Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague from Colorado and my colleague from Maryland for their support of this bill. Mr. Speaker, I introduced H.R. 648 so that we could begin the work necessary to increase the active storage capacity of the Fontenelle Reservoir. As a headwater State, Wyoming takes care of its water, and we know that water is our most important natural resource. Water uses currently at this dam span the gamut from irrigation, domestic, industrial, municipal, fish and wildlife, and recreation. Power generation is a secondary purpose at the dam, and current uses also include industrial capacity for our trona miners, fertilizer producers, and fulfillment of a range of energy needs. Mr. Speaker, this bill would simply authorize the Bureau of Reclamation to enter into a cooperative agreement with the State of Wyoming so that we could begin the process to study, design, and construct increased capacity for the reservoir. This is a process, Mr. Speaker, that has been held up previously by onerous NEPA requirements, and we need to move quickly so that we can begin to increase this capacity. Currently the reservoir has 265,000 acre-feet to accommodate water as active capacity. This legislation would potentially add an additional 80,000 acre-feet of existing reservoir space. This bill would provide an affordable and efficient way to add more usable storage in the Colorado River Basin and would accomplish these goals without contemplating the construction of a new dam.…”