On November 8, the Director of the USGS, Charles Groat, announced an overall $72 Million increase for their operations in FY 2001. Director Groat sent a letter to American Whitewater saying,
The increase in the USGS budget comes as a result of hard work by many players including key constituents like you.
American Whitewater and several other conservation-oriented recreation groups including the American Canoe Association, American Hiking Society, ORCA, and Access Fund strove to increase the USGS streamgaging budget by at least $5 Million in FY 2001. Our Streamkeepers have also helped by targeting priority gages for recreation and raising awareness of the funding shortfalls for the USGS.
Imagine our excitement when we discovered that Congress awarded $9.9 Million for streamgaging with a $3.1 Million increase for reporting real-time data, an additional $5 Million increase under Title VII for streamgaging activitities, and $1.8 Million for repairing or replacing stream monitoring equipment damaged by natural disasters!
Priority spending areas in 2001 are expected to include Oklahoma, Texas, Southeast, and Pacific Northwest where dozens of gauges have been shut down over the last 10 years due to lack of funding.
This $9.9 Million increase puts American Whitewater well down our path to increase funding for the USGS Streamgaging Network in FY 2002 by an additional $40 Million over FY 1999 levels. More Information is available!