[Senate Hearing 116-375]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 116-375
PENDING LEGISLATION
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
WATER AND POWER
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON
ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
on
S. 2718 S. 4189
S. 3811 S. 4228
S. 4188
__________
JULY 22, 2020
__________
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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
40-921 WASHINGTON : 2021
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COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska, Chairman
JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming JOE MANCHIN III, West Virginia
JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho RON WYDEN, Oregon
MIKE LEE, Utah MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
STEVE DAINES, Montana BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
BILL CASSIDY, Louisiana DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan
CORY GARDNER, Colorado MARTIN HEINRICH, New Mexico
CINDY HYDE-SMITH, Mississippi MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii
MARTHA McSALLY, Arizona ANGUS S. KING, JR., Maine
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada
JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota
------
Subcommittee on Water and Power
MARTHA McSALLY, Chairman
JOHN BARRASSO CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO
JAMES E. RISCH RON WYDEN
BILL CASSIDY MARIA CANTWELL
CORY GARDNER BERNARD SANDERS
LAMAR ALEXANDER
Brian Hughes, Staff Director
Kellie Donnelly, Chief Counsel
Lane Dickson, Senior Professional Staff Member
Renae Black, Democratic Staff Director
Sam E. Fowler, Democratic Chief Counsel
Melanie Thornton, Democratic Professional Staff Member
Darla Ripchensky, Chief Clerk
C O N T E N T S
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OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
McSally, Hon. Martha, Subcommittee Chairman and a U.S. Senator
from Arizona................................................... 1
Cortez Masto, Hon. Catherine, Subcommittee Ranking Member and a
U.S. Senator from Nevada....................................... 2
WITNESSES
Feinstein, Hon. Dianne, U.S. Senator from California............. 24
Udall, Hon. Tom, U.S. Senator from New Mexico.................... 80
Bettencourt, Aubrey, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and
Science, U.S. Department of the Interior....................... 81
Keppen, Dan, Executive Director, Family Farm Alliance............ 93
Whitworth, Joe S., President, The Freshwater Trust............... 113
ALPHABETICAL LISTING AND APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED
African-American Farmers of California:
Letter for the Record........................................ 29
American AgCredit:
Letter for the Record........................................ 31
American Olive Oil Producers Association:
Letter for the Record........................................ 32
American Pistachio Growers:
Letter for the Record........................................ 34
American Sportfishing Association:
Letter for the Record........................................ 7
Association of California Water Agencies:
Letter for the Record........................................ 36
Bettencourt, Aubrey:
Opening Statement............................................ 81
Written Testimony............................................ 83
Responses to Questions for the Record........................ 152
California Citrus Mutual:
Letter for the Record........................................ 37
California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association:
Letter for the Record........................................ 39
California Dairy Campaign and California Farmers Union:
Letter for the Record........................................ 41
California Farm Bureau Federation:
Letter for the Record........................................ 43
California Fresh Fruit Association:
Letter for the Record........................................ 45
California Women for Agriculture:
Letter for the Record........................................ 47
Cortez Masto, Hon. Catherine:
Opening Statement............................................ 2
County of Fresno (California):
Letter for the Record........................................ 48
Earthjustice:
Letter for the Record........................................ 9
Feinstein, Hon. Dianne:
Opening Statement............................................ 24
Figure 1. Damage to water infrastructure: Subsidence along
the Delta-Mendota Canal.................................... 25
Figure 2. Damage to water infrastructure: Subsidence along
the California Aqueduct.................................... 27
Written Testimony............................................ 74
Friant Water Authority:
Letter for the Record........................................ 50
Golden State Salmon Association, et al.:
Letter for the Record........................................ 11
Harris, Hon. Kamala:
Letter for the Record........................................ 5
Harris Farms:
Letter for the Record........................................ 52
Keppen, Dan:
Opening Statement............................................ 93
Written Testimony............................................ 95
Responses to Questions for the Record........................ 156
Kern County (California) Water Agency:
Letter for the Record........................................ 54
Kern Groundwater Authority:
Letter for the Record........................................ 55
Mape's Ranch and Lyons' Investments:
Letter for the Record........................................ 56
McSally, Hon. Martha:
Opening Statement............................................ 1
(The) Metropolitan Water District of Southern California:
Letter for the Record........................................ 58
Milk Producers Council:
Letter for the Record........................................ 60
National Audubon Society and Audubon Arizona:
Letter for the Record........................................ 14
National Audubon Society and Audubon New Mexico:
Letter for the Record........................................ 16
Natural Resources Defense Council:
Letter for the Record........................................ 17
(The) Nature Conservancy, et al.:
Letter for the Record........................................ 19
Nisei Farmers League:
Letter for the Record........................................ 61
San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority:
Letter for the Record........................................ 63
South Valley Water Association:
Letter for the Record........................................ 65
State Water Contractors:
Letter for the Record........................................ 67
Trout Unlimited:
Letter for the Record........................................ 172
Trout Unlimited, et al.:
Letter for the Record........................................ 21
Udall, Hon. Tom:
Opening Statement............................................ 80
Western Agricultural Processors Association:
Letter for the Record........................................ 69
Western Growers:
Letter for the Record........................................ 71
Whitworth, Joe S.:
Opening Statement............................................ 113
Written Testimony............................................ 115
Responses to Questions for the Record........................ 161
----------
The text for each of the bills which were addressed in this hearing can
be found on the committee's website at: https://www.energy.senate.gov/
hearings/2020/7/subcommittee-on-water-and-power-legislative-hearing.
PENDING LEGISLATION
----------
WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Water and Power,
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:40 p.m. in
Room SD-366, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Martha
McSally, presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARTHA MCSALLY,
U.S. SENATOR FROM ARIZONA
Senator McSally [presiding]. The hearing of the Senate
Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power
will come to order. Sorry for being a few minutes late. It is
great to see all the women here.
This marks our first meeting of the Water and Power
Subcommittee since the COVID-19 outbreak with our new socially-
distanced setup. While it is crucial that we do get back to
business, we also need to recognize, like so many other areas
of our economy, the pandemic is impacting our water sector. We
will hear about some of those impacts at the Full Committee
hearing tomorrow where I am pleased that there will be a
witness who will discuss the challenges that our water managers
are facing. But today, we are here to receive testimony on five
bills pending before the Subcommittee, including S. 4228, my
Water-Energy Technology Demonstration and Deployment Act. This
legislation is a result of information and recommendations we
received from hearings this Committee has held this Congress,
as well as continued engagement with water stakeholders in
Arizona and across the West.
The Department of Energy is doing a lot of good work on
water technologies. At the same time, the Bureau of Reclamation
has programs that support deployment of many of these same
tools, whether it is water reuse, recycling, or desalination,
better pumps or some other technology, my bill will help get
the advancement and expertise developed by the Department of
Energy (DOE) out of the lab and into the hands of water
managers where they are needed now. Doing that is a win all the
way around. It will accelerate commercialization of the
technology, get a bigger bang for the buck from taxpayer
dollars being spent by DOE and Reclamation on these solutions,
and start producing additional water supplies needed by Western
communities. S. 4228 also establishes a Western Water
Resilience Center at one or more universities in the West. As
the universities in Arizona have shown, our academic
institutions can drive innovation that will not only improve
water security but will also spur greater development of a
water technology industry in the U.S. which will create jobs
and economic growth.
In addition to S. 4228, we will receive testimony on a
number of bills that have been introduced by our Democrat
colleagues, including Senator Udall's S. 2718, Senator
Feinstein's S. 3811, Senator Harris' S. 4188 and Senator
Wyden's S. 4189. Each of the bills today contain provisions
that are important to Western water management. But as we craft
and review legislation, we must be careful to not intentionally
or unintentionally put up additional regulatory roadblocks in
front of much needed water storage or other supply projects. I
do have some serious concerns with language in some of the
bills, but I believe there are many elements we can work
together on and reach bipartisan agreement. When it comes to
water, we need to resist efforts to drag us back into old
conflicts or either/or games and focus on solutions the
Committee has shown can be developed by working constructively
across party lines.
In addition to the bills we are reviewing today, there are
a number of bipartisan bills that have already received
Committee consideration and are awaiting further action. This
includes S. 2044, the bill I introduced with Senator Sinema to
address aging water infrastructure, and S. 1932, that was
introduced by Senator Gardner and co-sponsored by Senators
Feinstein, Sinema, Rosen and myself. Combined together, the
consensus provisions from the bills reviewed and reported by
this Committee, can and should form the basis of a water
package that we can and should move this year. I look forward
to hearing from our witnesses on the five bills before us today
and working through the remaining issues to enact meaningful
water legislation this year.
Now I will hand it over to Senator Cortez Masto.
STATEMENT OF HON. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEVADA
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you. Good afternoon to everyone
and thank you to Senator McSally for calling this legislative
hearing. This is the first legislative hearing since the start
of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I want to thank everyone,
including our witnesses, for being flexible and adaptable
during these uncertain times. This Congress, the Energy
Committee has already reported out six water bills. However, it
has been just over a year since we have had a legislative
hearing on water legislation and I welcome the opportunity to
move another five water bills through the Committee's process
to help advance legislation that protects our nation's water
supplies.
Today's hearing covers a variety of issues facing the
Bureau of Reclamation, and the bills on today's agenda attempt
to advance federal water policy to promote drought resiliency
through forward thinking, collaborative policy solutions. These
bills also call for investment in more resilient and robust
infrastructure in surface groundwater and natural storage,
recycling and reuse, desalination, efficiency and conservation.
The legislation also highlights the need for greater investment
in watershed health to benefit our downstream communities,
fish, and wildlife. Managing our water resources for the future
means developing smart, collaborative solutions that benefit
both people and the environment.
We will start with Senator Udall's bill, S. 2718, also
known as the Western Water Security Act. This bill aims to
promote water conservation, desalination and improve water
management strategies that benefit both water managers and
ecosystems in New Mexico and other Western states. An important
aspect of this bill is to expand the Bureau of Reclamation's
WaterSMART Water and Energy Efficiency Grant Program to include
natural infrastructure projects and to allow participation from
conservation, non-governmental organizations. Among other
provisions, this bill expands emergency drought assistance for
states and tribes, supports collaborative water management and
research efforts and expands federal support for water
desalination projects, particularly rural projects which can
really help address water shortages across the arid West.
Our next agenda item is Senator Feinstein's legislation,
the Restoration of Essential Conveyance Act. This bill
authorizes $600 million in federal aid to repair three major
canal projects in California that have been impacted by land
subsistence and $200 million for the restoration goal of the
San Joaquin restoration settlement. Senator Feinstein is here.
We will hear further on this bill as well.
We also have Senator Harris' bill, S. 4188, the Water for
Tomorrow Act. This bill focuses on addressing water management
through sustainable investments in water infrastructure
technology improvements and multi-benefit projects that support
resilient, healthy ecosystems. It also creates a new grant
program at the Department of the Interior to assist
disadvantaged communities facing declines in drinking water in
the arid West.
Next on the agenda is S. 4189, the Water for Conservation
and Farming Act, sponsored by Senator Wyden. This bill aims to
improve water access by funding projects that balance the needs
of irrigators, fish and wildlife, watershed health and urban
water users. This bill highlights the importance of investing
in a balanced approach to water management. I want to thank
Senator Wyden for emphasizing this in his legislation.
We will also be discussing, as the Chairwoman has said,
Chairwoman McSally's bill on water and energy innovations in
research and technology. I look forward to learning more about
this bill today as well.
Let me just say, in order to sustainably manage scarce
water resources, Congress must listen closely to those who work
on and deal with these issues in their everyday lives. It may
be easier to propose policies that pit one part of the economy
over another or that override protections for the environment,
but despite the thorny nature of these issues, it is imperative
that we work together to find sustainable and collaborative
solutions for our nation's water management challenges. Win-win
solutions are our only hope of addressing climate change,
drought and other water issues in the West over the long-term.
I want to commend the bills' sponsors for their focus and
attention on water management challenges across the Western
United States, and I look forward to a productive conversation
today.
Chairwoman McSally, I also have a statement from Senator
Harris on her bill, S. 4188, and letters of support for several
bills on the agenda and ask that they be included in the
hearing record.
Senator McSally. Without objection, they will be included
in the record.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
[Senator Harris' statement and various letters of support
follow:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Senator McSally. Thank you, Senator Cortez Masto.
Before we turn to our panel of outside witnesses, I am
pleased that we are joined today by Senator Feinstein and
Senator Udall--Senator Feinstein, in person, and Senator Udall,
virtually--to speak about the bills they have before the
Subcommittee.
Senator Feinstein, thank you for being here, and I would
also like to express my appreciation for all the work you do to
find common ground on water issues and advance bipartisan
legislation. You are now recognized.
STATEMENT OF HON. DIANNE FEINSTEIN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM CALIFORNIA
Senator Feinstein. Well, thank you very much, Madam
Chairman.
Madam Chairman and Madam Ranking Member, thank you for
inviting me to speak in support of the ``Restoration of
Essential Conveyance Act.'' California's 40 million people and
our leading agricultural industry depend on thousands of miles
of major canals to bring them water. I want to show you how
desperately our canals need to be repaired.
This first picture shows what has happened as a result of
subsidence, where the land has dropped 10, 20 or more feet due
to over pumping of groundwater. You can see the result--the
walls of the canal are completely collapsing.
[Senator Feinstein's Figure 1 follows:]
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Senator Feinstein. The second picture shows even longer
cracks, and the entire side of the canal is caving inwards.
[Senator Feinstein's Figure 2 follows:]
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Madam Chairman, I know you have a bill to restore
Reclamation's deteriorating infrastructure. S. 3811 has similar
goals. It would: 1) authorize $200 million each to repair three
essential canals in California, the Friant Kern Canal, the
Delta Mendota Canal, and the California Aqueduct; and it would
2) authorize an additional $200 million for a critical
environmental project, the San Joaquin River Restoration
Program.
I want to put this bill in a larger context affecting
Arizona and Nevada and the whole West. As you both well know,
we are facing a severe threat of drought, which a changing
climate is only going to make worse. The journal, Science, has
concluded that we may be entering what is actually a
megadrought, and we face a structural water deficit in the
Colorado River Basin of approximately 1.2 million to 1.5
million acre-feet per year. This water deficit is only going to
get much worse over time. The Bureau of Reclamation has
projected that the Colorado River Basin's annual water supply
deficit will be 3.2 million acre-feet by 2060. This projected
annual deficit is equivalent to the water supply of 16 million
people. This is a looming crisis, and it is critical that
Congress develop bipartisan solutions to address it.
The canal restoration bill advances the types of projects
that we need to reduce the Colorado Basin's water supply
deficit. These canal restoration projects will provide
significant water supply at an affordable cost. The three
projects together will create an average of 367,000 additional
acre-feet per year, or enough water for 1.8 million people. The
new water will cost approximately $250 to $300 per acre-feet,
about one-half to one-fifth the cost of other water supply
projects. The federal cost-share will be 50 percent or less
with water contractors paying the rest. The projects are
broadly supported and non-controversial.
Madam Chairman, I would like to ask that these 25 support
letters be placed in the record.
Senator McSally. Without objection.
Senator Feinstein. Thank you very much.
[Letters of support follow:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Because these projects are restoring canals damaged by
subsidence to their original design capacity, they actually
raise very few environmental issues.
Finally, the bill not only improves water supply to adapt
to future droughts, but the bill also authorizes an additional
$200 million for restoring a salmon run on the San Joaquin
River, California's longest river. For these reasons, I urge
the Committee to approve the ``Restoration of Essential
Conveyance Act'' and I look forward to working with you both--
to the three of you now, two women and one man, which is a
historic reversal of the ratio--to getting it enacted along
with other critical water legislation. Thank you so much.
Senator McSally. Thank you, Senator Feinstein.
[The written statement of Senator Feinstein follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Senator McSally. Senator Udall, you are now recognized.
STATEMENT OF HON. TOM UDALL,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW MEXICO
Senator Udall. Thank you, Chairman McSally and Ranking
Member Cortez Masto and members of the Subcommittee. And thank
you for the opportunity to appear before you today in support
of S. 2718, the Western Water Security Act. In the West we know
that ``Agua Es Vida, Water is Life.'' Indigenous peoples of the
West base their lives around access to water and had and still
have sophisticated strategies and techniques to manage this
precious resource. In the 16th century in my home State of New
Mexico, the Spanish settlers, native peoples and other settlers
began blending traditions from the Old World and the new and
developed, the acequia systems, that to this day provide water
to communities for irrigation and for agriculture. They've
lasted for 400 years.
In the 20th century, large cities such as Las Vegas and
modern agricultural communities like the Salt River Project in
Arizona were born out of the construction of the Bureau of
Reclamation water projects. Now, in the 21st century, we know
more about the uncertainty of our water resources. Science
tells us we built those big water projects based on assumptions
about water supply and predictability that no longer hold. Our
climate is changing and the Southwest U.S. will continue to
experience hotter, drier summers that last longer, leaving
smaller snowpacks for spring runoff and increased evaporation
from surface storage from lakes and reservoirs. The Bureau of
Reclamation and the seven Colorado River Basin states found
that the Basin-wide imbalance in future supply and demand will
be 3.2 million acre-feet annually by 2060. On top of that, the
2000 to 2018 drought in the Southwest was the second driest 19-
year period since 800 CE, exceeded only by the late 1500s
megadrought. All of this puts more stress on precious
groundwater resources that, in many cases, are not being
recharged anywhere near the rate at which they're being drawn
down. In many cases, we don't even know how much groundwater we
have.
These are the facts and it's important for us to talk
truthfully about the world we now face, particularly when we
discuss and design programs that invest public money to sustain
our way of life. Infrastructure investments change the natural
world around these projects and have long life spans, often
extending for many decades or more. But the uncertainty of
water resources driven by climate change, these infrastructure
investments need to incorporate flexibility like how the
acequias have operated for generations.
However, I'm a reservoir half-full type of person. We can
adapt. We can build smarter and implement an approach that
takes account of the whole ecosystem. And the bill before you
today,
S. 2718, the Western Water Security Act, is a 21st century
solution and it will move us in the right direction. My bill
represents a straightforward, commonsense approach based on the
realities and the science of today, and it is crucial. This is
a collaborative bill. The entire New Mexico delegation is in
support and Representative Xochitl Torres Small is co-
sponsoring the bill in the House and that bill has been marked
up and passed out of Committee.
The Western Water Security Act also has the support of a
broad cross section of water users and interest groups,
including the Elephant Butte Irrigation District, the Middle
Rio Grande Conservancy District, the State of New Mexico, the
Audubon Society, The Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited and
the National Wildlife Federation.
So again, Chairman McSally and Ranking Member Cortez Masto,
thank you for the opportunity to present this important
legislation. I'll look forward to your support and will be glad
to follow up at a later date on any issues raised today. Thank
you so much and I would just ask your permission to exit to my
next committee, the Foreign Relations Committee. It's been
great being with you today.
Senator McSally. Well, thank you, Senator Udall. I like
your ``reservoir is half-full'' kind of approach there, that
level of optimism. Thanks for your testimony and your bill. I
want to thank Senator Feinstein as well and Senator Udall, we
look forward to working with you both to find a landing place
that will allow these bills to move forward quickly.
We will now turn to our panel of outside witnesses.
Our first witness is Ms. Aubrey Bettencourt, who is the
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the
Department of the Interior. She will present the
Administration's views on five bills before us today. Next, we
will hear from Dan Keppen, the Executive Director of Family
Farm Alliance. After Mr. Keppen, we will hear from Joe S.
Whitworth, President of The Freshwater Trust.
Thank you all for being with us today. We ask you keep your
remarks to five minutes. Your full written remarks will be put
into the record.
Ms. Bettencourt, you are recognized now for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF AUBREY BETTENCOURT, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
WATER AND SCIENCE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Ms. Bettencourt. Thank you.
Chairman McSally, Ranking Member Cortez Masto and members
of the Subcommittee, my name is Aubrey Bettencourt. I am the
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the
Department of the Interior, and I thank you for this time today
to provide Interior's views on the legislation which affects
the Bureau of Reclamation and the farms, communities,
environment it serves. I prepared a written statement on the
bills before the Committee today but will use my time to
highlight a few issues.
The West, as we know and as we've heard, is defined by its
longstanding water challenges and how it has addressed them in
the past. As a Westerner, born and raised in rural California,
with family and friends spread across Arizona, Oregon and the
West, these challenges and the magnificent solutions of
infrastructure, science and technology and the changing
relationship to our most precious resource, have defined me as
well. My home State of California became the fifth largest
global economy in less than 100 years because of the water
systems. Today, the list of water challenges is the same in
many ways and has changed as our states have grown and evolved,
now stressing the incredible system that got us here. Drought
and flood, urban and rural population growth, subsidence,
groundwater depletion and recharge, urban and rural water
quality, aging infrastructure, changing environment and
environmental protection requirements are pressing concerns.
While the challenges may change from a new era, the basic need
remains the same. Adequate, safe and reliable water supplies
are fundamental to the health, economic prosperity and security
of our communities, farms, environment and nation. How the West
addresses these challenges, once again, will define its future.
Cities, communities, water and irrigation districts and
individuals on the ground are actively investing to get ahead
of these challenges, meeting them with new and innovative
solutions as well as tried and true solutions in new and
improved ways. Investment in the water infrastructure, water
quality and water supplies of the 21st century is a priority of
the Administration, the Department of the Interior and the
Bureau of Reclamation. The tools in the tool kit of Reclamation
and the Interior such as the WIIN Act Dam Safety Program, the
suite of programs in WaterSMART, the Cooperative Watershed
Management Program, the SECURE Water Act, Rural Water Supply
Program and Title Transfer, along with many others, many of
which are discussed today, have successfully allowed
Reclamation to meet, match and partner with diverse customers,
water users, stakeholders and communities and are critical to
Reclamation and these parties' ability to prepare for natural
disaster, addressing aging and undersized infrastructure and
diversify and expand water supplies for the needs and the
priorities of the future.
As important as these partnerships are with our customers
on the ground, Interior and Reclamation are leading in an
incredible era of federal collaboration across departments
within the water sector actively seeking partnerships and
alignment to focus resources toward solutions to address some
of the West and the nation's water needs for agriculture, rural
and disadvantaged communities, investment in traditional and
new infrastructure, applications of the best available science,
technology, modeling and forecasting, water quality, drought
and flood preparedness and all around, better customer service
in responsiveness for providing and delivering clean, reliable
water and renewable hydropower. The Bureau and Interior and I
look forward to working with the Committee and the bill
sponsors to address any concerns and to better align the
legislation with the existing commitments by Reclamation to
maximize the effectiveness of these programs and projects that
are referenced.
In closing, I'd like to thank you again for this
opportunity, and I look forward to our discussion today. It's
clear that we all agree that investment in our water future is
a priority, and it's exciting to see that none of us are shying
away from these challenges because, as Westerners, we know the
opportunity that water will surprise--will provide us and
surprise us in the future. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Bettencourt follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Senator McSally. Thank you, Ms. Bettencourt.
Mr. Keppen, you are now recognized for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF DAN KEPPEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
FAMILY FARM ALLIANCE
Mr. Keppen. Good afternoon, Chairwoman McSally, Ranking
Member Cortez Masto and members of the Subcommittee. Thank you
for this opportunity to address the bills that are before you
today. The Family Farm Alliance has a long history of
collaboration with a variety of partners who seek real
solutions to water resource challenges in the West. One of
those partners is The Freshwater Trust. I'm honored to be
testifying today with my good friend, Joe Whitworth, President
of that organization.
Some of these bills contain provisions that work well for
both producers and NGO's, others put the needs of fish,
wildlife and ecosystems above the interests of our farmers and
ranchers. The WaterSMART provisions in some of these bills
raise the most concerns. Our members worry that adding non-
profit conservation organizations as eligible recipients in
WaterSMART will increase the competition for program grants. We
were pleased to see Senator Wyden and Senator Merkley address
this concern. They included a requirement in their bill that
NGO's partner with a traditional, eligible water delivery
entity for potential WaterSMART projects.
The WaterSMART program is accomplishing what it was
intended to do. It modernizes infrastructure and helps local
water users better respond to future water conflicts. The only
consistent complaint we've heard about WaterSMART is that it's
underfunded and oversubscribed. So we appreciate efforts to
provide more funding to WaterSMART. We're concerned, however,
that adding more conditions could actually harm a program that
really works. It could limit the number of future applicants
and diminish the benefits that we currently see. We need to
stick with the original intent of the program and try not to
add new conditions and processes. Let's not water down
WaterSMART.
I'll now briefly address each of the bills before you
today.
S. 4188 appears to be well-intended. Section 301 could
assist our members who are already using emerging technologies
to provide more accurate and timely snowpack measurement data.
There are several other areas of the bill that cause concerns,
though, as detailed in my written testimony.
Senator Wyden's S. 4189, importantly, reauthorizes the
Fisheries Restoration and Irrigation Mitigation Act which our
members in the Pacific Northwest strongly support and benefit
from. This program provides federal cost-shared funding for
voluntary efforts to improve fish passage while maintaining a
steady, reliable water supply for human use. S. 4189 also
authorizes funds for important Reclamation water reuse,
recycling and conservation programs.
We support the Water-Energy Technology Demonstration and
Deployment Act which improved the efficiency of projects like
the Yuma Desalting Plant in Arizona.
Our New Mexico members are strongly supportive of S. 2718;
however, we also have members in our other states who have
concerns. They are worried about using federal grants to reduce
consumptive use of water, including water conservation
acquisitions. Our organization has consistently taken the
position that conservation programs, the Farm bill, for
example, should not be used to pay farmers not to farm. We also
believe that the best solutions to Western water challenges are
developed at the local level. In this case, seed money from the
Federal Government will help our New Mexico members develop a
groundwater management scheme that could result in a voluntary
fallowing program. This could benefit the farmer and urban
water users in this region.
S. 3811, by Senator Feinstein, is a welcome step toward
addressing the impacts of groundwater subsidence on major
portions of California's water delivery system. The bill
authorizes $600 million in federal cost-shared funding for
three major projects. Subsidence in these areas has reduced the
carrying capacity of those canal systems. Many of our
California producers would directly benefit from this
legislation.
In addition to bills discussed today, we need legislation
that addresses aging water infrastructure and insufficient
water storage. Over 160 Western water and agricultural
organizations recently wrote to Senate leaders urging the same.
That large number of groups speaks to the critical demand that
Westerners feel for addressing these issues in this Congress.
The reasons are clear. Water infrastructure that was built
early in the last century is aging. Meanwhile, less progress
has been made at the federal level on these matters developing
new and improved water infrastructure. We need these projects
to keep up with the growing water demands of the West.
We strongly support Senator McSally's S. 2044, a bill that
would establish a revolving loan account to address
extraordinary maintenance backlogs within Reclamation-owned
facilities. Failing to address the backlog in the short-term
could well lead to dealing with it in the long-term in a much
more expensive and costly manner. We also need to extend water
infrastructure funding provisions in the WIIN Act which are set
to expire in 2021. We continue to support the bipartisan S.
1932 which extends funding under the WIIN Act for an additional
five years, including $670 million for surface and groundwater
storage projects.
We look forward to working with this Committee on a
bipartisan, Bureau of Reclamation legislative package that may
be considered in the future. Thank you again for this
opportunity to testify.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Keppen follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Senator McSally. Thank you, Mr. Keppen.
Mr. Whitworth, you are now recognized for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF JOE S. WHITWORTH, PRESIDENT,
THE FRESHWATER TRUST
Mr. Whitworth. Thank you, Chairwoman McSally, Ranking
Member Cortez Masto and members of the Subcommittee. My name is
Joe Whitworth, President of The Freshwater Trust. With 50
scientists, coders, implementers, lawyers and ag economists,
we're a non-profit ``do-tank'' focused on leveraging technology
and finance in new ways to solve legacy water problems. At the
intersection of the economy and the environment, we have
developed a quantified conservation approach to work with
landowners, agencies, utilities and other partners to get
conservation done on the ground, in the right places, in the
right amount, on an expedited basis. I really appreciate the
opportunity to testify today regarding the bills before you,
and I will summarize here but put the testimony in the record.
Technology now exists to identify and target specific
actions that improve watershed health, invest taxpayer dollars
well and secure good water in all of our communities.
Leveraging these tools will enable us to create durable jobs in
rural economies and increase resilience in the face of change.
Several of the bills before this Committee include steps in the
right direction on these fronts toward data-informed
investments, and these should be pursued and extended. Solving
our water problems on a meaningful timeframe requires that we
accelerate and focus restoration funding while producing the
best environmental outcomes for the least cost coordinated by
analytics, standardized accounting and quantified results. The
first step is understanding within a watershed-wide basis,
where we need to work, how much it will cost and what we'll
get. In short, we need price tags, we need finish lines and we
need the ability to coordinate and mobilize resources toward
those ends.
Slow and uncertain application cycles often keep landowners
with the most critical lands and the smartest farm upgrades
from ever participating or ever realizing the benefits that
they could have. It's a massive, massive missed opportunity
because not all restoration is created equal and simply
authorizing bigger spends won't improve the results. We need
better spends, and that's why I'm here today.
A quick example: a small, subwatershed in the Columbia
River Basin representing about 1.7 percent of the land mass
actually has a fairly outsized impact on downstream water
quality due to runoff. We used publicly available data,
federally approved model formulas and advanced technologies to
run the entire basin and understand what it is we had on our
hands. Of the 4,100 agricultural fields, less than 1,500,
actually less than half, had any environmental benefit
whatsoever regardless of investment. And so, here are the
biggest gains come from on farm upgrades of irrigation in order
to decrease runoff. They also improve farm profitability, but
here's the big takeaway when we're talking about spending
correctly. Of those, the original price tag of all the 4,100
fields took about $150 million but at a cost of $24 million
working on only 190 of those fields, we can knock down about 63
percent of the nitrogen running off in those, in that system.
And that's what it's going to take in order to solve problems
versus spend on problems.
In addition to undertaking the right actions in the right
places, we need to track and report results in rigorous and
standardized ways at a watershed level, not simply a project
level. The Freshwater Trust, of course, supports funding for
environmental restoration in these bills. Those extensions and
additions are very welcome. However, we need something more
beyond that, we need better ones. If there is one common theme
throughout these that we really needed to pay attention to as
we go forward and develop a water package, it is to really
understand that there is a need for a standardized accounting
system that understands what our actions do before we do them
so that we can seek optimal outcomes that perform at a
watershed basis as opposed to a maximal outcome at a project
level basis.
With that, I would like to thank you again for allowing me
to testify and look forward to any questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Whitworth follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Senator McSally. Great, thank you. We will now turn to
questions and I will kick it off.
We have discussed the energy-water nexus a number of times
in this Subcommittee, and I know the Ranking Member, Senator
Cortez Masto, has an important bill on that issue. Since the
beginning of President Trump's Administration, we have also
heard a lot about a so-called ``Water Subcabinet'' which has a
more water-centric focus in its efforts to increase
coordination among agencies--DOE, DOI and other agencies. My
water technology bill aims to build off those efforts.
Ms. Bettencourt, can you talk a bit more about some of the
work being done by the Water Subcabinet and how the Bureau of
Reclamation projects could benefit from resources brought to
bear by DOE, and also how the pilot program established in S.
4228 could help facilitate that work?
Ms. Bettencourt. Absolutely.
First of all, Senator, thank you so much for recognizing
the informal entity that is quote/unquote, ``the Water
Subcabinet.'' When I spoke about leading in this kind of new
era of federal collaboration, that's exactly what we're talking
about. Very simply put, what the Water Subcabinet does is it's
the power of convention. There's no new budget attached to it.
There's no new authorities attached to it. It is alignment of
the water sector across multiple departments. And in the power
of that convention, of regularly communicating to each other,
regularly understanding each other's priorities and
initiatives, cross-training and understanding each other's
programs, we start looking at every problem, not through our
own lens of our own issues that we bring to the table or our
own programs we bring to the table. We now have these other
points of reference that we can now draw into and align those
resources and, kind of, supercharge solutions.
And so, when we look at the options that you have brought
forward, you know, especially with the Department of Energy,
there is, I think, an amazing opportunity to, just like you
said, get pilot to lab, get technologies and applicable
technologies and resources into the hands of our water
managers, get them out on the field, get them out on the ground
so we can see the application and modernization happen in real
time. And that's definitely something that we appreciate with
an emphasis of bringing support to aligning DOE with
Reclamation. I think there's a lot of opportunity in that
space, not only in what you were talking about with regards to
water supply opportunities, but even in the hydropower space. I
think there's a lot of opportunity there and alignment with the
Department of Energy as we start to get those pieces in place.
Senator McSally. Great, thanks.
Our universities in Arizona have tremendous expertise on
water. So also in my bill is bringing in university research
and establishing the Western Water Resilience Center at one or
more universities. Can you share what you think the benefit
would be of the collaboration with research universities on
this important topic?
Ms. Bettencourt. You know, especially research universities
that are out on the ground, at least in my experience, is when
you can get them again, you get those technologies applied. You
better know how the investment is going to go or where to focus
your investment when you can get them in real life
applications. And so, being out in the West, being out on those
universities in the West to bring in the resources and
expertise and collaboration, not only from the university
sector and research sector, but also that lab tech concept out
of DOE and that water wielding engineering expertise that
Reclamation brings to the table, we get that out on the ground
and see what we can do with it.
Senator McSally. Great, thank you.
One reason I introduced S. 4228 is because I speak with
water managers all the time. They are working hard to find
resources to implement many of the things DOE is doing R&D on.
I mentioned in my opening things like recycling and energy
efficiency, but we have also seen initiatives and things like
fish passage and other matters.
Mr. Keppen and Mr. Whitworth, can you talk about some of
the challenges you hear from the water sector in deploying
water technology and how tapping into resources like at the
Department of Energy might be able to help?
Let's go to Mr. Keppen first.
Mr. Keppen. Sure, thanks.
Well, there's lots of opportunities in the West, I think
for example, to utilize tainted waters that are brackish or
salty and apply some of this new treatment technology to make
that water useable, if not drinkable. In some areas in the
Rocky Mountain West there's potential to use the produced
waters that are associated with natural gas development. Use
some of this new screening and treatment technology and bring
it up to a point where you can maybe use it to irrigate
pastures instead of reinjecting that water back into the
ground. So it's essentially adding new water to the system. I
think having DOE technology and funding employed in conjunction
with Reclamation could be beneficial.
Senator McSally. Thank you.
Mr. Whitworth. Chairwoman McSally, you know, I think
getting new technologies to market has several ingredients that
we really need to pay attention to and one of those things
includes, you know, the purchase of outcomes or the rewarding
of outcomes by the private sector. And so, I think putting the
dollars that are being spent from the federal level in a
position of purchasing outcomes will actually provide market
forces to draw those technologies in. That's where I would see
quite a bit of synergy between your bill, the Resilience Center
and taking good ideas to market.
I think there are a couple of other things that are, I
would just touch on. You know, the barriers to entry for actors
is real. And so, I think, finding the coordination among
federal agencies to be able to remove those barriers and
accelerate toward outcomes is going to be really welcomed. And
I think that applies not just to the Department of Energy but
across the administrative apparatus. And finally, I think it's
really important to talk about not effort, but outcomes. We do
quite a bit of work with the Bonneville Power Administration
which spends about a $250 million each year on fish and
wildlife mitigation efforts. And despite full generation nearly
of effort, we're not terribly close to recovering any of the
listed species under the Endangered Species Act. And I think
there is a way to get ahead of this and I think it does have to
do with requiring and rewarding outcomes.
Senator McSally. Great, thank you.
Senator Cortez Masto.
Senator Cortez Masto. Chairwoman, I know Senator Ron Wyden
has joined us and he has a bill and has not had a chance to
speak. So I would defer to him and ask my questions after he
has had the opportunity to ask his questions.
Senator McSally. Absolutely.
Senator Wyden.
Senator Wyden. I thank my good friend from Nevada for her
thoughtfulness and both of you for scheduling the hearing.
I have a piece of legislation on the calendar, S. 4189, the
Water for Conservation and Farming Act. What we try to do is
build on existing programs and then provide new tools to
expand, improve and repair water conservation infrastructure,
pipes and sprinklers, and do it with a focus on reducing water
use and improving fish and wildlife habitat and try to make
farming more efficient. Obviously, farmers and ranchers are
very conscientious right now about the resources they use. We
are all Westerners. We know that especially water is the life
blood of the West and right now in Oregon 35 out of 36 counties
are seeing at least some level of drought. And of course, with
climate change causing uncharacteristic weather events, we, as
a country, have to be mindful about using precious resources.
So Senate bill 4189 seeks to address those concerns.
Dan Keppen, why don't we start with you? It is great to
have you here again. You have put enormous sweat equity into
the Basin over the years and we have been through lots of tough
battles together, and we are so grateful for your help on
drafting S. 4189. Several of the bills we are reviewing today
make changes to WaterSMART by expanding program eligibility to
non-profits. There may be some challenges making sure we can
address concerns for farmers and ranchers because we want to
make sure because they are currently eligible for funds. They
are being taken care of. You and I have worked on this
specifically.
Can you talk, for example, about how S. 4189 responds to
your members?
Mr. Keppen. Sure Senator, and thank you for your
leadership. It's been 20 years you and I have been working
together starting in the Klamath Basin.
So right now the WaterSMART program, again, we believe it
works, particularly when you look at what's happening in
Central Oregon, [ . . . ] What your bill does is it says
conservation groups are welcome to apply, but they need to do
it in partnership with a local water entity that has that
authority to deliver water. So they work together and our
experience shows that those sorts of partnerships really lead
to creative solutions with broad community and political
support.
Senator Wyden. Great.
Mr. Keppen. Thank you.
Senator Wyden. Real quickly, and we look forward to working
with you.
Our next Oregonian, Joe Whitworth, with The Freshwater
Trust, has done terrific work all the way through the West,
especially in Oregon. They look at multi-benefit water
conservation projects and it helps farmers, improves habitat
for salmon and wildlife. Joe, can you walk through some of the
provisions of S. 4189 that would help Freshwater Trust ensure
that the water projects that are proceeding on the ground
generate maximum amount of environmental benefits for the least
amount of cost?
Mr. Whitworth. Thank you, Senator. I appreciate the time
and the effort to figure out an integrated way to look at water
management in the West. Certainly we can't do one thing without
the other and for 4189's part, one of the sections of the bill
that we like the most, of course, is Section 204(b) which
establishes a grant program and prioritizes the multi-benefit
projects that hold the design implementation and monitoring of
outcomes of habitat improvements. We think that is an
incredibly good step forward, and we also think that it can be
improved just a little bit to get into more quantified outcomes
simply because we don't want this to become a box-checking
exercise in the same way that some green infrastructure
projects that we've seen with programs like SRF and others have
become. So I think there's--it's a great platform to build upon
and really do appreciate the time and the effort.
Senator Wyden. We will work closely with both of you. I
want to thank Senator Cortez Masto, again, for the favor of
letting me go, and Chair McSally, I very much appreciate the
hearing and look forward to working as we always have in this
Committee in a bipartisan way to address resources issues. I
thank you both.
Senator McSally. Okay.
Senator Cortez Masto.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
Mr. Whitworth, this first question is for you. I want to
discuss the Bureau of Reclamation's WaterSMART program, a
program that stands for Sustain and Manage America's Resources
for Tomorrow. This program was developed to assist local
communities in stretching their limited water resources and
help communities alleviate conflicts over water and expand our
management approaches to promote water conservation and
ecological resiliency.
There are two bills on the agenda today, S. 2718 and S.
4189, which expand this program to include participation from
conservation, non-governmental organizations, or the non-
profits I believe that you talked about, and to fund
groundwater storage and natural infrastructure projects. Now I
understand there's, maybe, disagreements on the impacts of
these proposed changes, but what I want to discuss is the
potential benefits of investing in natural infrastructure
projects.
So Mr. Whitworth, why is it important for that investment
in natural infrastructure projects?
Mr. Whitworth. Thank you, Ranking Member Cortez Masto. I
think that is an excellent question. You know, the way I would
approach that is the natural infrastructure is our first and
best insurance policy in protecting our local economies and
local ecosystems as well as the built infrastructure
investments that we're undertaking. And so, I think that, you
know, as you've heard me say before and as I will probably say
again, you know, the integrated nature of addressing these
problems at the watershed level is really going to be crucial
to determining our success over time. Of course, I mean, at a
basic level we do need to upgrade our delivery systems. We do
need to increase the efficiency at point of use. We also need
to protect and ensure, through the use of natural
infrastructure, that can be, all of the functionality can be
quantified now in a way that we don't have to get into box-
checking game of saying, hey, we built a wetland, or hey, we
added some more water. We can look at those things not for what
they are, but for what they do.
How many tons of sediment do not get into the stream? How
many pounds of phosphorus or nitrogen? How many kilocalories
per day of shading benefit can get into the system and actually
address problems?
So if we can figure out how to coordinate on all of those
pieces and, again, it does come down to the ability to have the
same discussion with common understood accounting across the
agencies as opposed to various interpretations across agencies
that can be litigated, we can actually bring the full weight
and force of the resources that we have to get to the positive
things within the, within a watershed. And that ultimately
comes down to local economy security, food supply security,
ecosystem benefit and water for good. That's really what we are
in pursuit of across all of these bills. A natural
infrastructure is a central component that has been largely
kept separate from the discussion, and we need to integrate it
into the discussion and our decision-making factors.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
Ms. Bettencourt, did you have a comment on that question as
well?
Ms. Bettencourt. You know, we have a lot of opportunity
within the program to collaborate and, I think, talk to that
alignment just in hearing Joe's comments there, and I think
what would be a good example of that is it's something that
we've tried, it's worked, and we're going to continue to work
that. I think there's a lot of opportunity in aligning the
different departments angle on that would be in WaterSMART. The
benefit for agriculture, if they're enrolled in an EQIP program
with NRCS. There's a scoring bump that demonstrates that
benefit that comes across as vice versa. If an EQIP applicant
also is within an area that has a WaterSMART grant, we're
acknowledging and aligning these programs in a way that
hopefully can encourage more of this and I think there's more
to that as we continue to explore it. And we're excited to, I
think, work with the new technologies and development that I'm
hearing out of private sector and especially those on-the-
ground partnerships. We want to make sure we're driving and
meeting our partners in that as well.
So as we are catching up and evolving from the new place
we're standing, we need to make sure that our programs are
evolving and catching up with that as well.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
I know I am running out of time. I will give it back to the
Chairwoman, and we will go in another round. I am assuming we
are going to have other rounds of questions?
Senator McSally. Yes, we are going to have one more round.
Senator Cortez Masto. All right.
Senator McSally. Okay, thank you.
Mr. Keppen, as you mentioned, several of the bills in this
hearing would authorize and amend the WaterSMART program. I
agree this has been a successful program over a decade and,
while I'm open to improvements if appropriate, it is certainly
important that we don't unintentionally discourage good
conservation projects or make the program overly cumbersome.
Ms. Bettencourt, can you discuss the selection of
WaterSMART projects and how Reclamation looks at multi-benefit
projects?
Ms. Bettencourt. Absolutely. I think the selection of
WaterSMART projects starts when we send out the funding notice,
the opportunity for funding. When we're very clear on whatever
the goal of that segment is, how we're scoring it, what the
applicants know up front we're looking for in order to see
applications that have the best chance or best opportunity are
going to be analyzed on the best way that they are hitting
their mark in that funding space for that intended purpose
under WaterSMART.
And so, as you break down through that, those applications
are then, they're evaluated based on those criteria by a panel
of experts and naturally multi-benefit projects score higher.
You know, a good example of that is if we're looking at some of
our grant criteria under the water supply or liability
criteria, it's worth 18 points. You know, the weight of the
points on our multi-benefit projects increases exponentially.
So naturally, those projects, we're looking for them. They're
going to score well. We're trying to be up front with our
applicants so they know that as well.
Senator McSally. Great, thank you.
Mr. Keppen, I want to turn to infrastructure. Several of
the bills before us include mechanisms to fund certain aspects
of water infrastructure. As referenced in your testimony, S.
2044 and S. 1932 have also been considered by this Subcommittee
to address water infrastructure investment. Looking across the
various bills that are out there, what are the most important
aspects of water infrastructure that need attention right now,
what factors are important for us to consider to make sure
federal investments result in programs that actually work out
there?
Mr. Keppen. Well, yes, thank you, Madam Chair.
And you know, as I mentioned in my testimony, our
organization has always been about looking for a suite of
demand management actions and supply enhancement actions. And
so, today a lot of the bills that we've been talking about sort
of focus on demand management types of things, and in recent
decades a lot of the focus in Congress has been on those sorts
of projects. We strongly believe that, you know, equal or even
greater emphasis must be placed on fixing our aging storage and
conveyance facilities and building new storage and conveyance
facilities.
There's a need for additional federal funding for loans
from the Bureau of Reclamation under P.L. 111-11 authorities to
our member irrigation districts. These local entities have huge
and immediate repair and rehabilitation needs on their
federally-owned canals, for example, and water delivery
structures. We worked with our members here in the last few
months and developed a list of over 200 projects that we could
probably start working on immediately and, if they only had
some funding opportunities. So I think the direct funding of
long-term repayment provisions provided by P.L. 111-11 and
amplified in your bill, S. 2044, provides a good approach to
allow Reclamation to work with local operators to get that work
done on the ground.
We also need new funding to kick-start new water storage,
water recycling and reuse, desal projects that are currently
being studied or that are ready for construction through the
WIIN Act and other authorities. And programs that fund water
conservation--fish passage, habitat restoration--all these are
in support of water project operations in Reclamation states
are needed. We need additional funding to accelerate the
construction of these ready-to-go infrastructure projects as
well.
So again, I strongly feel and our organization feels that
S. 1932, a bipartisan extension of the WIIN Act, and your S.
2044 are key packages that need to be wrapped in to any sort of
legislative package that goes through this Committee.
Senator McSally. Great, thank you. I appreciate it.
Senator Cortez Masto.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
Mr. Whitworth and Mr. Keppen, Western rivers provide
important benefits to rural communities, the West's recreation
economy, and fish and wildlife habitat. Our rivers and aquifers
also provide critical water supplies for cities, irrigated
farmland and tribes. In the Colorado River Basin, more than 40
million people in seven states rely on this river and for its
water. In the Basin, these waters irrigate over five million
acres of ranch and farmland that provide food across the
country. Many reservoirs in the Colorado River Basin are at
historic lows. Lake Mead is one of them, in Nevada, and we are
in a 19-year drought and it is growing. Diminished stream flows
now pose serious challenges for cities, farms, wildlife,
recreation.
So let me ask both of you, what else should we be thinking
about here in Congress to ensure water supplies are resilient
to drought and the impacts of climate change?
Mr. Whitworth. Ranking Member Cortez Masto, I might take a
first cut at that one.
Senator Cortez Masto. Okay.
Mr. Whitworth. I think, as I noted earlier on in my
testimony, you know, natural infrastructure is really the
underlying insurance policy here. We have within the Western
United States and certainly within the Colorado Basin, we have
freshwater ecosystems whose functionality has been drastically
changed over time for several reasons. But where we're at right
now is we have to understand that in every case, in every
instance here, what we're talking about is, you know, capturing
water that falls from the sky, storing it and then releasing it
later. And we, of course, can do that by mechanical and built
means, but it turns out that nature can do that on a fairly
understandable schedule.
And so, there it's not just a simple matter of doing one
more storage project or 1,000 more storage projects. We have to
do these things in conjunction with natural infrastructure
storage that happens in places like wet meadows, in flood
plains and, you know, working with irrigators to upgrade their
works to essentially, you know, save some of the water that
they could be spending while actually making a little more
money. We can do that in a much more targeted way if we take
the time to engage the actionable insights that are afforded to
us now, you know, with 13,000 satellites that circle the Earth
every 90 minutes. So I think figuring out where to go and do
those things on a specific basis with specific outcomes will
enable us to fill up those reservoirs and deliver better and
more reliable water over time in the face of climate change.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you. Anyone else?
Mr. Keppen. Sure.
Senator Cortez Masto. Sure.
Mr. Keppen. Ranking Member, I, first of all, Colorado River
Basin is something that our organization spends a lot of time
on. We've got members in all states of the Colorado River Basin
and so it's, we've got lots of views on what's happening there,
even sometimes within the same state, sometimes even within the
same watershed.
But to get to your question about, you know, what could
Congress do to, sort of, address water supplies and impacts of
climate change? We were actually one of the first organizations
that put together a climate change report back in 2007 and it
wasn't a pleasant experience, let me tell you, because there
was some resistance met with some of our membership. But we did
that and our report includes lots of recommendations that go to
the questions that you're asking. But relative to what I
testified on today, one of those things is we need to modernize
our infrastructure so we can capture water. And one of the
things that we're seeing throughout the West, just anecdotally,
is the snowpack is melting faster and it's coming off earlier
in larger quantities and we're having longer growing seasons.
So again, if we can make sure that our infrastructure can
properly capture that water and have flexibility to move it
around, that's one way of mitigating some of the climate change
impacts that are happening to our Western watersheds.
We're also working with a group called Solutions from the
Land and the North American Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance
to advance these and sort of other ideas that are out there to
the international climate discussions that are going on right
now.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
I just have one more question on a separate subject--this
is on S. 3811. Ms. Bettencourt, in your testimony on S. 3811
you cited certain concerns regarding funding commitments to
existing infrastructure. Can you describe what you mean by
that?
Ms. Bettencourt. I think you're referencing, Senator, a
question that it prompts quite well which is looking at, kind
of, the traditional mechanisms by which Reclamation finances a
lot of its infrastructure projects, similar to the ones that
were outlined in the bill. If you're thinking about the
beneficiary pays concept that's embodied very well in the WIIN
Act as well as our repayment contract concepts. But I think
what's important to focus on with 3811 is the projects named
and the increased emphasis on investment in our conveyance
projects and our aging infrastructure is absolutely a priority
that matches ours. So it's one of those things where we'd like
to spend more time working with the bill's author to try to
bring some of these things into alignment, because I don't want
to lose the forest for the trees here. This is a priority for
us. These projects are a priority for us. We want to make sure
this works out well, so we need the intent.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
Ms. Bettencourt. Thank you.
Senator McSally. Well, I want to thank all of our witnesses
for your testimony on our bills.
Questions may be submitted for the record before the close
of business on Thursday, and the record will remain open for
two weeks.
With that, thank you again and the hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 3:42 p.m. the hearing was adjourned.]
APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED
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