108TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 961

AN ACT

To promote Department of the Interior efforts to

provide a scientific basis for the management ofsediment and nutrient loss in the Upper Mississippi River Basin, and for other purposes.

108TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 961

AN ACT

To promote Department of the Interior efforts to provide

a scientific basis for the management of sediment and

nutrient loss in the Upper Mississippi River Basin, and

for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

2 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the

3 ‘‘Upper Mississippi River Basin Protection Act’’.

4 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of

5 this Act is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.

Sec. 2. Definitions.

Sec. 3. Reliance on sound science.

TITLE I—SEDIMENT AND NUTRIENT MONITORING NETWORK

Sec. 101. Establishment of monitoring network.

Sec. 102. Data collection and storage responsibilities.

Sec. 103. Relationship to existing sediment and nutrient monitoring.

Sec. 104. Collaboration with other public and private monitoring efforts.

Sec. 105. Reporting requirements.

Sec. 106. National Research Council assessment.

TITLE II—COMPUTER MODELING AND RESEARCH

Sec. 201. Computer modeling and research of sediment and nutrient sources.

Sec. 202. Use of electronic means to distribute information.

Sec. 203. Reporting requirements.

TITLE III—AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS AND RELATED

MATTERS

Sec. 301. Authorization of appropriations.

Sec. 302. Cost-sharing requirements.

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

7 In this Act:

8 (1) The terms ‘‘Upper Mississippi River Basin’’

9 and ‘‘Basin’’ mean the watershed portion of the

10 Upper Mississippi River and Illinois River basins,

11 from Cairo, Illinois, to the headwaters of the Mis12 sissippi River, in the States of Minnesota, Wis13 consin, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri. The designation

14 includes the Kaskaskia watershed along the Illinois
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1 River and the Meramec watershed along the Mis2 souri River.

3 (2) The terms ‘‘Upper Mississippi River Stew4 ardship Initiative’’ and ‘‘Initiative’’ mean the activi5 ties authorized or required by this Act to monitor

6 nutrient and sediment loss in the Upper Mississippi

7 River Basin.

8 (3) The term ‘‘sound science’’ refers to the use

9 of accepted and documented scientific methods to

10 identify and quantify the sources, transport, and

11 fate of nutrients and sediment and to quantify the

12 effect of various treatment methods or conservation

13 measures on nutrient and sediment loss. Sound

14 science requires the use of documented protocols for

15 data collection and data analysis, and peer review of

16 the data, results, and findings.

17 SEC. 3. RELIANCE ON SOUND SCIENCE.

18 It is the policy of Congress that Federal investments

19 in the Upper Mississippi River Basin must be guided by

20 sound science.

21 TITLE I—SEDIMENT AND NUTRI22 ENT MONITORING NETWORK

23 SEC. 101. ESTABLISHMENT OF MONITORING NETWORK.

24 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—As part of the Upper Mis25 sissippi River Stewardship Initiative, the Secretary of the
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1 Interior shall establish a sediment and nutrient moni2 toring network for the Upper Mississippi River Basin for

3 the purposes of—

4 (1) identifying and evaluating significant

5 sources of sediment and nutrients in the Upper Mis6 sissippi River Basin;

7 (2) quantifying the processes affecting mobiliza8 tion, transport, and fate of those sediments and nu9 trients on land and in water;

10 (3) quantifying the transport of those sediments

11 and nutrients to and through the Upper Mississippi

12 River Basin;

13 (4) recording changes to sediment and nutrient

14 loss over time;

15 (5) providing coordinated data to be used in

16 computer modeling of the Basin, pursuant to section

17 201; and

18 (6) identifying major sources of sediment and

19 nutrients within the Basin for the purpose of tar20 geting resources to reduce sediment and nutrient

21 loss.

22 (b) ROLE OF UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUR23 VEY.—The Secretary of the Interior shall carry out this

24 title acting through the office of the Director of the United

25 States Geological Survey.
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1 SEC. 102. DATA COLLECTION AND STORAGE RESPONSIBIL2 ITIES.

3 (a) GUIDELINES FOR DATA COLLECTION AND STOR4 AGE.—The Secretary of the Interior shall establish guide5 lines for the effective design of data collection activities

6 regarding sediment and nutrient monitoring, for the use

7 of suitable and consistent methods for data collection, and

8 for consistent reporting, data storage, and archiving prac9 tices.

10 (b) RELEASE OF DATA.—Data resulting from sedi11 ment and nutrient monitoring in the Upper Mississippi

12 River Basin shall be released to the public using generic

13 station identifiers and hydrologic unit codes. In the case

14 of a monitoring station located on private lands, informa15 tion regarding the location of the station shall not be dis16 seminated without the landowner’s permission.

17 (c) PROTECTION OF PRIVACY.—Data resulting from

18 sediment and nutrient monitoring in the Upper Mis19 sissippi River Basin is not subject to the mandatory disclo20 sure provisions of section 552 of title 5, United States

21 Code, but may be released only as provided in subsection

22 (b).

23 SEC. 103. RELATIONSHIP TO EXISTING SEDIMENT AND NU24 TRIENT MONITORING.

25 (a) INVENTORY.—To the maximum extent prac26 ticable, the Secretary of the Interior shall inventory the
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1 sediment and nutrient monitoring efforts, in existence as

2 of the date of the enactment of this Act, of Federal, State,

3 local, and nongovernmental entities for the purpose of cre4 ating a baseline understanding of overlap, data gaps and

5 redundancies.

6 (b) INTEGRATION.—On the basis of the inventory,

7 the Secretary of the Interior shall integrate the existing

8 sediment and nutrient monitoring efforts, to the maximum

9 extent practicable, into the sediment and nutrient moni10 toring network required by section 101.

11 (c) CONSULTATION AND USE OF EXISTING DATA.—

12 In carrying out this section, the Secretary of the Interior

13 shall make maximum use of data in existence as of the

14 date of the enactment of this Act and of ongoing programs

15 and efforts of Federal, State, tribal, local, and nongovern16 mental entities in developing the sediment and nutrient

17 monitoring network required by section 101.

18 (d) COORDINATION WITH LONG-TERM ESTUARY AS19 SESSMENT PROJECT.—The Secretary of the Interior shall

20 carry out this section in coordination with the long-term

21 estuary assessment project authorized by section 902 of

22 the Estuaries and Clean Waters Act of 2000 (Public Law

23 106–457; 33 U.S.C. 2901 note).
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1 SEC. 104. COLLABORATION WITH OTHER PUBLIC AND PRI2 VATE MONITORING EFFORTS.

3 To establish the sediment and nutrient monitoring

4 network, the Secretary of the Interior shall collaborate,

5 to the maximum extent practicable, with other Federal,

6 State, tribal, local and private sediment and nutrient mon7 itoring programs that meet guidelines prescribed under

8 section 102(a), as determined by the Secretary.

9 SEC. 105. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.

10 The Secretary of the Interior shall report to Congress

11 not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment

12 of this Act on the development of the sediment and nutri13 ent monitoring network.

14 SEC. 106. NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL ASSESSMENT.

15 The National Research Council of the National Acad16 emy of Sciences shall conduct a comprehensive water re17 sources assessment of the Upper Mississippi River Basin.

18 TITLE II—COMPUTER MODELING

19 AND RESEARCH

20 SEC. 201. COMPUTER MODELING AND RESEARCH OF SEDI21 MENT AND NUTRIENT SOURCES.

22 (a) MODELING PROGRAM REQUIRED.—As part of the

23 Upper Mississippi River Stewardship Initiative, the Direc24 tor of the United States Geological Survey shall establish

25 a modeling program to identify significant sources of sedi26 ment and nutrients in the Upper Mississippi River Basin.
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1 (b) ROLE.—Computer modeling shall be used to iden2 tify subwatersheds which are significant sources of sedi3 ment and nutrient loss and shall be made available for

4 the purposes of targeting public and private sediment and

5 nutrient reduction efforts.

6 (c) COMPONENTS.—Sediment and nutrient models

7 for the Upper Mississippi River Basin shall include the

8 following:

9 (1) Models to relate nutrient loss to landscape,

10 land use, and land management practices.

11 (2) Models to relate sediment loss to landscape,

12 land use, and land management practices.

13 (3) Models to define river channel nutrient

14 transformation processes.

15 (d) COLLECTION OF ANCILLARY INFORMATION.—

16 Ancillary information shall be collected in a GIS format

17 to support modeling and management use of modeling re18 sults, including the following:

19 (1) Land use data.

20 (2) Soils data.

21 (3) Elevation data.

22 (4) Information on sediment and nutrient re23 duction improvement actions.

24 (5) Remotely sense data.
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1 SEC. 202. USE OF ELECTRONIC MEANS TO DISTRIBUTE IN2 FORMATION.

3 Not later than 90 days after the date of the enact4 ment of this Act, the Director of the United States Geo5 logical Survey shall establish a system that uses the tele6 communications medium known as the Internet to provide

7 information regarding the following:

8 (1) Public and private programs designed to re9 duce sediment and nutrient loss in the Upper Mis10 sissippi River Basin.

11 (2) Information on sediment and nutrient levels

12 in the Upper Mississippi River and its tributaries.

13 (3) Successful sediment and nutrient reduction

14 projects.

15 SEC. 203. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.

16 (a) MONITORING ACTIVITIES.—Commencing one

17 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Direc18 tor of the United States Geological Survey shall provide

19 to Congress and make available to the public an annual

20 report regarding monitoring activities conducted in the

21 Upper Mississippi River Basin.

22 (b) MODELING ACTIVITIES.—Every three years, the

23 Director of the United States Geological Survey shall pro24 vide to Congress and make available to the public a

25 progress report regarding modeling activities.
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1 TITLE III—AUTHORIZATION OF

2 APPROPRIATIONS AND RE3 LATED MATTERS

4 SEC. 301. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

5 (a) UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ACTIVI6 TIES.—There is authorized to be appropriated to the

7 United States Geological Survey $6,250,000 each fiscal

8 year to carry out this Act (other than section 106). Of

9 the amounts appropriated for a fiscal year pursuant to

10 this authorization of appropriations, one-third shall be

11 made available for the United States Geological Survey

12 Cooperative Water Program and the remainder shall be

13 made available for the United States Geological Survey

14 Hydrologic Networks and Analysis Program.

15 (b) WATER RESOURCE AND WATER QUALITY MAN16 AGEMENT ASSESSMENT.—There is authorized to be ap17 propriated $650,000 to allow the National Research Coun18 cil to perform the assessment required by section 106.

19 SEC. 302. COST-SHARING REQUIREMENTS.

20 Funds made available for the United States Geologi21 cal Survey Cooperative Water Program under section

22 301(a) shall be subject to the same cost sharing require23 ments as specified in the last proviso under the heading

24 ‘‘UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY-SURVEYS, INVES25 TIGATIONS, AND RESEARCH’’ of the Department of the In-
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1 terior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2002

2 (Public Law 107–63; 115 Stat. 427; 43 U.S.C. 50).

Passed the House of Representatives March 25,

2003.

Attest:

Clerk.