COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS JAMIE L. WHITTEN, Mississippi, Chairman EDWARD P. BOLAND, Massachusetts JOSEPH P. ADDABBO, New York EDWARD R. ROYBAL, California TOM BEVILL, Alabama BILL CHAPPELL, JR., Florida BILL ALEXANDER, Arkansas JOHN P. MURTHA, Pennsylvania BOB TRAXLER, Michigan JOSEPH D. EARLY, Massachusetts LINDY (MRS. HALE) BOGGS, Louisiana MARTIN OLAV SABO, Minnesota VIC FAZIO, California W. G. (BILL) HEFNER, North Carolina LES AUCOIN, Oregon DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii WES WATKINS, Oklahoma WILLIAM H. GRAY III, Pennsylvania BERNARD J. DWYER, New Jersey BILL BONER, Tennessee STENY H. HOYER, Maryland BOB CARR, Michigan ROBERT J. MRAZEK, New York RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois RONALD D. COLEMAN, Texas SILVIO O. CONTE, Massachusetts LAWRENCE COUGHLIN, Pennsylvania C. W. BILL YOUNG, Florida ELDON RUDD, Arizona CARL D. PURSELL, Michigan TOM LOEFFLER, Texas JOHN EDWARD PORTER, Illinois FREDERICK G. MOHRMAN, Clerk and Staff Director ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1987 16 A6 99th no.23 Pt.8 DOCS MONDAY, APRIL 14, 1986. TESTIMONY OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND OTHER COOSA-ALABAMA WATERWAY & PORT OF MOBILE WITNESSES HON. BILL DICKINSON HON. SONNY CALLAHAN J.T. “TOM” MCKENZIE, PRESIDENT, COOSA RIVER ACTION COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BOBBY JUNKINS, VICE CHAIRMAN, JOINT INTERIM REPRESENTATIVE RICHARD LINDSEY, MEMBER, INTERIM LEGISLATIVE COLONEL RALPH O. CLEMENS, JR., EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, COOSA- LISTER HILL PROCTOR, PRESIDENT, COOSA-ALABAMA RIVER IMPROVE- W.J. “BUDDY" GRIFFIN, DIRECTOR, ALABAMA WATERWAYS DEVELOP- Mr. BEVILL. The committee will come to order. As you know, this is the most important day of the year. This is We are proud to have you here with us today. In order to let Mr. DICKINSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also enjoy and appreciate the opportunity of coming to speak on behalf of Alabama Waterways Systems. Since I am the lead-off witness, if it is appropriate, I would like to recognize Ralph Clemens, Executive Vice-President of the Coosa-Alabama River Improvement Association who is with us today, and Lister Hill Proctor of Sylacauga, Alabama, the President of the Coosa-Alabama Association. (1) I express sympathy for the recent death of Bill Brewbaker of Montgomery who was Systems Secretary-Treasurer. Mr. BEVILL. Ralph has one of the best substitutes and representatives anyone could have, Mary George Waite. Why don't you come up to the table. Mr. DICKINSON. Also Larry Lee is the new Executive Director of the Tri-Rivers Waterway Development Association, and Baxter Harcourt of Georgia who is President, and Homer Hirt of Sneeds, Florida, who is Vice President. I am not sure he is here. I am particularly pleased that Larry Lee is here in his present position and not in my job. I would like to, on behalf of all the Alabama Waterways Systems, express our very sincere and deep appreciation to you, Mr. Chairman, for your leadership and guidance over the years. We have had good progress in Alabama. We are very dependent on our waterway systems, and I think the prosperity of our state looking down the road is inextricably tied with our waterways systems, whether it be from the Coosa, from the Chatahoochee on the east bank to the Tenn-Tom on the western side, and all in between. We are pleased with an abundance of water, and the development of it really portends the development and prosperity of our State in the future. Both the Coosa-Alabama and the Tri-Rivers are asking the full Corps capability on operation and maintenance plus Tri-River supports a $300,000 Corps basin study along with O&M money on locks and dams below Eufaula and in Columbia on the Tri-Rivers System. If it is agreeable with the Chair and the Committee, I would like to submit my statement on both of these systems for the record and just make impromptu remarks as to the system. Mr. BEVILL. Without objection, both statements will be made part of the record. Mr. DICKINSON. The Congress and this committee has been very kind to us in Alabama in the past. We have had some dramatic growth along the Tenn-Tom. We have had some additional growth on the other systems. To a very large extent we have worked out our differences in the Tri-Rivers System with Florida. That was at an impasse for several years, but as you will recall, the Corps has gone in and removed large boulders and the impediments to navigation to a very large extent below the Alabama and North Florida line. I think there is really no big problem except time and money in developing the Tri-Rivers System, now will go all the way up to Columbus, Georgia, and enhancing the navigation and the industry all up and down that river is very important to us. My district fronts the river from the Florida line all the way up to the Russell-Henry County line. So, we have a real deep and abiding interest in the development of this system. We appreciate the opportunity to come and testify today. We appreciate your consideration in the past, and we look forward to the kind administrations of this committee in the future. Thank you very much. [The statement of Hon. Bill Dickinson follows:] TESTIMONY IN BEHALF OF ALABAMA WATERWAYS CONGRESSMAN BILL DICKINSON Monday, April 14, 1986 Before Energy and Water Development Subcommittee Committee on Appropriations House & Senate Mr. Chairman, Alabama, as you know, is blessed with a large number of waterways, many of which provide vital links of transportation from mid-America to the Gulf of Mexico, and numerous other benefits to the people and to the economy of our State. The two waterway systems that directly affect the Second Congressional District of Alabama are the Coosa-Alabama and the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee - Flint. It is on their behalf, and our other waterways, that I appear before you today in support of the Corps of Engineers' budget requests for operation and maintenance of these waterways, along with operation and maintenance for their supporting locks and dams, a basin study, and one request for construction funds on the Warrior-Tombigbee System in Alabama. On the Coosa-Alabama System, as on our other waterways, the consistent reliability of the nine-foot channel during dry seasons is of major concern if industry is to recognize the advantages of river transportation, especially from Montgomery to the Port of Mobile. The Coosa-Alabama's request for the Corps' full capability of $10,343,000 would help finish a large amount of clearing, dredging and repair work scheduled along the waterway including some resurfacing of roadways. The Corps' request for the Coosa-Alabama is only $4,924,000 and so I leave it to your good judgement as to the final figure appropriated. |