I

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 2939

To direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a pilot test of the

Mississippi Interstate Cooperative Resource Agreement.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 1, 1996

Mr. GUNDERSON (for himself and Mr. BEREUTER) introduced the following

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Resources

A BILL

To direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a pilot

test of the Mississippi Interstate Cooperative Resource

Agreement.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Mississippi Interstate

5 Cooperative Resource Agreement Act of 1996’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds that—

8 (1) several rivers flow between, or are common

9 to, two or more State boundaries;
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1 (2) in many cases, there is not a single entity

2 which has complete jurisdictional responsibility for

3 the fishery resources in these rivers;

4 (3) a strong partnership between Federal and

5 State governmental authorities and citizen groups is

6 vital in coordinating and facilitating cooperative re7 search and in resolving problems associated with

8 large river ecosystems;

9 (4) many fishery management problems are

10 caused by federally regulated activities (including ac11 tivities resulting in point and nonpoint pollution)

12 and federally constructed projects (including dams

13 and navigation facilities);

14 (5) in some rivers, the once rich assemblages of

15 fish fauna and diverse habitats have been lost and

16 formerly abundant native fish now exist only as en17 dangered or depleted populations;

18 (6) without positive management actions, native

19 species in some rivers will continue to decline, foster20 ing even greater conflicts among water users;

21 (7) construction of waterway developments (in22 cluding navigation, flood control, water level fluctua23 tion, power generation, irrigation, and general water

24 depletion projects) is accelerating and increasingly

25 degrading large river ecosystems nationwide;
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1 (8) the United States public will face reduced

2 opportunities for recreational, commercial, subsist3 ence, and aesthetic uses of river systems without de4 monstrable change in management strategies in the

5 near future;

6 (9) several programs have been proposed or are

7 underway to resolve conflicts in these management

8 strategies;

9 (10) in one of these programs, Federal, State,

10 and local fishery resource managers in the Mis11 sissippi River drainage basin have entered into the

12 Mississippi Interstate Cooperative Resource Agree13 ment under which the managers share information,

14 resources, facilities, and funding for preparation, de15 velopment, and implementation of long-range strate16 gic plans for management of the drainage basin’s

17 interjurisdictional fishery resources;

18 (11) the Mississippi Interstate Cooperative Re19 source Agreement merits detailed evaluation as a

20 model for the development of long-range strategic

21 plans for the management of interjurisdictional riv22 ers fishery resources; and

23 (12) to ensure that these programs are appro24 priately coordinated and to conserve the fishery re25 sources in interjurisdictional rivers, there is a need
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1 for strategies to improve coordination, cooperation,

2 research, and information sharing.

3 SEC. 3. MISSISSIPPI INTERSTATE COOPERATIVE RE4 SOURCE AGREEMENT.

5 (a) EVALUATION.—The Secretary, in cooperation

6 with the Mississippi Interstate Cooperative Resource Asso7 ciation, shall conduct a pilot test of the Mississippi Inter8 state Cooperative Resource Agreement.

9 (b) CONTENTS.—A pilot test conducted under this

10 section may include, among other matters, the following:

11 (1) Identification and description of each of the

12 river ecosystems of the Mississippi River drainage

13 system and the associated fishery resources and fish

14 habitats of such river ecosystems.

15 (2) Identification and description of—

16 (A) the known impacts, on fishery re17 sources of the Mississippi River drainage basin,

18 of agriculture, navigation, flood control, power

19 generation, irrigation, and municipal water sup20 ply projects, including the impacts of nonpoint

21 source pollution, dredging, channel mainte22 nance, water level management, sediment and

23 contaminant transport, vessel traffic, water

24 withdrawal, and changes in salinity and various

25 hydrologic conditions; and
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1 (B) techniques for mitigating those im2 pacts.

3 (3) Analysis of existing resource data with re4 gard to regional depletion of important fish stocks

5 (including paddlefish, lake sturgeon, walleye, and

6 other high priority nonanadromous species) and the

7 potential for restoration of such fish stocks.

8 (4) Identification of major information gaps

9 and technological needs to improve the cooperative

10 management of interjurisdictional fishery resources.

11 (5) A comprehensive study of the status, and

12 the management, research, and restoration needs, of

13 the interjurisdictional fishery resources of the Mis14 sissippi River drainage system.

15 (6) Development of recommendations regarding

16 the scope, schedule, regional priorities, and roles of

17 participants in the Mississippi Interstate Cooperative

18 Resource Agreement for undertaking cooperative

19 management and research projects.

20 (7) Development of plans and testing projects

21 for the restoration and enhancement of depleted fish

22 stocks (including lake sturgeon, paddlefish, walleye,

23 and other high priority nonanadromous species) and

24 associated habitats of such fish stocks.
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1 (8) Evaluation of the feasibility and expected

2 success of the program under the Mississippi Inter3 state Cooperative Resource Agreement and the mer4 its of extending such program of cooperative man5 agement strategy to other interjurisdictional river

6 basins in the United States.

7 (9) Estimates of funds required to implement

8 recommendations and plans developed under para9 graphs (6), (7), and (8).

10 (c) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 36

11 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the

12 Secretary shall transmit to the Congress a report contain13 ing the evaluation of the pilot test to be conducted under

14 this section.

15 SEC. 4. PAYMENT OF ASSISTANCE.

16 The Secretary may use amounts available to carry

17 out this Act to pay assistance to the Mississippi Interstate

18 Cooperative Resource Association, for costs it incurs in

19 participating in the pilot test under section 3.

20 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

21 For the purpose of this Act, the following definitions

22 apply:

23 (1) INTERJURISDICTIONAL FISHERY RE24 SOURCES.—The term ‘‘interjurisdictional fishery re25 sources’’ means fishery resources and associated
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1 aquatic habitats that depend on interjurisdictional

2 rivers and are under the management of two or

3 more governmental entities.

4 (2) INTERJURISDICTIONAL RIVER.—The term

5 ‘‘interjurisdictional river’’ means a river that flows

6 along the boundary of, or is common to, two or more

7 States.

8 (3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means

9 the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Di10 rector of the United States Fish and Wildlife Serv11 ice.

12 (4) STATE FISH AND WILDLIFE AGENCY.—The

13 term ‘‘State Fish and Wildlife Agency’’ includes any

14 State department or agency, or a part thereof, that

15 is empowered under the laws of the State to exercise

16 the functions ordinarily exercised by a State fish and

17 wildlife agency.

18 (5) THE MISSISSIPPI INTERSTATE COOPERA19 TIVE RESOURCE ASSOCIATION.—The term ‘‘Mis20 sissippi Interstate Cooperative Resource Associa21 tion’’ means the association comprised of the States

22 and entities that are signatories to the Mississippi

23 Interstate Cooperative Resource Agreement.

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