[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8302-8304]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               CENTRAL OREGON JOBS AND WATER SECURITY ACT

  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules 
and pass the bill (H.R. 2060) to amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act 
to adjust the Crooked River boundary, to provide water certainty for 
the City of Prineville, Oregon, and for other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 2060

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Central Oregon Jobs and 
     Water Security Act''.

     SEC. 2. WILD AND SCENIC RIVER; CROOKED, OREGON.

       Section 3(a)(72) of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (16 
     U.S.C. 1274(a)(72)) is amended as follows:
       (1) By striking ``15-mile'' and inserting ``14.75-mile''.
       (2) In subparagraph (B)--
       (A) by striking ``8-mile'' and all that follows through 
     ``Bowman Dam'' and inserting ``7.75-mile segment from a point 
     one-quarter mile downstream from the toe of Bowman Dam''; and
       (B) by adding at the end the following: ``The developer for 
     any hydropower development, including turbines and 
     appurtenant facilities, at Bowman Dam, in consultation with 
     the Bureau of Land Management, shall analyze any impacts to 
     the Outstandingly Remarkable Values

[[Page 8303]]

     of the Wild and Scenic River that may be caused by such 
     development, including the future need to undertake routine 
     and emergency repairs, and shall propose mitigation for any 
     impacts as part of any license application submitted to the 
     Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.''.

     SEC. 3. CITY OF PRINEVILLE WATER SUPPLY.

       Section 4 of the Act of August 6, 1956 (70 Stat. 1058), (as 
     amended by the Acts of September 14, 1959 (73 Stat. 554), and 
     September 18, 1964 (78 Stat. 954)) is further amended as 
     follows:
       (1) By striking ``ten cubic feet'' the first place it 
     appears and inserting ``17 cubic feet''.
       (2) By striking ``during those months when there is no 
     other discharge therefrom, but this release may be reduced 
     for brief temporary periods by the Secretary whenever he may 
     find that release of the full ten cubic feet per second is 
     harmful to the primary purpose of the project''.
       (3) By adding at the end the following: ``Without further 
     action by the Secretary, and as determined necessary for any 
     given year by the City of Prineville, up to seven of the 17 
     cubic feet per second minimum release shall also serve as 
     mitigation for City of Prineville groundwater pumping, 
     pursuant to and in a manner consistent with Oregon State law, 
     including any shaping of the release of the up to seven cubic 
     feet per second to coincide with City of Prineville 
     groundwater pumping as may be required by the State of 
     Oregon. As such, the Secretary is authorized to make 
     applications to the State of Oregon in conjunction with the 
     City to protect these supplies instream. The City shall make 
     payment to the Secretary for that portion of the minimum 
     release that actually serves as mitigation pursuant to Oregon 
     State law for the City in any given year, with the payment 
     for any given year equal to the amount of mitigation in acre 
     feet required to offset actual City groundwater pumping for 
     that year in accordance with Reclamation `Water and Related 
     Contract and Repayment Principles and Requirements', 
     Reclamation Manual Directives and Standards PEC 05-01, dated 
     09/12/2006, and guided by `Economic and Environmental 
     Principles and Guidelines for Water and Related Land 
     Resources Implementation Studies', dated March 10, 1983. The 
     Secretary is authorized to contract exclusively with the City 
     for additional amounts in the future at the request of the 
     City.''.

     SEC. 4. FIRST FILL PROTECTION.

       The Act of August 6, 1956 (70 Stat. 1058), as amended by 
     the Acts of September 14, 1959 (73 Stat. 554), and September 
     18, 1964 (78 Stat. 954), is further amended by adding at the 
     end the following:
       ``Sec. 6.  Other than the 17 cubic feet per second release 
     provided for in section 4, and subject to compliance with the 
     Army Corps of Engineers' flood curve requirements, the 
     Secretary shall, on a `first fill' priority basis, store in 
     and release from Prineville Reservoir, whether from 
     carryover, infill, or a combination thereof, the following:
       ``(1) 68,273 acre feet of water annually to fulfill all 16 
     Bureau of Reclamation contracts existing as of January 1, 
     2011, and up to 2,740 acre feet of water annually to supply 
     the McKay Creek lands as provided for in section 5 of this 
     Act.
       ``(2) Not more than 10,000 acre feet of water annually, to 
     be made available to the North Unit Irrigation District 
     pursuant to a Temporary Water Service Contract, upon the 
     request of the North Unit Irrigation District, consistent 
     with the same terms and conditions as prior such contracts 
     between the District and the Bureau of Reclamation.
       ``Sec. 7.  Except as otherwise provided in this Act, 
     nothing in this Act--
       ``(1) modifies contractual rights that may exist between 
     contractors and the United States under Reclamation 
     contracts;
       ``(2) amends or reopens contracts referred to in paragraph 
     (1); or
       ``(3) modifies any rights, obligations, or requirements 
     that may be provided or governed by Oregon State law.''.

     SEC. 5. OCHOCO IRRIGATION DISTRICT.

       (a) Early Repayment.--Notwithstanding section 213 of the 
     Reclamation Reform Act of 1982 (43 U.S.C. 390mm), any 
     landowner within Ochoco Irrigation District in Oregon, may 
     repay, at any time, the construction costs of the project 
     facilities allocated to that landowner's lands within the 
     district. Upon discharge, in full, of the obligation for 
     repayment of the construction costs allocated to all lands 
     the landowner owns in the district, those lands shall not be 
     subject to the ownership and full-cost pricing limitations of 
     the Act of June 17, 1902 (43 U.S.C. 371 et seq.), and Acts 
     supplemental to and amendatory of that Act, including the 
     Reclamation Reform Act of 1982 (43 U.S.C. 390aa et seq.).
       (b) Certification.--Upon the request of a landowner who has 
     repaid, in full, the construction costs of the project 
     facilities allocated to that landowner's lands owned within 
     the district, the Secretary of the Interior shall provide the 
     certification provided for in subsection (b)(1) of section 
     213 of the Reclamation Reform Act of 1982 (43 U.S.C. 
     390mm(b)(1)).
       (c) Contract Amendment.--On approval of the district 
     directors and notwithstanding project authorizing legislation 
     to the contrary, the district's reclamation contracts are 
     modified, without further action by the Secretary of the 
     Interior, to--
       (1) authorize the use of water for instream purposes, 
     including fish or wildlife purposes, in order for the 
     district to engage in, or take advantage of, conserved water 
     projects and temporary instream leasing as authorized by 
     Oregon State law;
       (2) include within the district boundary approximately 
     2,742 acres in the vicinity of McKay Creek, resulting in a 
     total of approximately 44,937 acres within the district 
     boundary;
       (3) classify as irrigable approximately 685 acres within 
     the approximately 2,742 acres of included lands in the 
     vicinity of McKay Creek, where the approximately 685 acres 
     are authorized to receive irrigation water pursuant to water 
     rights issued by the State of Oregon and have in the past 
     received water pursuant to such State water rights; and
       (4) provide the district with stored water from Prineville 
     Reservoir for purposes of supplying up to the approximately 
     685 acres of lands added within the district boundary and 
     classified as irrigable under paragraphs (2) and (3), with 
     such stored water to be supplied on an acre-per-acre basis 
     contingent on the transfer of existing appurtenant McKay 
     Creek water rights to instream use and the State's issuance 
     of water rights for the use of stored water.
       (d) Limitation.--Except as otherwise provided in 
     subsections (a) and (c), nothing in this section shall be 
     construed to--
       (1) modify contractual rights that may exist between the 
     district and the United States under the district's 
     Reclamation contracts;
       (2) amend or reopen the contracts referred to in paragraph 
     (1); or
       (3) modify any rights, obligations or relationships that 
     may exist between the district and its landowners as may be 
     provided or governed by Oregon State law.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. Hastings) and the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Grijalva) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Washington.


                             General Leave

  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Washington?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2060, sponsored by our colleague from Oregon (Mr. 
Walden), is an important step towards restoring water and power 
abundance and jobs to a rural area that has been devastated by Federal 
logging restrictions.
  This bill is a reflection of years of negotiation. Its supporters 
include those who would normally be water adversaries in most parts of 
the West. Municipalities, irrigators, the Warm Spring Tribes utilities, 
organized labor, and environmental organizations have come together to 
support this legislation.
  I commend my colleague from Oregon for working hard to bring these 
many parties together, and I urge adoption of this commonsense 
legislation.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GRIJALVA. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2060, as my colleague described, does several 
things, including providing water and economic certainty to the city of 
Prineville and the Ochoco Irrigation District. It does so in a way, 
however, that provides certainty for the city and agriculture, but not 
the future needs of the environment.
  The legislation also mandates how Reclamation is to operate and 
manage the Prineville Reservoir through the first-fill provision and 
removes some flexibility on Reclamation's part to mitigate and adapt to 
changing conditions.
  We still do not fully support the first-fill provision but understand 
that there are ongoing negotiations that look at providing the 
certainty that the city needs while protecting the environment. 
Stakeholder-driven processes are the best way to answer our community's 
needs, and we look forward to working with our colleagues in the Senate 
and on the other side of the aisle to ensure that all needs are met and 
protected.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he 
may consume to the author of this legislation, the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Walden).
  Mr. WALDEN. Thank you, Chairman Hastings and Ranking Member Grijalva, 
for your support for the commonsense Central Oregon Jobs and Water 
Security Act.

[[Page 8304]]

  This bill we have before us today will create jobs in central Oregon, 
remove government red tape. It will protect family farmers and improve 
both water flows and quality of water for fish and for wildlife, all 
without costing taxpayers one cent. We made it completely cost-neutral.
  Now the city of Prineville is the county seat of Crook County. It's 
located in the heart of Oregon's central Oregon, and it's along the 
Crooked River. Crook County was among the hardest hit in the economic 
downturn that we have all suffered, where unemployment even today--even 
today--is at over 14 percent, one of the highest rates, if not the 
highest, in the State of Oregon.
  Nonetheless, jobs and economic growth are on the rise in Crook 
County. Facebook recently built their first custom data center in 
Prineville and is currently expanding that project. Apple recently 
announced that it is going to build a data center there and has 
actually already begun construction.
  Chairman Hastings knows well how important the technology sector can 
be to rural communities. Prineville is on the verge of becoming another 
Quincy, Washington, which is home to Yahoo, Microsoft, Dell, and 
others.
  To pursue new economic development, however, Prineville needs more 
water. Roughly 20 miles upriver from Prineville sits Bowman Dam and 
Prineville Reservoir, a Bureau of Reclamation project, which holds 
80,000 acre feet of uncontracted water, 80,000 acre feet that is just 
sitting there uncontracted.
  This bill would allow Prineville to access roughly 6 percent of that 
water, or 5,100 acre feet, and the city would pay a fair market value 
for the water. That extra water would allow the city to tell 
prospective companies, hey, you can bring your business and jobs to 
Prineville. We now have the water that you need. That's certainty in 
the job market.
  It would also allow the city to provide water to an additional 500 
homes within the city limits, which currently the city of Prineville 
can't do because it has maxed out its mitigation credits. You're 
talking about 500 homes inside the city limits that don't have access 
to city water that this bill now will allow them to have access to.
  Because the city would access the water through the ground and not 
from directly behind the dam, that extra allocation of water would 
increase the minimum release of water from Bowman Dam by up to 7 cubic 
feet per second. Now, that's a lot.

                              {time}  1710

  In dry years, particularly in the winter, this higher release 
requirement could benefit fish and wildlife, including the blue-ribbon 
trout fishery below Bowman Dam.
  This legislation also fixes a BLM error regarding the exact location 
of the Crooked River wild and scenic boundary line. Currently, the 
wildlife and scenic line runs directly over the crest of Bowman Dam. 
Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Grijalva, let me assure there's nothing 
wild or scenic about the top of a dam unless you're falling over the 
edge of it. This is a picture of where that is. If you follow the 
center line of this road, that's where the current law says the wild 
and scenic boundary starts. We move it downriver, where it really 
belongs.
  As a result, we create another economic opportunity for the region--
development of small-scale renewable hydropower that would create 
roughly 50 construction jobs over the course of 2 years. This dam 
doesn't have hydro on it today. Adding the hydro actually improves the 
release of the water, making it better for the fish, and it creates new 
hydroenergy and construction jobs. My legislation also protects the 
Ochoco Irrigation District farmers and assures they will continue to 
operate their family-run farms for generations to come.
  Finally, this bill expedites the McKay Creek project, which will 
result in increased water flows for redband trout and summer steelhead. 
This project has long been supported by the Warm Springs Tribe and the 
Deschutes River Conservancy. So I want to thank and commend the Warm 
Springs tribal leaders and tribal members for their hard work and 
working in partnership with me on this legislation. Their collaborative 
approach has really made a difference in issues in the Deschutes Basin, 
and we appreciate the partnership and leadership that the tribal 
leaders have shown.
  This is a good, commonsense, job-creating bill. It's a culmination of 
years of collaboration between the City of Prineville, Crook County, 
farmers, the Warm Springs Tribes, and the Deschutes River Conservancy.
  I want to thank Mayor Roppe and County Judge McCabe for their 
leadership in working through this process. Mayor Roppe has testified 
before the House Natural Resources Committee and has done an excellent 
job advocating for the City of Prineville. Judge McCabe has worked 
tirelessly on these issues to attract tech companies like Facebook and 
Apple to Crook County. Hopefully, with positive steps like the passage 
of this legislation, more companies will soon bring their jobs to 
Prineville and central Oregon.
  So I appreciate the assistance of Ranking Member Ed Markey, along 
with Ranking Member Grace Napolitano and, of course, Mr. Grijalva, as 
well as Chairman Hastings. Thank you again for your help in moving 
forward on the Central Oregon Jobs and Water Security Act. I look 
forward to this legislation finally becoming law.
  Mr. GRIJALVA. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests 
for time, so if the gentleman is prepared to yield back.
  Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as 
I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, in many respects, this bill epitomizes the problems that 
those of us have in the West. This is a simple boundary change to 
something that was designated here on the Federal level. It has taken a 
great deal of time, and the impacts will be great for the economy in 
that area.
  As I mentioned in my opening remarks, this has broad support from all 
of the local groups and local environmental groups, as the gentleman 
from Oregon said. Sadly, the frustration that we continue to have when 
we're trying to move legislation like this to help the local job 
economy in these areas is that you have national groups that don't live 
in those areas opposing it. And that's what frustrates us, because when 
you get people, especially on the local level, that support this, it's 
frustrating when have you a national group that says, Just because 
we're dealing with national land, we want to have a say in all of this. 
A big sense of frustration for us.
  So I commend my friend from Oregon for moving this legislation, and I 
urge my colleagues to support it.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2060, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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