Pete Sessions: “I am joined by the chair and ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee to discuss section 1051 of the…”

“I am joined by the chair and ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee to discuss section 1051 of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act--WRRDA-- conference report, which we will vote on shortly in the Senate. I thank the chair and ranking member for their leadership on this bipartisan and important legislation. I rise today to discuss a provision within the legislation pertaining to a long-running regional dispute in the Southeastern United States over the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' operations within the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint, ACF and Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa, ACT, river systems. At the heart of the conflict are concerns from downstream stakeholders about the amount of water withdrawals--and the legal authority for those withdrawals--from Lake Allatoona and Lake Lanier. A similar provision was included in the Senate-passed version of this bill, S. 601, which was reported favorably out of the Environment and Public Works Committee after careful consideration. Part of that consideration was a July 22, 2013, hearing focused on this dispute among the Army Corps and other stakeholders in the region. That hearing examined issues related to the withdrawal of water from Lake Allatoona and Lake Lanier; the authorized purposes of those two reservoirs; the Corps' actions in light of the 1958 Water Supply Act; the legislative history of the reservoirs; and the Corps' management of water storage contracts in the river systems.…”