[Senate Hearing 115-511]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 115-511
THE 2018 WESTERN WATER SUPPLY OUTLOOK AND WATER INFRASTRUCTURE AND
DROUGHT RESILIENCE LEGISLATION
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON
ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
TO
EXAMINE THE 2018 WESTERN WATER SUPPLY OUTLOOK AND RECEIVE TESTIMONY ON
THE FOLLOWING WATER INFRASTRUCTURE AND DROUGHT RESILIENCE LEGISLATION:
S. 2539
S. 2560
S. 2563
__________
MARCH 22, 2018
__________
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Printed for the use of the
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
29-772 PDF WASHINGTON : 2020
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COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska, Chairman
JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho RON WYDEN, Oregon
MIKE LEE, Utah BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan
STEVE DAINES, Montana JOE MANCHIN III, West Virginia
CORY GARDNER, Colorado MARTIN HEINRICH, New Mexico
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii
JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota ANGUS S. KING, JR., Maine
BILL CASSIDY, Louisiana TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
ROB PORTMAN, Ohio CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia TINA SMITH, Minnesota
Brian Hughes, Staff Director
Patrick J. McCormick III, Chief Counsel
Lane Dickson, Professional Staff Member
Mary Louise Wagner, Democratic Staff Director
Sam E. Fowler, Democratic Chief Counsel
Camille Touton, Democratic Professional Staff Member
C O N T E N T S
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OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Murkowski, Hon. Lisa, Chairman and a U.S. Senator from Alaska.... 1
Cantwell, Hon. Maria, Ranking Member and a U.S. Senator from
Washington..................................................... 2
WITNESSES
Petty, Hon. Timothy, Assistant Secretary for Water and Science,
U.S. Department of the Interior................................ 6
Sandison, Derek I., Director, Washington State Department of
Agriculture.................................................... 22
O'Toole, Hon. Patrick, President, Family Farm Alliance........... 28
Ziemer, Laura, Senior Counsel and Water Policy Advisor, Trout
Unlimited...................................................... 41
Sorensen, Kathryn, Director, City of Phoenix (AZ) Water Services
Department..................................................... 54
Ortega, Cindy, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability
Officer, MGM Resorts International............................. 58
ALPHABETICAL LISTING AND APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED
American Rivers:
Letter for the Record........................................ 152
American Rivers and National Audobon Society:
Letter for the Record........................................ 154
American Rivers, et al:
Letter for the Record........................................ 155
Cantwell, Hon. Maria:
Opening Statement............................................ 2
Chart entitled ``U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook'' dated March
15, 2018, by Brad Pugh, NOAA/NWS/NCEP/Climate Prediction
Center..................................................... 4
Hoeven, Hon. John:
Chart entitled ``U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook'' dated March
15, 2018, by Brad Pugh, NOAA/NWS/NCEP/Climate Prediction
Center..................................................... 76
Murkowski, Hon. Lisa:
Opening Statement............................................ 1
(The) Nature Conservancy:
Letter for the Record........................................ 157
Ortega, Cindy:
Opening Statement............................................ 58
Written Testimony............................................ 60
O'Toole, Hon. Patrick:
Opening Statement............................................ 28
Written Testimony............................................ 30
Petty, Hon. Timothy:
Opening Statement............................................ 6
Chart entitled ``Reclamation West-Wide Summary Precipitation
and Storage Figures'' dated March 19, 2018................. 7
Written Testimony............................................ 9
Response to Question for the Record.......................... 88
S. 2539, to amend the Energy and Water Development and Related
Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015, to reauthorize certain
projects to increase Colorado River System water............... 89
S. 2560, the Reclamation Title Transfer Act of 2018.............. 90
S. 2563, the Water Supply Infrastructure and Drought Resilience
Act of
2018........................................................... 101
Sandison, Derek I.:
Opening Statement............................................ 22
Written Testimony............................................ 24
Sorensen, Kathryn:
Opening Statement............................................ 54
Written Testimony............................................ 56
South Valley Water Association:
Statement for the Record..................................... 158
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership:
Letter for the Record........................................ 163
Ziemer, Laura:
Opening Statement............................................ 41
Written Testimony............................................ 43
THE 2018 WESTERN WATER SUPPLY OUTLOOK
AND WATER INFRASTRUCTURE AND
DROUGHT RESILIENCE LEGISLATION
----------
THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2018
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:08 a.m. in
Room SD-366, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Lisa
Murkowski, Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. LISA MURKOWSKI,
U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA
The Chairman. Good morning, everyone. The Committee will
come to order.
We had hoped to begin this morning's meeting with a quick
business meeting, but we clearly do not have a quorum present.
I know that there are significant hearings underway as we
speak, in various committees, so we are competing a little bit.
But for purposes of so many in the West, there could not be
anything more important than what we are doing here this
morning and that is to examine the Western Water Outlook for
2018, as well as three bills related to water supply
infrastructure and drought resilience.
For over a decade, the West has suffered through drought
conditions. And after a brief respite last year, water
conditions are again poor in much of the region, particularly
in California and the Colorado River Basin. Changing climate
conditions and weather patterns appear to be making the matters
worse.
The good news is that we have potential solutions to shield
our communities from harmful drought impacts. And it starts, as
always, with infrastructure. Every Committee has been talking
about infrastructure this Congress. It is an important topic
because there is no question that we need to overhaul and
modernize America's infrastructure. Across every sector,
infrastructure is the cornerstone.
For Western water, drought resilience is simply not
possible with insufficient and aging water systems that do not
even function properly. We understand this in my state of
Alaska where, believe it or not, we actually, every now and
again, have some water shortages. Even in the Southeast where
we are a literal rainforest, some areas have faced regional
droughts. Most often what happens is that water scarcity is
felt by communities that have plenty of precipitation, whether
it is Wrangell or Metlakatla, but without the necessary
infrastructure to capture it and transport it you are just kind
of stuck.
In the arid West, the consequences of inadequate water
supply infrastructure can be even more severe. The failure to
store as much water as possible in a wet year can have
devastating, long-term impacts.
With infrastructure as a foundation, we can also look to
flexible water management practices to build drought
resilience. Tools like conjunctive management, data-driven
reservoir operations, conservation, and other innovative
techniques can multiply the drought resilience benefits for our
communities.
In order to succeed we need to consider alternatives beyond
dams and reservoirs to provide needed storage, but we must also
take a critical look at the broken permitting process that can
kill good storage projects in the very early stages of the
planning process. We also need to aggressively pursue water
conservation, without pretending like that alone can solve the
severe water resource challenges that we face.
The three bills before us today are important and will move
us closer to our goals of modern infrastructure and a flexible,
responsive water management strategy. I want to acknowledge my
appreciation for the provisions in S. 2563 that allow Alaskans
to access needed water efficiency and tribal technical
assistance grants.
I look forward to hearing from our expert witnesses who
bring a diverse set of perspectives on water security to the
table. Whatever your viewpoint, whether it is government,
irrigation, municipal water, conservation, or business, it is
encouraging to see widespread agreement about the need to
increase Western water supplies and the importance of taking an
expansive approach to water management.
I thank you all, and now I turn to Senator Cantwell.
STATEMENT OF HON. MARIA CANTWELL,
U.S. SENATOR FROM WASHINGTON
Senator Cantwell. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for
calling a hearing on water in the West and thank you to our
witnesses joining us today on World Water Day.
We are joining a global conversation on the importance of
water for our communities and the science is abundantly clear
that the climate is changing and it is affecting our water
supply. Winters are warmer and the snowpack is melting sooner.
This means less water when we need it most, and we must find
consensus-based solutions grounded in the 21st century.
The Bureau of Reclamation projects help to support diverse
agricultural economies in Eastern and Central Washington, and
we must grow over 300 different commodities. We must make all
of these things have the economic opportunity that comes with
good water planning. Our agricultural economy's production
topped $10.6 billion in 2016. We are very proud of that.
A well-managed water system also helps us provide
affordable hydro for our communities, and Washington is
fortunate that this year's water outlook and snowpack is normal
or above normal.
I look at this map that we have passed out to our
colleagues as well and the brown areas are the most hard hit,
impact projections for this year.
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I am relieved to see that the Pacific Northwest does not
have any of that area this year, but it does not mean that I am
any less committed to making sure we continue to move ahead on
good water resource management.
I think this is all based on Bureau of Reclamation
precipitation outlooks, and for the Pacific Northwest we are
expected to be at 104 percent. We are used to wet in some parts
of our state, but all of these things matter as it relates to
snowpack and we can see for the rest of the West, the current
snowpack and water forecast is dismal. The Rockies, which feed
the Colorado River Basin, and the Sierras in California look
particularly dry. Oregon's Governor Brown has already declared
a drought through the Klamath Basin with 40 percent of expected
snowpack.
So while we are grateful, again, for this outlook in my
state, the trends show that a good water year may become the
exception and not the norm. We remember what a drought looked
like in 2015 to our communities, and the science is telling us
that climate change is impacting and will continue to impact. A
GAO report also found that the number and intensities of
extreme weather events, like drought, will increase. This will
cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion by 2039.
So I believe we must plan and we must prepare. I share the
same interests as the sponsors of legislation we are
considering and I am also looking at legislative ideas for
comprehensive approaches that take us more than just to one
year, but for many years, of planning in advance.
We must help our communities become resilient in the
management of our water resources, especially in light of
climate change, and there are provisions in this legislation
that the Committee has previously considered. Some of those we
have opposed, but we look forward to working with our
colleagues on water conservation programs like WaterSMART,
where we find a comprehensive approach.
We must also support collaborative solutions that do not
pick winners and losers and, particularly, do not end up in
court for a decade and a half and then stymie our ability to
get some basic things done. This is exactly what we did in the
Yakima Basin, a shared solution that benefited the entire
ecosystem, and I am pleased Derek Sandison is here today to
talk about that and other water issues.
Again, thank you to our witnesses for being here.
Dr. Petty, congratulations on your confirmation and welcome
back. We look forward to hearing your testimony.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Cantwell.
We will begin this morning asking each of our witnesses to
provide us with about five minutes of comments. Your full
statements will be incorporated as part of the record. We thank
you for being here.
We are joined this morning, as Senator Cantwell has noted,
by the new Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, Dr. Tim
Petty, who is now with the U.S. Department of the Interior. We
are pleased that you are there and welcome you this morning.
Mr. Derek Sandison is the Director of the Washington State
Department of Agriculture. Thank you for traveling across the
country.
Mr. Patrick O'Toole is the President of the Family Farm
Alliance. Welcome.
Laura Ziemer is the Senior Counsel and Water Policy Advisor
with Trout Unlimited. Welcome.
Ms. Kathryn Sorensen is the Director for the City of
Phoenix, Arizona, Water Services Department. Thank you for
being here.
And Ms. Cindy Ortega is the Senior Vice President and Chief
Sustainability Officer at MGM Resorts International. We are
pleased to have you here.
With that, Dr. Petty, if you would like to kick off the
panel here this morning. Again, welcome to you all.
STATEMENT OF HON. TIMOTHY PETTY, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR WATER
AND SCIENCE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Dr. Petty. Thank you, Chairman Murkowski, Ranking Member
Cantwell, and members of the Committee for the opportunity to
discuss with you bills under consideration by the Committee
today and to more generally discuss the water supply for water
year 2018.
It is a privilege, actually, to be back before this
Committee.
First, let me start with a summary overview regarding each
bill before the Committee today.
Starting with Senate bill 2563, it contains numerous
provisions on which the Department has previously testified. We
generally support the provisions of the bill and understand the
important factors in each of the sections. I would direct each
member to my written testimony which provides a much more
detailed, section-by-section analysis for you and your staff
for your review.
Shifting to the second bill, Senate bill 2539 reauthorizes
the Pilot System Conservation Program for an additional four
years. We recognize the importance of interstate cooperation
with this program and while the Department does not oppose any
of the reauthorization of the program, it's important to note
the successful implementation is dependent on the support and
participation of the funding partners and the Colorado River
Basin states themselves.
And finally, regarding the third bill, the Department
supports Senate bill 2560, the Reclamation Title Transfer Act,
and appreciates the Committee for working closely with us in
drafting its provisions.
If I could quickly turn your attention to the water supply
for the Fiscal Year, for the year of 2018. I have provided at
your desk the latest hydrology map reflecting the water storage
levels, that's highlighted with the Reclamation logo, in the
major basins in the West, which Senator Cantwell also
addressed. What the map does not show, however, is how
Reclamation's water impacts all of America.
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Reclamation's water provides one out of every five Western
farmers with water for 10 million irrigated farmland acres. The
irrigated acres produce 60 percent of the nation's vegetables
and 25 percent of the fruits and nuts.
Harnessing the power of this water, we are the largest
electrical utility in the 17 Western states, nearly 31 million
people all over the West depend on Reclamation projects for
their municipal, industrial and domestic water supply. However,
much in the West, those water supplies are scarce.
The 2017 water year was the wettest on record for most of
Northern California, as well as the Central Valley Project
Reservoirs. They were completely filled for the first time in
over five years. But precipitation this year has been far from
average. As we speak, Northern California is receiving
precipitation right now which will be helpful to this year's
forecast; however, we cannot continue to plan for March
miracles year after year.
In the California Basins and the mountain ranges, rain is
only about two-thirds normal and snow levels are even lower
than that. The results of Shasta Lake is only 79 percent full,
Trinity Dam is 74 percent full and Folsom Lake is 66 percent
full. Compared to this from last year, it is a significant
change already.
Unfortunately, lack of sufficient water storage prevents us
from saving more of last year's water to supply this year's
needs. Additional water storage would allow us to capture more
water during those wet years, such as the year of 2017.
Pursuant to the WIIN Act passed in 2017, we have proposed
projects for inclusion of the FY'2018 Appropriations bill
which, if enacted, will provide us with much more needed funds
to proceed on preconstruction work leading to more storage.
If I could turn our attention to the Colorado River Basin.
Lake Powell and Mead are roughly half full due to the impact of
long-term drought. We anticipate that they will be drawn down
further this year due to poor hydrological conditions. Forecast
and flow of these 50 percent averages have an incredible
impact.
While Reclamation cannot make it rain, we can do more to
capture and conserve the water supply we do have. We are
committed to additional storage and water conservation to
increase water reserves and supply reliability, pay close
attention to local water conflicts, make investments in
modernizing existing infrastructure and provide support for
water development benefits, including Native Americans, to meet
Reclamation's core mission need.
We know that, as a commitment shared with my fellow
witnesses here today, we look forward to not only supporting
these goals.
Thank you, and I'll be glad to answer any questions at the
end.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Petty follows:]
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The Chairman. Thank you, Assistant Secretary.
Mr. Sandison, welcome.
STATEMENT OF DEREK I. SANDISON, DIRECTOR, WASHINGTON STATE
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Mr. Sandison. Thank you.
Chairman Murkowski, Ranking Member Cantwell, members of the
Committee, I appreciate the opportunity to testify today.
For the record, my name is Derek Sandison. I'm the Director
of the Washington State Department of Agriculture. I was
previously Director, Washington State's Office of Columbia
River, and in that capacity I was responsible for managing
water supply development projects in the Eastern half of the
State of Washington.
My purpose in being here is not to provide testimony
regarding specifics of the bills that are before you but to
provide overall context for collaborative water supply
development projects.
Unlike Western Washington, where clouds and rain are
iconic, much of Eastern Washington has almost a desert-like
climate. The mountain snowpacks and the river system provide
the water needed to support agriculture, our communities, and
our aquatic life.
Washington's agricultural industry is the second largest
contributor to the state's economy. Our 36,000 farms produce
about 300 different crops and commodities, and we lead the
nation in the production of a number of crops including our
well-known apples. The annual farm gate value of production is
about $10.6 billion and we export nearly $7 billion worth of
food and agricultural products. Of the 7.3 million acres of
cropland in Washington State, 96 percent of those lie in
Eastern Washington and over 2 million of those acres require
irrigation.
In the past few decades, persistent water quality issues
have adversely affected our agricultural production. Those two
are declining aquifers and frequent droughts. In 2006, the
Washington State Legislature passed landmark legislation to
address water supply issues known as the Columbia River Water
Management Act. The Act directed the Washington State
Department of Ecology to ``aggressively pursue'' development of
new water supplies for both instream and out-of-stream
purposes.
Between 2006 and present, the Office of Columbia River, the
entity created to implement the legislation, developed over
400,000 acre-feet of additional water supply for all uses. A
number of factors contributed to the success of the water
supply development efforts including creating an efficient and
coordinated environmental review and permitting processes and
incorporating broad stakeholder involvement.
Among the problems that the legislature directed the Office
of Columbia River to address was the issue of declining
groundwater in a portion of the Columbia Basin, known as the
Odessa Subarea. The Office of Columbia River, in partnership
with the Bureau of Reclamation, embarked on a project to
provide the Columbia Basin project water to replace the
diminishing groundwater supplies.
As a result of that project and through the operation of
Reclamation's Lake Roosevelt and Banks Lake Reservoirs, enough
water has been developed to replace groundwater at almost
90,000 acres of farmland and conveyance system improvements
have been built to move that water to the farms. To date, $176
million has been spent on the project of which $114 million has
been provided by state and local irrigators.
While the Odessa project focused on agricultural water
supplies, water development in the Yakima Basin is focused on a
broader set of water and aquatic resource objectives. The
Yakima basin is a 6,000 square mile basin in South Central
Washington. Agricultural production in that basin in terms of
farm gate value is about $2 million a year, $2 billion a year,
excuse me. Historically, the Yakima River was the second
largest producer of salmon and steelhead in the entire Columbia
system.
Since 1905, Yakima Basin has been operated by or managed by
the Bureau of Reclamation, including operation of five
reservoirs which capture about one-third of the runoff on an
annual basis. The Basin is heavily dependent on Cascade
snowpack for water supply. The surface water resources are
over-appropriated and the Basin has experienced numerous
droughts in the past four decades. A number of salmon runs have
been extirpated and steelhead and bull trout are listed as
threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Since 2006, the Office of Columbia River and Reclamation
have collaborated with the Yakima Nation and Basin stakeholders
to formulate and implement a comprehensive strategy to address
critical resource needs. This strategy is known as the Yakima
Integrated Plan.
The collaboration that we have experienced in the Basin has
focused on expanding the federal Yakima River Basin Water
Enhancement Project. Consensus was reached on the Yakima
Integrated Plan with stakeholders in 2012 and the plan was
subject to recent legislation that originated in this
Committee--thank you, Senator Cantwell. The Integrated Plan
involves reestablishment of fish stocks and construction of
fish passage and habitat projects. It will expand water
supplies by enhancing water conservation efforts and creating
additional aquifer and surface water storage. To date, the
State of Washington has invested about $200 million on plan
implementation.
In closing, I want to emphasize that the success that we in
Washington State have achieved in water resource development
would not have been possible without the state being willing to
invest in projects, without our strong partnership with
Reclamation, and without active collaboration with Tribes and
stakeholders.
That concludes my remarks.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Sandison follows:]
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The Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Sandison.
Mr. O'Toole, welcome.
STATEMENT OF HON. PATRICK O'TOOLE, PRESIDENT,
FAMILY FARM ALLIANCE
Mr. O'Toole. Thank you, Madam Chairman, members of the
Committee. I really can't tell you how much I appreciate being
able to be here.
We unfortunately missed our first plane yesterday and took
the red-eye, so I got in at 6:30 this morning and, hopefully, I
can be coherent in this discussion.
I am currently the President of the Board of the Family
Farm Alliance. We represent irrigated agriculture in the 17
Western states and we see pretty much all of it. You know, we
are disturbed that right now in the Central Valley they're
looking at a zero allocation.
We're moving into a crisis in the Klamath that will be like
the early 2000s. And you know, how are we going to address that
and how are we going to solve it? And it's infrastructure.
I tell the story--I represented in the legislature, I was
there a little before Senator Barrasso--that I represented the
county that was the headwaters of both the Platte and the
Colorado River. And in the Platte River, the infrastructure was
built during the Roosevelt Administration, not Franklin. We did
it more than 100 years ago.
That infrastructure was during a part of America where we
thought we were going to build ourselves into the nation that
we are and they used the comment, too thick to plow and too
thin to drink, or the opposite of too thin. Anyway, the idea is
that it turned into this great, incredible Eastern Wyoming and
Nebraska agriculture and our cities are dependent on that
infrastructure.
On the Colorado River, our family lives right off the
Continental Divide. I tell people we raise cattle, sheep,
horses, dogs and children, and we are a community of ranchers
that have been there, our families, since 1881. And we've seen
it all, drought, wet, good, bad, war, peace and what we've
seen, most importantly, is that our water resource is crucial
to us.
This bill that is being discussed today about the fast
track, to some extent comes from our experience trying to build
the reservoir in the '90s that took 14 years to permit. And
that--I was, at that time, part of the legislature--took a lot
of time and it was just a circle. It went around and around and
you never really got any resolution. We downsized the reservoir
to get the permit. It turned out to be half as big as it needed
to be the day it was built. We're now looking at another
permitting process and, hopefully, this process that we're
talking about today can facilitate that.
But we have to understand, I have had some experience in
food policy. I work on a group called AGree that has looked
at--we need to double the food supply in the next 35 years. And
yet, we're taking land out of production, you know, the numbers
are 60 acres a minute are going out of agricultural production.
Young people are not surviving or replacing us. The fastest
growing category of agriculture is people like me, 70 and
above. What does that tell you?
We don't have a system to facilitate the largest transfer
of land in the history of America. And so, you know, how do we
do it? Part of it is with the water infrastructure, making sure
there's enough water.
I've served on two commissions--one was a presidential
commission, one was the Johnson Foundation--on what we're going
to do about water resources. Both, the easy answer is always
take water away from agriculture. It's the discussion. I've
been able to help blunt some of those discussions, but the
reality is we need more water and more food.
And you may have seen, last week there was an article in
the New York Times, 50 percent of our fruits are now coming
from overseas. To a great extent that's because our members in
California are leaving, en masse, because of the regulatory
system.
And one story that really moved me was that I was in the
San Luis Reservoir Bureau of Rec Office and saw a map of
California of the 50-year plan--this was like two years ago--
the 50-year plan for the State of California. It didn't do one
infrastructure that was planned in that plan. Yet, they went
from 6 million people to 39 million people. It's because we
lost our commitment to infrastructure.
I can tell you very clearly, I think we have been
dismantling the great agricultural bounty of this country. This
bill is one of those things that's going to change that because
what I hear people want to do is storage. And over the years,
they say, well we want to do storage, but it's too hard to
permit.
I think the effort here today, Senator Barrasso and all of
you, have the opportunity to turn that around.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to talk to you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. O'Toole follows:]
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The Chairman. Thank you, Mr. O'Toole. We welcome you. I am
sorry for your air traffic delays, but it was a bit of a mess
here yesterday. We are glad you are here.
Ms. Ziemer.
STATEMENT OF LAURA ZIEMER, SENIOR COUNSEL AND WATER POLICY
ADVISOR, TROUT UNLIMITED
Ms. Ziemer. Good morning, Chairman Murkowski, Ranking
Member Cantwell, and members of the Committee. Thank you for
the invitation to testify today on behalf of Trout Unlimited
(TU).
The future of the West is linked to its water, and we
commend the Committee leadership for working on Western drought
issues. There is also no better partner than my colleague on
the panel, Patrick O'Toole, and the Family Farm Alliance for
creating solutions that benefit both farms and fish.
For the past 20 years in my water work with Trout
Unlimited, I've listened carefully to the needs of water users
and listened to the challenges they face, and that is in order
to find solutions that work for both interests and do not pit
one against the other.
I live and work in Montana and know firsthand the
devastation of prolonged drought. The key to getting through
these difficult or--the key to this difficult work and getting
through times of drought is to share the burden and the
benefits across all sectors: agriculture, communities and river
health.
In the suite of bills before this Committee, I would like
to highlight four issues.
First, Senate bill 2563 contains the NEPA streamlining that
Mr. O'Toole talked about to expedite projects on federal lands.
TU is not opposed to simplifying the permit process, but we
also believe that any streamlining should focus on promoting
well-designed projects meeting multiple needs, where storage is
one part of a portfolio of diverse strategies to increase water
security.
Mr. Sandison has already described the Yakima Basin effort,
thank you, and the Yakima plan is a flagship example of this
portfolio approach. Also, California's Yuba River Basin has a
relevant lesson for today. Water storage standing alone, even
its million acre-feet, did not solve the Basin's water
conflicts--the Yuba Accord did. Under the Accord, storage water
is supplemented with aquifer recharge, sustainable groundwater
pumping, downstream water transfers and extensive drought
planning. The Accord successfully managed water through
California's most severe drought, meeting both agricultural and
imperiled fishery needs.
To promote sustainable solutions like these, we propose
frontloading the NEPA process with a multi-stakeholder working
group. And that working group would be charged with developing
a portfolio of projects and approaches to address unmet water
needs, including environmental flows. And then such an approach
of this frontloading the NEPA streamlining process should
result in producing more solutions like the Yakima and Yuba
examples.
My second point is that Senate bill 2539, which extends the
Colorado River Systems Conservation Pilot Program, is also a
successful example of creating multiple benefits. Our long-
standing work in Wyoming meant that we could work in
partnership with ranchers to increase participation in each of
the three years to date. The program keeps participating
ranchers whole, delivers water downstream for system
reliability and improves trout habitat. We support the
extension of the program as a short-term drought response
measure while we also work on long-term strategies to build a
resilient and basin-wide approach.
My third point is that the Water Rights Protection Act in
Senate bill 2563 jeopardizes the ability of federal agencies to
condition permit. A key part of drought resiliency in the
basin-wide approach is protecting those headwater flows and the
federal authority to condition water withdrawals on these
federal lands is a necessary tool. We look forward to working
with the Committee to clarify the lines of authority on water
rights between states and federal agencies but without
undermining the long-held federal authority to condition
permits.
Fourth and finally, in my own work on the Sun River we
found a way to benefit irrigation supply while restoring flows
to the chronically dewatered Sun River with WaterSMART funding.
Two thousand feet of lined canal, 2,300 feet of PVC pipe, put
more water in the Sun River. When coupled with reservoir
reoperations based on better use of snowpack data, it more than
doubled the wild trout population in the Sun River.
Senate bill 2563 expands the pool of eligible applicants to
WaterSMART. We think that including conservation organizations
that have a long-standing track record of working well with
irrigation districts and irrigators will help advance multi-
benefit projects like the Sun River, but it's an oversubscribed
program and the funding cap should also be increased.
I'll leave you with one concluding thought. The early
pioneers found a spring or dug a well and then built their
homestead, not the other way around. Although the scale is
different today, the work is the same. If we're good stewards
of the water, the water will take care of us.
Thank you, and I look forward to answering any questions
you may have.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Ziemer follows:]
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The Chairman. Thank you.
Welcome to you, Ms. Sorensen.
STATEMENT OF KATHRYN SORENSEN, DIRECTOR, CITY OF PHOENIX
(ARIZONA) WATER SERVICES DEPARTMENT
Ms. Sorensen. Good morning and Happy World Water Day.
Phoenix Water Services is the largest potable water utility
in Arizona and one of the nation's 10 largest potable water
utilities.
I would like to thank the Committee for recognizing the
importance of drought resilience and water scarcity in the
West, and I would also like to thank Senator Flake for his
strong leadership in water issues which are so important to
Arizona. These issues are of great concern to the City of
Phoenix because, of course, it is the delivery of safe, clean,
reliable water supplies that lays the foundation of public
health, economic opportunity and quality of life in our desert
city.
The 2018 Water Supply Outlook for the Colorado River Basin
is terrible. Snowpack stands at a paltry 72 percent of normal
and on the Salt and Verde River System, which supplies 60
percent of the water used in Phoenix, it stands at only 22
percent. After nearly two decades of drought we do not know if
we are in year 18 of an 18-year drought or year 18 of a 100-
year mega-drought. Perhaps the word drought no longer applies.
Perhaps diminished snowpack and record-breaking heat is the new
normal. In this new normal, we must plan methodically for
worst-case scenarios, because the consequences of failing to
deliver safe, clean water are unthinkable.
A recent Reuters article noted that three years ago the
chance of a three-year drought in Cape Town, South Africa was
less than one percent. Cape Town is now learning, in the most
tragic of ways, the consequences of failing to deliver safe,
clean water to a major city. It's unacceptable and those
outcomes, those worst-case outcomes, must be proactively
avoided. The kicker is that planning for water supply
resiliency and the infrastructure necessary to achieve it is a
long-term, continual effort. By the time Cape Town knew that it
was in serious trouble, it was too late to build the necessary
infrastructure to prevent a threat to public health.
When it comes to water supply availability, Phoenix is held
to a higher standard than any other city in the country. And
that's as it should be. We are, after all, in the middle of the
Sonoran Desert and our standard must be absolute certainty.
Public health mandates it. Quality of life depends on it.
Economic investment is contingent on it.
The key to meeting this standard is infrastructure--storage
projects, reservoirs, canals, surface water treatment plants,
wells, pump stations, valves and pipelines. New investments in
infrastructure are needed throughout the West to increase
certainty. In Phoenix's case this means building additional
well capacity to pump water we have stored underground in our
aquifers to protect ourselves against drought on the Colorado
River and in large transmission mains that move water to
portions of our service territory that are vulnerable during
shortages.
We must also continue to be vigilant of our culture of
conservation, continue to reclaim our wastewater and reuse it
and continue to recharge our aquifers. Our ability to meet the
challenge of water scarcity has always relied on innovative
local initiatives but also on a strong partnership with the
Federal Government, particularly the important Bureau of
Reclamation projects that provide reliable water supplies to
entire regions of the West and across municipal, agricultural
and industrial sectors of the economy. That continuing
partnership is critical for the coming years.
In Arizona and across the West, these water storage
projects increase water security and flexibility.
Collaborative, innovative management of these projects has a
multiplier effect on water security and drought resilience.
Some of the measures that this Committee is considering in this
and other bills, such as continuing the WaterSMART program and
ensuring proper asset management and flexible management of
Reclamation infrastructure, are examples of how the Federal
Government can increase water resiliency in the arid West.
The West has a long history of managing water scarcity, but
we are facing an unprecedented test. The water supply outlook
is terrible, but I am absolutely confident that with
appropriate investment in infrastructure, collaborative and
innovative partnerships, increased flexibility and a vigilant
focus on a culture of conservation, we will continue to provide
safe, clean, reliable water deliveries to our desert city in
worst-case scenarios and for generations to come.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Sorensen follows:]
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The Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Sorensen.
Ms. Ortega, welcome.
STATEMENT OF CINDY ORTEGA, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF
SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER, MGM RESORTS INTERNATIONAL
Ms. Ortega. Thank you.
Chairman Murkowski, Ranking Member Cantwell and members of
the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the
critical subject of the 2018 Western Water Supply Outlook.
My name is Cindy Ortega, and I'm the Senior Vice President
and Chief Sustainability Officer for MGM Resorts International.
I would ask that my full statement be made part of the
record. Thank you.
MGM Resorts is a global entertainment company headquartered
in the middle of the Mojave Desert, Las Vegas, Nevada. MGM owns
and operates 28 destination properties across the United States
and internationally. Our company is recognized in Las Vegas,
across the globe and right here in the DC metropolitan area for
offering best-in-class hotels and resorts, casinos, state-of-
the-art meetings and conferences, incredible live entertainment
spaces and an extensive array of restaurant, nightlife and
retail offerings.
This year we celebrate the 90th anniversary of the law that
gave rise to the Hoover Dam and subsequently Lake Mead, the
largest reservoir in our country. These actions provided some
of the critical ingredients necessary for Las Vegas to grow,
focused national attention on Nevada, and was our first major
tourist resort.
Many things have changed in Las Vegas over the last 90
years, but one thing that has remained the same, has always
remained the same, is that Lake Mead provides nearly 90 percent
of Las Vegas water and our drinking water. Lake Mead benefits
Arizona and California, since they store water in it as well,
but it's Las Vegas' and Southern Nevada's water supply.
Nevada has benefited from a long history of bipartisan
leadership and cooperation amongst its Congressional delegation
to protect, manage and conserve on water issues throughout the
Silver State, and we are grateful that Senator Heller and the
Ranking Member Senator Cortez Masto are continuing in this
tradition. Thank you.
Given our strong reliance on this reservoir and our shared
stake in its future, we have taken note of the impacts that the
prolonged drought has had on Lake Mead. The 15 years of Western
drought has dropped Lake Mead to some of its lowest levels
since the Great Depression.
Nevada is proud that despite the fact that Southern Nevada
is only entitled to two percent of the Colorado River's water,
we use that water over and over again. Las Vegas returns nearly
every gallon of water that is used indoors to Lake Mead so it
can be used again.
Simply put, the growth of Las Vegas in combination with
this persistent drought has forced Las Vegas to innovate and
make major investments in water infrastructure and to value
water in our business decisions like never before, and MGM is
at the forefront of this innovation.
MGM Resorts has recognized the growing need for action. As
a company, we are always exploring new solutions to help
conserve our natural resources. Our commitment to being a
global leader in sustainability and stewardship of the
environment is embodied from the top of the company through the
bottom. All told, the company's environmentally responsible
practices have saved greater than 1.2 billion gallons of water.
The iconic Bellagio Lake uses no water from Lake Mead.
Rather, it is supplied by and replenished from underground
wells that are on the site. This results in the conservation of
domestic, potable water equivalent to the annual usage of 5,000
residential pools.
When MGM built City Center from the ground up, we built in
a range of state-of-the-art water and energy efficiency
measures into the entire campus. The results have been
exceptional and have enabled the entire development to save
more than 50 million gallons of water every year. I welcome any
of the members of the Committee to come to City Center, and
we'll give you a back of the house tour if you'd like.
Even with all the strong programs and business leadership
to conserve and reuse water, investments in longer-term
solutions as well as well water infrastructure are needed. MGM
and our competitors on the Las Vegas Strip are part of a larger
ecosystem of parties who have a real and substantive interest
in the health of the Colorado River and Lake Mead.
In order to prepare our communities and businesses for the
future, states must collaborate in preparing and implementing
long-term solutions for adequate water sources. We need to
collaborate, we need collaboration that crosses state lines and
local lines and welcomes business innovation but, most
importantly, enlists everyone in the battle to preserve our
water resources.
Today's hearing is a positive step toward that effort and
hopefully the future attention on these issues will keep us
focused in a way that will produce positive results.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify and I look
forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Ortega follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Ms. Ortega, and thank
each of you for being here this morning and for your very
important testimony.
Mr. O'Toole, I want to start with you, but others are
certainly welcome to respond as well.
When we talk about the significance and the importance of
just the infrastructure of storage, clearly important to the
management aspect across the country, particularly in the West.
And yet, the reality that we deal with is this opposition that
we see to surface storage, regardless of the size and the
specifics. You said, I think your words were, that we lost the
commitment to infrastructure in California and, I think, in
other parts of the country as well.
We all recognize that infrastructure has got to be key
here. We all recognize the need and yet we have, I think, some
views, some perspectives that perhaps are old or outdated,
certainly a negative view of reservoir projects.
In my state, we do not have the big reservoirs, the Hoover
Dam. They are much, much smaller scale and we have been able to
work relatively cooperatively with some communities that have a
very keen focus on the environmental aspects. Sitka is a
beautiful example of a community that came together and said,
for purposes of our little island community, we have to have
this capacity, and they worked together.
But we are dealing with a difficult mindset. How do we
change it? Are you seeing things improve for the better or for
the worse? And if they are not changing for the better, what do
we do because there is a recognition that we have to address
this?
Mr. O'Toole. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
It's something I do know a lot about. And I mentioned I was
on a federal water commission in the mid-'90s, and it was
Senator Hatfield's bill to look 20 years into the future. Well,
we are now 20 years into the future. I'll give you one example.
Our valley is half Colorado and half Wyoming, the river
crosses the state line 12 times. And so, on one level we've
learned how to work together in the two states. But Governor
Hickenlooper of Colorado put together roundtables all over the
State of Colorado to try to deal with their long-term
discussions.
In the Yampa/White, they did a--the consultants did a study
and every single watershed is going to need storage. And this
was the consultant's report. When I did the commission in the
'90s, the word was we'll never build another storage reservoir.
That just isn't true and what, you know, my lifestyle is to
form partnerships and coalitions. I work with Ms. Ziemer,
Audubon, Environmental Defense Fund, many other groups, and we
all realize that working together on a watershed where you're
working together to do multiple things. Our ranch is an
important bird area with Audubon. We've done a project on our
river to integrate our fishery and our irrigation, but without
storage we're never going to be able to fulfill what we know is
going to be the need.
We had two summer rain events in December and January at
7,000 feet in Wyoming. That water needs to be stored for the
long-term. In my own view, I'm looking at two weeks early and
two weeks late in terms of our capability for irrigation of
water and without storage, we're not going to get there.
So, you ask, what could we do? This bill is one thing, the
infrastructure dollar bill. In Wyoming, we had some far-
reaching thought in the mid-'80s; put oil, gas, coal, uranium
into a water fund along with permanent mineral trust fund,
wildlife fund and an education fund so that we can begin to
fund, to be able to take dollars, federal dollars, to help
match what's called the private-public partnership. I'm sure
you're aware of that discussion. That's the future.
So you've got to stimulate. You've got to let people know
that permitting is not going to be an impediment. It's going to
be facilitated so that when a watershed gets together with many
partners, you're going to be able to do a project because the
Federal Government says it's a priority.
The Chairman. Well, and I appreciate all that you have said
in terms of the collaboration, the awareness, the education,
the funding, but I think we just have a problem in this country
with this, call it the Nimby attitude--I want to have the
benefits of this, but I don't want to know that you are doing
this. I don't want to know that you are building this, whether
it is a reservoir, the storage capacity or whether it is
pipelines that we use to move an energy resource so that we can
get natural gas to the Northeast. It seems to me that we have
some attitudes that we need to change.
I appreciate your efforts--and it sounds like everybody on
the panel here does--in really trying to build these
collaboratives that will help us change it, but we can talk
about doing it legislatively. We also need to recognize that we
have to be on the ground educating Americans regardless of
where you are, whether you are in a drought-prone area or not
so much, that these are shared benefits and that, ultimately,
somebody is the host to this whether--in Louisiana they are
host to offshore development. They bear the burden of that
development offshore. How you share it, I think, it is no
different than water because water is absolutely key to
everything that we do.
Senator Cantwell.
Senator Cantwell. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Ziemer, it's Ziemer, right? You talked about some of
the solutions in watershed management. Could you expound on
what you think some of those key tools are from the management,
water management, strategy?
Ms. Ziemer. Yes. Yes, thank you.
My vision for what that looks like is based on my 20 years
of experience of living and working in the Rocky Mountain West
and working on water issues. Those tools of water management I
describe, in my experience in those 20 years in the Rocky
Mountain West, the best tools come from the people living and
working in a particular basin because every river basin is
different and every river basin is unique. And so the best
solution is the solution coming from the people who live and
work and are tied to that water resource in that basin.
That said, there's a couple of commonalities across the
individual needs of each basin.
The best solutions, I have found, come from both a multi-
stakeholder process, as Mr. O'Toole has described, where
projects and approaches are looking across all three sectors
benefiting agriculture, making sure our working landscapes stay
intact, benefiting thriving communities and, of course, trying
to both sustain and restore abundant fish and wildlife. And
what that requires is a portfolio of projects and a diverse
group of strategies in addition to storage, and the storage may
be new or re-operated or expanded, but the best storage, the
fastest storage, the cheapest storage is storage embedded in
this diverse portfolio of strategies. So a combination of built
infrastructure and natural infrastructure can work together to
secure water supply.
Senator Cantwell. Isn't it in some of these projects that
are collaborative, basically you are doing that, but you are
taking the low-hanging fruit right away while you are looking
at the larger questions as you go? Right? As opposed to----
Ms. Ziemer. Yes, Senator.
Senator Cantwell. As opposed to hiring lawyers and arguing
for another 18 to 20 years?
Ms. Ziemer. Right. Of course, the Yakima is a flagship
example of that where the new storage and revised storage is
embedded in the plan and then the plan is implemented where
some of that low-hanging fruit that is cheaper and can be
implemented first is done to help prepare the way for the
effectiveness of new storage so that expensive investment in
new storage really pays dividends in terms of meeting diverse
water needs.
Senator Cantwell. Where are you on aquifer recharging?
Ms. Ziemer. An aquifer recharge is a key component because
the cheapest way to store water is in the ground. And try
unlimited supports to aquifer recharge provisions in the
proposed bill so long as we do that in a way that also doesn't
harm another cheap-acting natural piece of infrastructure,
which is peak flows because peak flows work really cheaply but
they're incredibly important for not only moving water across
the landscape in providing aquifer recharge across a diverse
area, but also maintaining river health.
In the Yuba Basin, which I talked about, before the Accord
the South Yuba Basin was depleted and there was no sustainable
groundwater pumping. The Accord helped manage aquifer recharge,
to recharge that depleted South Yuba Basin, and now sustainable
levels of groundwater pumping are one of the key pieces to make
that million acre-feet of storage go a long ways in times of
extreme drought. So aquifer recharge is a key piece of a long-
term, basin-wide strategy, especially to weather the extreme
drought events.
Senator Cantwell. Well, what I like about this, from just a
flat world perspective, is I like to empower people to help
themselves. And the notion, you know, I get it, you know, the
'60s, the strategy for water was a little different--but that
was a long time ago.
And now, we really want to empower communities. I look at
Dr. Petty and think, well, it is costing us about $1 trillion
over the next 20 years in the expense of climate impact,
instead of everybody coming back here and knocking on his door
and waiting 7 to 10 years for an answer. What can we empower
these communities with, the tools right now, to help themselves
while we are answering the larger questions?
I, personally, like that because it is more water, cubic
water flow for our regions. So whether that is for fish or for
farming or for whatever the other activities are, to me, that
is just very prudent.
So I just hope that we'll continue that--a strategy that
pushes the best resources out to the communities as quick as
possible if they are, in fact, being collaborative. Now, if
they are arguing and somebody is trying to legislate a winner
over--that is never going to get us there.
I hope that we can turn this on its ear and see that our
water management strategy really does have to be about
empowering communities, as you just said, to do the right
things and giving them the tools to do that as quickly as
possible.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Senator Gardner.
Senator Gardner. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you to all
the witnesses for being here.
I think I have said this before in this Committee, that in
the Capitol Rotunda in Colorado on a mural there, the first
words of the poem in the mural go something like this: ``Here
is a land where history is written in water.'' And so,
certainly, very important to the State of Colorado.
Secretary Petty, you have talked a little bit about the
challenges the basin faces. We have talked about my program
there, my legislation on the Upper Colorado Endangered Fish
Recovery Program Extension Act. I just wanted to get, briefly
though, your further thoughts on the hydrology conditions in
the Colorado River Basin overall because it is devastating at
this point.
Dr. Petty. It is, Senator.
I appreciate that question. I know you've had lengthy
interactions even with the Secretary, with Secretary Zinke, on
a lot of the concerns that you have. But specifically, the best
part of what Bureau of Reclamation, and other parts of
Interior, really works with you is how we can better
understand, not only those communities and those relationships,
but even the geology as well as that precipitation. What to do
with it, the storage component, those areas are very specific.
So I really do want to continue to interact with you and with
your staff on those specific areas.
Senator Gardner. Thanks.
Given this bleak hydrology, and you did outline some of it
in your opening comments, can you talk a little bit about the
ripple effects of Lake Mead's water supply falling under the
level at which it is able to produce electricity?
Dr. Petty. Yes.
And so, because we've had so many ongoing years of
significant lower drought impacts, we're really using those two
reservoirs as a balancing to try to facilitate water resources.
We've noticed incredible conservation components which
other people here on the panel have really discussed on how we
can manage the water that we actually have in there and then
balance it between all these seven state impacts.
As those go forth, that is going to be a combination of how
then do we go about working on a region-by-region, community-
by-community level?
Senator Gardner. Thanks.
You mentioned in your testimony additional water storage
would allow us to catch and store more water in wetter years,
like we had in 2017, to allow us to better deal with drier
years, like 2018 is shaping up to be.
Dr. Petty. Yes.
Senator Gardner. I couldn't agree with you more. We have to
be doing that.
In Colorado alone, if you look at the project that is
named, known as NISP in Colorado, the Northern Integrated
Supply Project, this would have provided opportunities to store
some of that 5.5 million acre-feet of water since 2009. That is
even more than that today.
You also mentioned the absurd permitting timeline that
these projects are subjected to, up to 20 years. In Colorado,
it has taken over 10 years just to get an expanded water
storage project in place, just to add capacity to an existing
reservoir that had Democrat, Republican, bipartisan support,
multiple times.
I would like to talk with you further about the
difficulties the agencies run into when it comes to water
permitting storage projects and how we can do a better job of
that. Is it your opinion that authorities provided in the
permitting coordination title of the legislation we have today
would help speed up the timelines of these water storage
projects?
Dr. Petty. It would, Senator. And I do look forward to
working with you on really implementing what's in some of this
legislation so that we can speed up those requests. It's
opportunity that we are missing.
Senator Gardner. Thank you.
I just want to point out too, I think it was Ms. Ziemer--is
that how you say the last name, Ziemer?--that you talked about
conservation.
Look, I think conservation is critically important. I do
think that we have to have, sort of, this three-legged stool
approach to water. We have to have water storage, we need new
water storage and we have to have expanded capacity of existing
water storage facilities. Without it, we are not going to have
enough water to supply a growing state like Colorado. And we
certainly won't be able to prevent the buy up and dry up of our
most abundant and profitable and best farmlands in places like
Colorado or Wyoming.
We also need critical conservation. We should do that.
Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, which is working
on the NISP program, they have had a 22 percent reduction in
water use throughout the NISP participants through the
conservation efforts that they have undertaken.
We also have to have partnerships between the state and the
federal and local governments to build critical partnerships to
help address the permitting processes, the funding issues and
how we can do this.
But I would like to drill into a little bit deeper about
something you said. I want to thank you, first of all, for the
work Trout Unlimited has done with us on Good Samaritan
legislation. I hope that we can actually get a Good Samaritan
bill through and start cleaning up some of these abandoned mine
sites and get it across the finish line.
Regarding the Water Rights Protection Act that is under
consideration today, does Trout Unlimited, to you, does it
distinguish between forced transfer of title and ownership of
water rights to the Federal Government through permitting fiat
and the conditioning of permits with bypass flow conditions?
Ms. Ziemer. Yes, Senator Gardner, absolutely.
The former, the forced transfer of water rights, is clearly
out of bounds and contrary to state governance of Western water
rights.
But there's a long-held federal authority to look at water
projects or would work at permits on federal lands, bypass flow
authority and supporting agencies to exercise that authority in
a way that is constructive and helps meet all needs, Fish and
Wildlife, agriculture in thriving communities on water
projects. That's a tool that needs to stay in the tool box.
Senator Gardner. What about between bypass flow conditions
imposed on new permits for new projects versus bypass
conditions imposed on permit renewals or limits for existing
infrastructure where those conditions never existed before?
Ms. Ziemer. Right.
And that has, that latter context has been more
controversial, certainly. Trout Unlimited has been part of
finding solutions in those contexts to support the Fish and
Wildlife concerns, sometimes by both changing the bypass flow
conditions or meeting those flow conditions through this kind
of strategy approach of diverse projects and diverse strategies
coming to bear.
But even on renewal projects the concern that the bypass
flow authority is addressing is important to be addressed and,
I think, having a diverse way to meet that concern is very
important.
Senator Gardner. Yes.
Again, I just want to make a statement. My belief that
federal deference to state water law should remain and that the
requirement the federal claims the use of that water would be
asserted, quantified, adjudicated via the state McCarran
Amendment principles.
Ms. Ziemer. Right.
Senator Gardner. Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Gardner.
Senator Hirono.
Senator Hirono. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Dr. Petty, S. 2563, before us today, expands the
eligibility of WaterSMART grants for planning, design and
construction of water conservation and efficiency projects to
entities in Alaska. I can certainly understand Alaska's
interest in being eligible for these grants as we in Hawaii
have been interested in expanding eligibility to entities in
our state as well. I, along with my colleagues in both the
House and Senate, have been working to do so over the course of
the past four years.
Do you see value in expanding eligibility for WaterSMART
grants to both Alaska and Hawaii? And if the program were to
expand to our states, what additional resources or
authorization would the Department need to ensure that the
program could function at its current capacity?
Because I am not interested in making it harder for the
states that are already, and the territories already eligible,
taking from them. We need to expand the pot, more of the pot.
So let me hear your thoughts.
Dr. Petty. Yes, Senator, it's a great question.
First of all, with regards to the language that has been
put forth, we look forward to, obviously, working and expanding
what WaterSMART has to offer.
What we have learned from already, WaterSMART is the
effectiveness. And even if we can contribute even a small
portion, it gives incredible amount of increase for those
communities to be creative, but to also have resources that
even the Department or even the Bureau of Reclamation can
provide to that local community.
So, right off the bat, I think the best part of WaterSMART
is really being able to demonstrate that it is very effective.
Senator Hirono. I think this would be really terrific for a
state like Hawaii then, because it is seven inhabited islands,
each with their own water systems and within their locality.
So a bit of support could go a very long way toward the
kind of creative solutions and approaches you are talking
about. So you would be supportive?
Dr. Petty. Yes. Yes, Senator.
Senator Hirono. Okay.
Another question for you, Dr. Petty.
There are so many competing interests for our country's
fresh water supply whether it is residential homes,
agriculture, fish, businesses, you name it. They all rely on
water and this is certainly not going to change in the future.
And one of our country's bedrock environmental laws, NEPA,
requires federal agencies to undergo a process when performing
large projects that include public input and evaluation of
alternative actions. This helps to ensure that the public voice
is heard and that the environmental impacts of the project are
minimized.
How important is it for the Department to consider public
input and project alternatives when dealing with such a
sensitive and important resource as water?
Dr. Petty. Senator, another really important question.
The Department, overall, puts a high priority on the NEPA
process, the EIS, making sure that those communities are heard
about the pros and cons that are being put forth by those
communities. That's why the Secretary has put a high priority
to really interact and engage the state and those local
communities as one of our high priorities.
On another component though, the complexity of how long it
takes to get through those is what we're really working to
address now, is how can we effectively streamline it? There are
so many bureaus that are connected and/or even agencies that
are connected and each one has to have a say. And what happens
is it just gets drawn out at an extensive rate? So, our goal--
--
Senator Hirono. Yes, I am all for streamlining the process
so that things and decision-making, that does not have to
happen consecutively can happen on a parallel course.
Dr. Petty. Yeah, thank you.
Senator Hirono. So my question really has to do with making
sure that the public voice is in there----
Dr. Petty. Yes.
Senator Hirono. ----before a project is even off the ground
and that kind of relationship building is important.
I have a question, again for you, Dr. Petty.
During your confirmation hearing I asked you about climate
change and you acknowledged that it is happening, which I
appreciate. Climate change is threatening Hawaii's future
freshwater security through sea level rise because we have the
water table, increasing temperatures, increased strata, et
cetera, and being in the middle of the Pacific when our
freshwater supply runs out we are literally left high and dry.
Within the Department of the Interior, there are programs
that provide funding for partnerships with universities and
other non-federal groups to coordinate and conduct research on
water-related programs or problems all across the nation,
including Hawaii. Do you see value in these partnerships and
leveraging resources to help states plan for an uncertain water
future?
Dr. Petty. Yes, absolutely, Senator.
Those are where we're back again to communities on the
ground and that those relationships are really important so
that those cooperative understandings and agreements can be
worked through with what is needed in those local communities.
And so many times those universities and those local, non-
profit groups really work well together for that community.
Senator Hirono. Are these partnerships in existence in
Hawaii and could you provide me with a list of those which you
consider are really working effectively?
Dr. Petty. Yeah, I certainly will, Senator.
If you don't mind I'd like to just make sure that we get
all those answers back to you?
Senator Hirono. Yes.
Dr. Petty. So we'll just get that back into the record.
Senator Hirono. Yes, thank you.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Dr. Petty. Thank you, Senator.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Hirono.
Senator Hoeven.
Senator Hoeven. Thank you, Chairman.
Dr. Petty, as you are aware, the Reclamation Title Transfer
Act of 2018 would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to
convey all right, title and interest in any facility that is
determined to be eligible.
As you mentioned in your testimony, currently the Bureau of
Reclamation requires the title to Reclamation projects, land
and facilities remain with the U.S. until title transfer is
specifically authorized by Congress.
The question is, how would this legislation address or
change the current process which can be very time-consuming and
costly? I am asking this because I have a number of specific
conveyances I am trying to make with the help of your agency
and others right now. One is the land around Jamestown
Reservoir to homeowners there, and the other is land around
Patterson Lake to the residents there. Both above the high-
water mark, very nice homes, very nice setting and it is not
only private homes, but you also have public land and other
recreation facilities in the area where a conveyance is
something that would be very nice. Jamestown probably has 15-
20,000 people and Dickinson maybe 30,000. These are small
communities, very nice communities, but these are tremendous
facilities that can be utilized very well if we make
conveyances. We are having to do a lot of work to get it done,
passed. In fact, it takes an Act of Congress. You have heard
that term?
Dr. Petty. Yeah.
Senator Hoeven. I am sure there are other examples around
the country where we can do some real good for some of our
wonderful citizens. I want your ideas on how we can improve
this whole process.
Dr. Petty. Sure, Senator.
You know, two, really, actually multiple great questions
within that.
So what I'd like to start out with, obviously, the title
transfer component. Bureau of Reclamation has been working very
closely with this Committee as well as multiple members, even
when I was a staff member with Senator Risch, we had multiple
irrigation communities who were very interested in the title
transfer component.
Senator Hoeven. You were staff for Risch?
Dr. Petty. Yes, I was.
Senator Hoeven. So you really like this bill, don't you?
Dr. Petty. Yes, I do.
[Laughter.]
It has been through multiple reiterations though. We worked
very closely with both sides of the aisle on making sure how we
can really utilize this title transfer. The communities, the
irrigation communities, as well as the communities in those
small, medium and large areas of the states have seen the
importance, and the Bureau of Reclamation cannot do all things.
As a consequence, there's a lot of things that are small
that we can't get time to do. What the title transfer allows us
to do is to be, literally, more effective in allowing those
communities to take on those responsibilities when all
community areas are in agreement that it would be the most
effective use of both the federal community as well as the
state and local community. I wanted to address that right off
the bat.
The second part that I wanted to address with you is
regards to your land process. And I know, actually, another
individual, Scott Cameron, was up here testifying as well on
those. The position that we have is we really want to be able
to work with you. We're a neutral position. We think if it's
collectively within the communities to move that forward, we
look forward to just being able to work with you to try to get
that as successful as possible for those communities and your
constituents.
Senator Hoeven. Well, it sounds to me like you are doing a
very good job in your position, Secretary.
Dr. Petty. Well, thank you.
Senator Hoeven. I am pleased to hear that.
But seriously, teasing a little there, but I really do
appreciate the response on this. I think that is what people
are looking for when we work with the agencies, and I want to
thank you for that.
Dr. Petty. That's our goal, Senator.
Senator Hoeven. And it is a win for the Federal Government
because of the incredible amount of co-investment that comes
from the state and the local level. Once they know this is
going to be a permanent situation, they are willing to come in
and make major league investments that, and again, with the
public recreational areas there, it is a real win for all
concerned. So thank you.
Dr. Petty. Looking forward to working with you.
Senator Hoeven. Okay, whose map is this?
Dr. Petty. Yeah, Senator Cantwell wanted to bring that up
with drought. The one that I actually provided was the one with
just, kind of, giving an overview of water in the West.
Senator Hoeven. Who wants to tell me, how likely is it that
this area up here in Montana and the Dakotas, it looks like it
is coming out--I just want somebody to comment on, kind of,
what you see. Is that continuing to trend the right direction?
[The information referred to follows:]
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
We have been getting moisture lately. We are hoping to come
out, most of our states come out, but the Western part we are
concerned about. I just wondered if any of you had any thoughts
in that regard. I would like to hear them.
Ms. Ziemer. Senator Hoeven, I'm from Montana and the
Eastern part of Montana, as you see on the map of the Dakotas,
that's where it's been drier.
Senator Hoeven. Right.
Ms. Ziemer. And the forecast is for that to continue and so
that means that we're really going to be dependent on the
spring precipitation cycle and temperatures in the summer as to
whether that drought persists. Right now, it's looking like
those, that spring precipitation is going to hold up well. So
it's really key what happens in April and May.
Senator Hoeven. Yes, it is right now.
Looks like you all are doing pretty well. You have really
moved a long way, haven't you?
Ms. Ziemer. The skiing has been great this winter, sir.
Senator Hoeven. Yes, and it is actually a little bit more
now in South Dakota. But right now, it seems like the trend,
knock on wood, is moving the right way and your sense is we are
still making some progress?
Ms. Ziemer. Yes.
Senator Hoeven. Okay, good.
Thanks so much, I appreciate it.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Hoeven.
Senator Cortez Masto.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
Welcome to all of the panel members.
Let me start with Ms. Ortega. I so appreciate that you are
here.
From an industry perspective, can you describe what water
conservation, water vitality, in Nevada means for your
business?
Ms. Ortega. Thank you, Senator.
You know, MGM, as you know and is your home, as you know,
Senator, of the Mojave Desert, and so, our very way of being
depends on the ecosystem and the resources around Las Vegas and
around our community.
Water is, sort of, the center of everything. It's really
interesting, as you know, in Nevada that we have such a strong
water culture there. I'm always surprised, but we actually,
sort of, because we don't have seasons we, sort of, keep our
calendar by the watering cycle that all of us adhere to and are
so used to for years and decades in Las Vegas, right? Everybody
knows how you water externally.
From a business perspective, it's an interesting view
because, as I said in my testimony, the water that is used by
the guests and customers in Nevada really is mostly used in the
resorts there. We have a system in Nevada that we're very proud
of that actually reuses that water over and over. Whether you
are at a restaurant or taking a shower at a Las Vegas resort,
one way or the other, that water ends up in a drain and ends up
back in Lake Mead, probably in about a day and a half. We're
very proud of that, but nonetheless, we still think that it's
very important for a company like MGM, who is the largest
taxpayer and largest employer in the State of Nevada, to take
positions and act proactively in our policy arenas.
Senator Cortez Masto. Right.
Can you just put it in perspective? How many rooms does
your property have in Southern Nevada?
Ms. Ortega. Well, around 50,000 and we also have 57,000
employees in Southern Nevada.
Senator Cortez Masto. Right.
One final thing because I am going to run out of time here,
but is it also true that MGM has attracted more business
because of the investments you have made in water efficiency?
Ms. Ortega. Certainly.
And certainly, with a wider range of sustainability
initiatives, as our largest customers which are other
businesses make decisions on whether to have conferences and
meetings in our venues, our environmental footprint is one of
those criteria they use for that.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
Ms. Ortega. Thank you.
Senator Cortez Masto. Ms. Ziemer, Trout Unlimited has
worked in drought-stricken watersheds and has worked with local
ranchers and irrigators to produce significant water savings in
the past. And one of the programs I know that Trout Unlimited
supports is the WaterSMART program.
Can you discuss what improvements you see that could be
made to WaterSMART to allow groups like yours to help implement
water efficiency and conservation projects and collaboration
with farmers and ranchers and how would that work with Senate
bill 2563?
Mr. Ziemer. Yes, thank you.
That's such a good question because a lot of the discussion
today has been that the best projects are those projects that
are cost-
effective by meeting multiple benefits at the same time.
Trout Unlimited has long been a champion of the WaterSMART
program because it helps investments in irrigation
infrastructure and often those investments have come from
collaboration across conservation groups like Trout Unlimited
and irrigation districts. And that allows projects that both
increase the reliability of irrigation supply while putting
water back into de-watered streams and also fixing a lot of
fish passage issues.
Many irrigation districts are so strapped with the business
of managing their own district and water supply that they don't
have the capacity to invest in project design and, quite
frankly, and no offense to the federal funding process, but the
intricacies of applying for federal funding and tracking those
funds. If conservation organizations like Trout Unlimited that
have a long track record of working collaboratively with
irrigators and irrigation districts can absorb some of that
because we've been through the process before and we have some
of that expertise, we feel like we can bring that expertise to
bear and make those federal dollars go further.
Senator Cortez Masto. Right.
I hear that--that seems to be consistent with your comments
today: That idea of involving stakeholders in this process----
Ms. Ziemer. Right.
Senator Cortez Masto. ----at all levels because it can
streamline the NEPA process, make it, hopefully, more
efficient, but at the same time it is that collaboration, at
the state, local and federal levels, where we are looking to
best practices and everybody involved may have some background
or experience that can add to the best practice.
That is what I am hearing today from you, is that right?
Ms. Ziemer. Absolutely.
And Senator Cortez Masto, you raise a really good point
that on our WaterSMART projects that also have to go through
NEPA process and often are really big, complex infrastructure
projects. Those have all really sailed through the NEPA
process, partly because of that advanced stakeholder input and
that the projects are already considering a diverse array of
impacts and are designed to benefit fish and wildlife and
agriculture at the same time. And then, low and behold, they
sail through NEPA.
Senator Cortez Masto. Great. Thank you.
I know my time is up. Thank you very much, all of you, for
coming today.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Barrasso.
Senator Barrasso. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Thank you for
holding the hearing today on the Western water supply outlook
for the current water year.
As I have said before, water is the lifeblood of everything
that we do in Wyoming, from cattle ranching to energy
exploration, recreation, whether it is boating on Big Horn
Lake, kayaking on Flaming Gorge Reservoir, water is the
cornerstone of our economy and livelihood.
It has been mentioned today that the water outlook across
the West and along the Colorado River is not looking good. In
Wyoming we do have a different story. We have above-average
snowpack this winter and are anticipating healthy runoff this
spring so it allows us to focus on water management and water
storage.
That is why I am so pleased to have with us today Pat
O'Toole with the Family Farm Alliance. He is a sheep and cattle
rancher with his family in Southern Wyoming along the Little
Snake River, and I have known him for many years as a member of
the Wyoming legislature. I know this year he was invited to
address both the House and the Senate in the Wyoming
legislature. He has been a great voice for the agriculture
community in Wyoming, a leader in advancing water storage
policy. So I am delighted you are here. You may have noticed I
had to go out for a few minutes, Pat. I was on a radio station,
KUGR, with Al Harris out of Green River and I was quoting you
about how you said, ``What do we do? We raise cattle, sheep,
horses, dogs, and children.'' Which is what happens in Wyoming.
That is what we do.
I just would like to just ask a question, if I could.
First, given your experience building water storage projects,
what is preventing the development of new storage that would
help in high runoff years?
Mr. O'Toole. Yes, sir.
You know, in anticipation of this testimony I met with the
Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities two weeks ago and talked
about their needs. Certainly, agriculture is looking for
increased storage, virtually on every drainage, but so are the
cities, and their understanding, I think you mentioned earlier,
that on the big runoff years we have to catch more. So we're
looking at Rob Roy and Houston Park and expansions of those
reservoirs because what we're seeing is this volatility of
flows, whether it be in California or in Wyoming.
I think the great thing that Governor Mead did by saying,
``Ten in Ten,'' I mean, it's the message that Senator Murkowski
mentioned, you know, we're messaging that it's a good thing.
And Mr. Petty will appreciate that Idaho water users called
yesterday and they wanted to have somebody from Governor Mead's
office come and talk in Idaho because we speak about it openly
and we're doing it. The ten reservoirs that are being built are
a good example.
I mean, as I said earlier, in Colorado I'm on a watershed
group that every single watershed thinks that they have to have
storage in the future. So, you know, this to me, this hearing
is just critically important because it's finally saying what
we have known for years and years is that if we're not looking
forward to managing our watersheds and as Ms. Ziemer and others
said, it's people coming together. You don't get a project
permitted without having a broad cross section of players
whether it be the trout guys or the bird guys or the fish. I
mean it's all together. Then we come up with a project that
should be easily permittable. I think the one we're looking at
right now, Senator, could be an EA rather than EIS which would
be even a more facilitated process.
Senator Barrasso. Yes, and you do have a really, strong
reputation as being a leader in conservation and environmental
programs. People have known you for that. I know, certainly, in
the Wyoming legislature days as well as nationally, including
habitat preservation efforts.
Can you speak a little bit about the assurance that the
current environmental standards will be upheld if the permit
process is streamlined?
Mr. O'Toole. If I might just expand a little bit.
You know, when we talk about who is against it, why are we
not moving forward, not just with storage, but with other
issues--I see a real distinction between the conservation
groups that are represented here that I work with all the time
and the litigators who have a different agenda.
I think what we're talking about, hopefully in this
Administration, is that those partnerships that we're forming,
for example, I talk about sometimes, the myth of efficiency. We
don't want to always be doing sprinklers. We want to do flood
irrigation.
There'll be an event the Little Snake River with Senator
Hicks, in two weeks, talking about how the balance between
conservation practices, flood irrigation, recharge of rivers is
all integrated with--and our particular ranch we have a third
sprinklers and two-thirds flood because we're trying to do
multiple things with the water. I think that's the future, is
understanding, you know, just how diverse, if you apply the
water both in timing and in volume, you can do multiple things
with the resource.
Senator Barrasso. Thanks. If I was going to go on the radio
again, I would quote you just as you just said, ``The
conservation groups who work together all the time and the
litigators who have a very different agenda.''
Thanks so much.
Thanks, Madam Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Barrasso.
Senator Daines.
Senator Daines. Thank you, Madam Chairman, and thank you
all for being here today.
I want to particularly thank Ms. Ziemer for making the
trip. It is always great to have a fellow Montanan in the room
as well as somebody who is fighting on behalf of something I
care a lot about which are trout. So, welcome.
As Chair of the Senate Western Caucus I know water
infrastructure is a critical aspect in need of attention across
the West. I am really glad we are addressing these important
measures here today.
As you all know, last year Montana experienced an
unprecedented drought in many areas resulting in a devastating
wildfire season. We had severe drought conditions up in the
Northeast part of our state, some of the worst conditions seen
in a century. So severe the Rocky Boy Reservation nearly ran
out of water completely.
Clean, reliable drinking water is one of the most basic
needs of life, and yet much of rural Montana lacks access to
suitable drinking water. To that end, I have introduced
legislation, the Clean Water for Rural Communities Act, which
would authorize two rural water projects in Montana.
Authorizing these projects, the Musselshell-Judith Rural Water
System and the Dry-Redwater Regional Water Authority System, is
a key step to providing clean and safe drinking water to nearly
36,000 Montanans and North Dakotans whose current water does
not meet basic, safe drinking water standards.
Dr. Petty, as you mentioned in your testimony, the Bureau
of Reclamation was created to assure that Western communities
have an adequate water supply. There are many authorized
projects awaiting completion and many more that need
authorization from Congress.
Dr. Petty, can you commit to working with us to ensure the
needs of our rural communities, such as those in Montana, are
not overlooked when it comes to providing a clean and reliable
water supply?
Dr. Petty. Yes, Senator, I can.
I've been here in all of your different hearings and I very
much still remember the posters that you had demonstrated of
that water that was distributing red, much more than clear and
the need for that.
I look forward to just being able to work with you and the
importance, obviously, of how we can work together in your
communities to actually build and store future water so that
those impacts are not happening in those communities.
Senator Daines. Yes, those water samples were literally
taken out of taps.
Dr. Petty. Yeah.
Senator Daines. It was shocking. You would think I was here
representing some Third World country.
Dr. Petty. Yeah. I remember.
Senator Daines. It was just taken out of the taps of rural
Montanans.
Dr. Petty. I remember that hearing very well.
Senator Daines. It is your responsibility to take seriously
and the responsibility of Congress to spend these hard-working
taxpayer dollars effectively and efficiently, and so often
these stop/start approaches to these rural water projects ends
up costing a whole lot more money. This is not a good way to
spend the taxpayer dollars. It is not very efficient.
They have been waiting completion now for many, many years
and they are also tied to economic opportunity and growth as
well. So we will continue this push and thanks for your help on
that.
These communities who are seeking authorization from
Congress have been working on feasibility studies for more than
12 years. I am kind of tired of studies. I am ready for some
action to get them done. The Bureau has spent millions of
dollars combined in these efforts and, I think, it is really
time to move forward. I realize we have to move forward here in
Congress, and we need your help as well.
Dr. Petty, will you work with me to improve and streamline
the rural water program to ensure that authorized projects are
completed faster and other projects seeking authorization in
which the Bureau and local communities have invested
significant time, significant money and energy, can come to
fruition?
Dr. Petty. Senator, I do look forward to working with you.
That is so much of what Reclamation was originally designed and
built for was those communities out West which was trying to
bring, basically, life into dry areas. That's the whole aspect
behind our mission statement, so we really do look forward to
working with you in these new parts.
Senator Daines. Yes, and I am grateful too that our new
Secretary, Secretary Zinke--when I was giving input to the
Trump Administration on the Secretary of the Interior, I said
it needs to be from the West. And I said, West does not mean
West Virginia. I am talking West. I am glad we have a Montanan
in that, leading that great organization.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Flake, you are up. Good timing.
Senator Flake. Thank you. I apologize for having to miss a
part of this and I apologize if I am plowing old ground here,
but I appreciate all of you being here, especially Ms.
Sorensen. Thank you for coming, and I really appreciate what
you have done.
As we have heard today, it is plain to see that, you know,
in Arizona and much of the West we can string together one or
two wet years, but it is always going to be followed by a dry
year or a dry decade. So we have to do a lot of planning.
The Water Supply Infrastructure and Drought Resilience Act
that I introduced with Senators McCain, Barrasso and Gardner, I
think, will help states prepare for years, just like that we
have had in the last couple of years and mitigate impacts of
the next inevitable drought that we have had. The bill builds
on legislation that we passed in Committee last Congress and
includes input from the Water and Power Subcommittee that we
received from numerous hearings and roundtables and briefings
in the past couple of years.
What I heard throughout the process boils down to the need
to develop new water supply infrastructure and to fix existing
assets, remove federal barriers to better management, and
provide more legal certainty about the availability and use of
water resources. If we do these things then our local water
managers will be empowered to plan and invest and innovate and
meet the water supply needs of communities and the economy.
S. 2563 includes a number of priorities that will improve
water security across the West and I know there are a lot of
other ideas, good ideas, out there, and as we go through this
legislative process, I look forward to hearing more from
stakeholders involved.
Ms. Sorensen, I appreciate your insights today and all the
work you have done for Arizona. Like many cities in Arizona,
Phoenix has taken a very proactive and expansive approach to
water supply management to ensure a reliable water supply. Can
you talk a little bit more about the importance of having a
diverse water supply and the importance of keeping all options
on the table when planning to meet long-term water needs?
Ms. Sorensen. Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Senator Flake.
So Arizona can't afford to have all of its eggs in one
basket. It is incredibly important for us to have a very
diverse supply of water resources, not just physically diverse,
but also legally diverse because of the complicated set of
water rights that are before us.
We have worked for decades to acquire supplies that are
physically diverse and legally diverse and we have to then
show, to meet our 100-year assured water supply requirements,
that those supplies are also financially available. It's a very
high standard. And basically what we do is, we acquire diverse
supplies. We acquire supplies decades before they are really
needed to provide a buffer against drought and shortage on the
Colorado River and a buffer that we can eventually grow into.
We reclaim all of our wastewater and beneficially reuse it. We
continually focus on our culture of conservation. That's an
important part of meeting our demands as well.
As you know, we have been very careful to settle our water
right disputes with Native American communities, agricultural
interests, other cities, the state, the Federal Government, so
that we can provide the certainty for real investment in our
infrastructure.
Importantly in Arizona as well, we directly tie the ability
to grow to an adequate water supply and that was done back in
the 1980s. And it was an effort to show certainty for economic
investment. To this day, no other state has matched the
progressiveness of those laws. It's really important that we
are able to show the security of our supplies for public health
and for opportunities for investment as well. So yeah, a
diverse water supply is the keystone of all of those.
Senator Flake. Well thanks for mentioning that.
Arizona has had a longstanding practice of looking forward
in terms of water, and people see the desert there and think
how in the world can it grow, how can metropolitan areas like
Phoenix, in particular, grow and have an adequate water supply?
Well, it is because of good planning from a lot of good people
years ago.
You mentioned the Groundwater Code that was groundbreaking
at that time in the 1980s. My uncle, Stan Turley, was Speaker
of the House and then Senate President during that time and we
have had just a whole generation of people who took this
seriously, those who planned the Central Arizona project and
big infrastructure projects that allowed us to go forward.
Ms. Ortega discussed how water security in desert cities is
often a major factor in decisions made by businesses. Ms.
Sorensen, can you talk about the nexus between water supply and
efforts to attract businesses to Arizona?
Ms. Sorensen. Absolutely.
So what we commonly find is the first question that we are
asked when major investors come to Central Arizona is, do you
have enough water? And, of course, the answer to that question
must always be a resounding ``yes.''
So we work very closely with the state and with local
partners to make sure that our supplies are resilient, that our
infrastructure is available for that economic investment as
well. Like I said in my testimony, Phoenix is just held to a
higher standard than other cities across the nation, and we
must always meet that standard or else we will not enjoy
security for investment. There's a very close nexus between
water supply resiliency and economic investment in Arizona.
Senator Flake. Alright, thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Flake, and thank you for
your leadership on so many of these issues as they relate to
water.
There are those of us that have water and those that wish
they had more water, but at the end of the day, even if you
have it, you have to have that infrastructure. You have to have
that storage. So it takes me back to the question that I had
initially.
Dr. Petty, let me ask you about the Bureau of Reclamation's
Tribal Technical Assistance Program that helps the tribal
organizations better develop, manage and protect their tribal
water and resources.
Last year, the Ahtna Intertribal Resource Commission in the
interior part of our state applied for assistance and was
denied because they said that Alaska was not one of the 17
Western states. I look to your map that you have provided us in
terms of Reclamation here and the first thing that Senator
Cantwell asked me, she is like, what happened to Alaska there?
Well, you know, we are, we have been one of the Western
states since 1959 when we came in. So the question to you is
whether you would anticipate any challenges to including
eligible Alaskan entities in the Bureau's Tribal Technical
Assistance Program? It seems to me that we are part of this
Western region. We might not be on your map, but we are part of
that West. What is your response?
Dr. Petty. You know, Senator, that's the first thing that I
definitely will make sure is we get Alaska as part of this as
well.
The Chairman. Thank you. It is going to make your whole map
out of whack.
Dr. Petty. Different, but that's okay.
The Chairman. It is going to have to be an eight and a half
by--I don't know.
[Laughter.]
Dr. Petty. We will figure that out.
Senator Risch. It will also make your life a lot easier.
[Laughter.]
Dr. Petty. It certainly will.
So first of all, right off with your question. Even from
the language that has been put forth, and it was part of this
hearing, we really do look forward to incorporating, even the
WaterSMART, as part of Alaska and its admission into those.
We actually, and I've had a briefing since I've been back
up on the Hill, or back in Interior, of how we go about
actually helping people who have submitted through WaterSMART
or through these programs as well as just being affirmed that
any tribal communities that also submit, that we give them
support and full consideration on how those processes go
through and we help them, technically, in making sure that they
put forth the best technical capability so that we can give
them resources that allows them and their community to move
forward with water.
The Chairman. Okay.
Well, I know that we would like to work with you on that
and again, hopefully, the good folks in the Ahtna region will
see some of that.
Let me ask about title transfers and probably to you, Dr.
Petty, and to you, Mr. O'Toole. Facilitating the title transfer
of the Bureau of Reclamation facilities that are relatively
uncomplicated and where the capital has or will be repaid, it
has been discussed as a potential benefit to both the Federal
Government and the non-federal operating entity.
Can you just share with us, Dr. Petty from the federal
perspective and Mr. O'Toole from the non-federal perspective,
what is the benefit and what is driving the interest in this
transfer of the respective titles to these facilities?
Dr. Petty. Well, if I could start first, just to respond
specifically now since we also have the lead author of the bill
in the title transfer, it will be a good combination of just
referencing how important the Federal Government reviews and
sees this title transfer capability. It allows those, even
specifically those irrigation districts, who have been working
hard for years and decades and even some, longer, on the
importance of eventually moving that into their responsibility.
They've been overseeing with the O&M, the operations and
maintenance, but allowing them to actually carry that title.
One, from a federal perspective it reduces not only our
liability as a Federal Government but also the ability to
resource other communities that need to get going and getting
up and started.
I mean, even interacting with Senator Daines on some of his
earlier interests, a lot of these irrigation districts have
been doing this for such an amazing long time, working with the
different communities and non-profit organizations to become
better at what they're doing. That allows them to know what to
fix and how to fix it more effectively on the ground and with
us not having to be that overbearing and resources that are
dependent upon those.
So I think those are some of the huge aspects that, for the
Federal Government, gets us more out of the way for those who
are doing extremely well, they know what they're doing. And
then allowing us to take those really precious resources and go
and work in other communities that need even support and help
from the Federal Government.
The Chairman. And on the non-federal side, Mr. O'Toole?
Mr. O'Toole. Madam Chairman, interestingly our community
was going to have two storage reservoirs, one in Colorado and
one in Wyoming. They're still authorized in the Bureau of Rec
but were never built because of the vetoes that President
Carter, back in the '70s--
We have worked so hard to get some storage. We've done
23,000 with the State of Wyoming, but that 100,000 was, sort
of, the goal and that was what was analyzed was needed.
I called one of our members--and the Family Farm Alliance
represents both Bureau and non-Bureau people, our value is non-
Bureau or non-federal--he said it was the best thing that ever
happened to him, Tom Knutson in Kearney, Nebraska.
And what my vision and I think you guys, you all are
talking about this federal participation in infrastructure
where there could be dollars to match state dollars. That's the
new vision where we're not going to have quite the same storage
building that we did in the '60s-'70s, that period of time, but
the infusion of the states that are ready to build storage for
themselves of dollars to help match with the state dollars is
going to be critical.
I think it's the perfect example of how the Federal
Government got something started in many places, then it became
local and the local people are driving the process.
The Chairman. Very good. Good, thank you.
Senator Cortez Masto, do you have follow-up?
Seeing none, we appreciate the contributions from each of
you, appreciate the time that you have given us this morning
and the effort to come across the country at a time when most
people were saying, we don't want to travel to the East Coast,
but thank you for being here.
We look forward as we are developing these water solutions
to ensure that we not only have what we need for our families,
our farmers, our fishermen, but for all aspects of water and
water use.
We thank you for your leadership and appreciate your time.
With that, the Committee is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:47 a.m. the hearing was adjourned.]
APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED
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