Conservationists are optimistic about funding for CREP

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- To the delight of conservation enthusiasts, there is movement in the Minnesota House of Representatives for full funding of the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) in the Minnesota River Basin.

The House Environment and Natural Resources Committee recently put together a small package of bonding recommendations and forwarded them to the House Capital Investment Committee. The emergency package included $51.4 million for full CREP funding.

The money is critical to fully match the remaining $98 million in federal funds, creating nearly $150 million to accomplish CREP goals.

Earlier, House leadership said it would fund only $20 million in CREP easements.

"I think she's a 'go' from here," New Ulm's Scott Sparlin of the Coalition for a Clean Minnesota River (CCMR) said. "Everybody is pretty pleased with the way things are going. This would be the crown jewel."

Full funding would increase enrolled CREP acreage from 35,000 to 65,000 acres.

"It's money well spent," Sparlin said. "It will benefit water quality and volume, which is what many people are thinking about right about now."

Metro area legislators still need to get on board since the House leadership position continues to be against a bonding bill and favors only $20 million in CREP funding.

Sparlin was surprised by comments he heard from a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) official in the area recently.

The man told Sparlin something should be done about flooding in the Quad Cities (Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa and Rock Island and Moline, Ill.) because they had three floods in the past decade.

"We could build more dikes and levies to protect that place and just send the water down to the next town and exacerbate it," Sparlin said sarcastically.

District 23 Rep. Dennis R. Frederickson (R-New Ulm), a conservation proponent, isn't certain CREP will get full funding, much as he wishes it would.

"This will be an issue as the session winds down," Frederickson said. "I don't care if the money comes from bonding or the general fund. CREP would ease flooding and erosion."

Frederickson would also like to see more wetlands restoration to mitigate flooding.

CREP supporters must continue to do their part and keep pressure on House Republicans, according to Judy Erickson of Friends of the Minnesota Valley.

* In other legislative news, Frederickson said the Senate Finance Committee passed the Senate Transportation Bill Wednesday. It includes a dedication of 50 percent of the motor vehicle sales tax with 32 percent going to highways and 18 percent to state transit.

The bill would dedicate $300 million of this fiscal year's budget surplus to highway.

"I think it's a good idea," Frederickson said. "It's obvious we need to repair and rebuild highway. In the large scheme of things, it would accelerate Highway 14 rebuilding."

Frederickson said the bill will be in the full Senate in a day or two. He expects it to pass.

The tax committee removed a three-cent gas tax increase from the Transportation Bill and will consider it in the Tax Bill.

If approved, it would be effective July 1, 2003.

Frederickson said the Railroad Rehabilitation Fund includes $3 million for railroads like the Minnesota Valley Railroad that runs through Winthrop, Gaylord, and Arlington.