March 27, 2003
Subject: Corps budget for Devils Lake cut
Environment & Energy Daily, particularly the
last two paras:
... In addition to slashing the corps civil works budget and
advocating
corps reform, Bush's proposal also pleased environmental and
taxpayer
advocates by cutting funds completely for controversial projects.
The
proposal offers no money for the Yazoo Backwater Pump Project in
Mississippi
and Devils Lake flood control project in North Dakota.
The Yazoo project would use a giant pumping plant to control
flooding and
allow farmers to plant more cotton and other crops. Likewise, the
Devils
Lake project would build an outlet on the lake's western end to
control
flooding from the lake, which has risen 26 feet in the past six
years.
Critics have complained that both projects spend too much federal
money on
solutions that would cause environmental damage....