Resources: House Committee Examines Agencies’ Water Use Proposals
The Water and Power Subcommittee (Chairman Tom McClintock, Thousand Oaks) of House Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 on proposed EPA and Forest Service actions to purportedly increase control over water use. The Forest Service action would assert management control over “surface and groundwater resources that are hydraulically interconnected, and consider them interconnected in all planning and evaluation activities,” Chairman McClintock said. Opponents argue that this assertion would impose federal authority over groundwater that is traditionally within the purview of state jurisdictions, and which has guided water policy in western states for more than 150 years; this shift could have devastating economic impacts on western states, they argue.
As has been reported in the two previous weeks, at least two other Congressional hearings have considered the proposed EPA rule that would re-define the term “navigable waters” under the Clean Water Act; opponents refute EPA claims that this rule will only clarify the term making regulation more predictable, and instead argue that the rule would vastly expand the jurisdiction of the EPA to regulate virtually all bodies of water and could increase the regulatory burden on farmers and other water users. Ranking member Rep. Grace Napolitano (Norwalk) referred to these past Congressional hearings and emphasized that neither of these agency actions are final, and that the public comment period has been extended through October to give stakeholders more time to address the many complex issues that are being brought to the attention of the subcommittee. While the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service and the Acting Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation were invited to speak in defense of the proposed rules, neither were in attendance at this particular hearing.
Witnesses included: Mr. Lawrence Martin, Attorney, Halverson Northwest Law Group (also representing the National Water Resources Association), Yakima, Washington; Mr. Patrick Tyrrell, State Engineer, State of Wyoming, Cheyenne, Wyoming; Mr. Andrew Lemley, Government Affairs Representative, New Belgium Brewing Company, Fort Collins, Colorado; Mr. Randy Parker, Chief Executive Officer, Utah Farm Bureau Federation, Sandy, Utah; and Mr. Roger Clark, Director, Engineering & Operations, Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc., Springfield, Missouri.
Lawrence Martin testified on behalf of the National Water Resources Association (NWRA), which represents state associations, irrigation districts, other water providers, and their collective interests in the management of irrigation and municipal water supplies in the western states. NWRA members have historically been, and will continue to be supporters of the goals of the Clean Water Act, he said, and its members want to work collaboratively with federal partners to provide meaningful comment. However, he continued, “the sheer mass and complexity of these regulations makes that charge exceedingly difficult.” He limited his detailed comments to those about the proposed EPA and Forest Service rules, but he also mentioned that water users are struggling to review, comprehend, and comment on at least four other rules that have the potential to greatly impact stakeholders: (1) Proposed Directives for National Best Management Practices for Water Quality Protection on National Forest System Lands; (2) Proposed Rule on Ski Area Water Rights on Forest Service Lands; (3) Proposed Rule on Listing Endangered and Threatened Species and Designating Critical Habitat; Implementing Changes to the Regulations for Designating Critical Habitat; and (4) Draft Policy Regarding Implementation of Section 4(b)(2) of the Endangered Species Act. “All of these proposals are currently open for comment and have the potential to seriously impact water users. These provisions are not easy reads; they are highly technical documents that cite numerous studies, which in some cases are not even finalized…We have asked for extensions or will ask for extensions to all of these comment periods in coming weeks. I hope the agencies will heed this request; otherwise I fear this recent flood of regulation will drown agricultural and municipal water users in red tape,” he concluded.
For more information, please visit:http://naturalresources.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=384481 . To see previous Bulletin articles on the subject, go to: http://www.calinst.org/bul2/b2117.pdf andhttp://www.calinst.org/bul2/b2116.pdf