Political Quotes

“today I am introducing the Reauthorization of the Fisheries Restoration and Irrigation Mitigation Act of 2000, also referred to as FRIMA. This Act was established to support healthy fish populations while simultaneously allowing for continued water diversions for irrigation and other uses in the Pacific Northwest. I championed this program's last reauthorization in 2009, and I can say with certainty that the pressing need for FRIMA has not gone away. Throughout the Pacific Northwest there is a critical need for projects that improve fish passage without compromising important water diversion needs for agriculture and other uses. The sustainable coexistence of continued water diversions and healthy fish populations can be achieved through a number of interventions, such as installation of fish screens, removal of fish passage barriers, and carrying out inventories to better understand needs and priorities. The technology and the knowledge needed to carry out these projects are at our finger tips; the means, however, is not. That is why FRIMA is such an important program for the Pacific Northwest. The act, overseen by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, provides a Federal cost-share on the order of 65 percent to fund fish passage and fish screen projects at water diversion and irrigation sites in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and western Montana.…”