservoir looks like this clear water, and it replaces this brown water. Is that good for people's health? Of course it is. Is it good for our State? Is it a good investment in our future? Of course it is. Is it, more importantly, keeping a promise to a State that got the cost of a flood that comes and stays, keeping the promise to be able to use that water for economic development for our future?”