Emerson, Bond to speak on water resources law

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson and U.S. Sen. Kit Bond will be at the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority at 3 p.m. today to talk about the passage of the 2007 Water Resources Development Act.

State legislators and local waterways officials have been invited to meet with the two federal legislators.

The bill was passed by overriding a presidential veto earlier this month. At $23 billion, the WRDA will pay for more than 900 water-supply, flood-control, navigation and environmental-restoration projects.

SEMO Port executive director Dan Overbey said that, while the act has no specific provisions for projects at the port, the WRDA will help the port through projects that will help commercial traffic on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers flow more smoothly. He added the bill does include some navigation, flood-control and environmental projects on the Mississippi River between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill.