H.R. 723: Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Protection Act

GovTrack’s Bill Summary

We don’t have a summary available yet.

Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/113/1/hr723.

Background

According to the Committee on Natural Resources[1], The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 was intended to put a development freeze on rivers to preserve their ‘‘free-flowing’’ values against the influx of man-made dams being constructed at the time. Typically, rivers that may be included in the Wild and Scenic Rivers program are first studied for their suitability. The river is evaluated on its ‘‘free-flowing’’ condition and classified as wild, scenic or recreational, depending on the amount of development on and near the river. If a river receives a Wild and Scenic River designation, no new dams may be constructed and federally assisted water resource development projects would not be allowed.

According to recent testimony, the low-water volume and low gradient make any type of hydropower projects economically unfeasible on the river segments proposed for study in H.R. 723, and as a result may be a viable addition to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

An identical bill (H.R. 3388) passed the House in the 112^th Congress by voice vote on July 23, 2012.

Summary

H.R. 723 authorizes the National Park Service to study 86 miles of the Beaver, Chipuxet, Queen, Wood, and Pawcatuck Rivers in the States of Connecticut and Rhode Island for potential addition to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.  The bill also requires the Secretary to report to Congress on the study. 

Cost

CBO estimates that, “implementing the legislation would cost about $400,000 over the next three years, assuming the availability of appropriated funds. Enacting H.R. 723 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.”[1]

House Democratic Caucus Summary

The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.

So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.

We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.