Inhofe Pushes $50 Million for River Aid

By JIM MYERS

He also says he’s working on more money for Tar Creek.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said Tuesday that a major water resources bill authorizes $50 million for certain components of an Arkansas River development plan and millions more to complete the ongoing buyout at the Tar Creek Superfund site.

“First of all, I take the position that nothing’s been done good at the Arkansas (River) since I was mayor,” said Inhofe, R- Okla.

“Look at what Oklahoma City has done. They just shot way ahead of us . . . We really need something in Tulsa County.”

Once again he is using his key position as the ranking member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to push the two huge projects and others around the state.

They are included in the latest version of the Water Resources Development Act, a much-delayed and much-anticipated piece of legislation that Inhofe hopes will be approved by both houses of Congress by the end of the week.

Local impact: County officials took a guarded view of the announcement.

John Piercey, Tulsa County’s financial adviser, said the federal funds could help shorten the length of time a proposed four- tenths-of-a-cent river tax would be collected to raise public funding.

The tax as currently proposed would be collected for seven years.

Piercey declined to provide specifics, but did warn against counting on the federal funds.

Should Inhofe’s authorization measure be approved, he said, the funding package would still need to go through appropriations.

“Then it becomes a real fight,” Piercey said.

The possible federal funding would not change the amount Tulsa County taxpayers would be asked to pay, Piercey said.

“You can’t plan a $282 million project on a maybe,” he said.

Supporting but not endorsing: Inhofe’s inclusion of the $50 million authorization for the Arkansas River work may be a bit of a surprise for some, especially since river development projects essentially are banned from the water resources bill.

The bill calls for the money to be used to carry out ecosystem restoration, recreation and flood damage reduction components of the Arkansas River plan.

Inhofe, who has told supporters of the river development plan he will endorse it only if they can prove it will have a 2-to-1 funding ratio for private to public financing, said the $50 million provisions should not be viewed as an endorsement.

“I am supportive but I am not ready to endorse it,” he said.

“If I do that, we would lose the leverage of being able to get the private money.”

Tar Creek funds: To complete the ongoing buyout at Tar Creek, Inhofe has included language in the bill to authorize another $30 million on top of the $18.9 million already in the pipeline.

In conference, however, additional language was inserted that may alter the way future funds are provided.

That language would force the Environmental Protection Agency to revisit its latest phase to continue its Tar Creek cleanup.

In reconsidering its plan, EPA would have to take out the costs of the uniform relocation act and then estimate what those costs would be if the relocation was conducted under the approach currently taken by the state.

That review could lead EPA to pick up the costs of the relocation, and the agency could pass those costs on to “potentially responsible parties” in the Superfund case.

Inhofe expressed pride in securing the language to give EPA the authority it needs to assist residents at Tar Creek and accomplish environmental remediation at the Superfund site.

“We made a commitment that we are going to resolve the problems at Tar Creek,” he said.

“This language provides long overdue help to the residents of Tar Creek.”

Praise and caution: Gov. Brad Henry called the legislation great news for Picher and Cardin areas.

“They have suffered for far too long and deserve the chance for a new life in a safer place,” the Democratic governor said.

“I greatly appreciate Senator Jim Inhofe’s good work and leadership in obtaining the necessary federal funds for this effort.”

Inhofe’s fellow Republican senator, Tom Coburn, however, expressed concern Congress has not been able to deal with the nearly $60 billion of projects already authorized and awaiting funding.

“Absent a serious effort to prioritize future spending, we will never be able to fund the new projects in this bill, much less the projects previously promised by Congress,” Coburn said.

World staff writer Kevin Canfield contributed to this story.

Jim Myers (202) 484-1424

jim.myers@tulsaworld.com

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