The old saying whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting, seemed to hold true in a U.S. House committee meeting on proposed federal water-use regulations Tuesday.
Several lawmakers voiced concern that the regulations on water use under the Obama administration seem to keep adding up. A hearing by the House Committee on Natural Resources focused on several proposed water regulations and rules, including the March proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers defining the waters of the United States, the U.S. Forest Service’s Groundwater Directive and pending rules on ski-area water rights.
“We’re dying here. We are drowning under reams and reams of federal legislation,” said Randy Parker, the chief executive officer with the Utah Farm Bureau during testimony.
The EPA’s draft rules are meant to clarify protections for bodies of water under the Clean Water Act, though lawmakers argue the overbroad language could lead to federal regulations on ponds, puddles and drainage ditches.
Not everyone at the hearing was against the measure. Andrew Lemley, a government-affairs representative for New Belgium Brewing Co. in Fort Collins said her company supports the EPA’s rules, “Because, after all, beer is 90 percent water.” Lemley said the rules would restore “clear national protections against unregulated pollution” in the nation’s streams and rivers.
During the hearing, Rep. Scott Tipton, R- Cortez, asked Lawrence Martin of the National Water Resources Association how the Forest Service Groundwater Directive might affect state groundwater laws.
“It’s going to have an adverse effect because now the states have to determine how the Forest Service rules and directives apply to state groundwater rights,” Martin said.
Tipton renewed calls on the Senate to pass the Water Rights Protection Act that he sponsored and passed through the House in March.
The bills sprang from a 2011 proposed rule that would allow the U.S. Forest Service to require ski areas to transfer water rights to the federal government in exchange for the renewal of water-use permits on public lands.
The Forest Service said that transferring the water rights to the federal government would keep the water tied to the land, so that the landowners couldn’t sell the water rights. While the Forest Service has since amended the rule, Sen. Tipton’s legislation has become about more than just ski resorts.
“This is straight forward. You either want to protect the private-property rights of water in Colorado and protect our state law, or you don’t,” Tipton said.
For businesses, the issue boils down to predictability according to Gary Derck, CEO of Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort.
“Certainty is very important to business, but these rules create uncertainty,” Derck said. “If you secure water rights in Colorado, they are private property rights like owning land, so you might think you own those water rights, but the agency can come in and say, ‘Oh no you don’t.”
mbowerman@durangoherald.com. Mary Bowerman is a graduate student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald.
To comment
Public-comment periods are open for the waters of the United States rule, the groundwater directive and water rights in ski areas. Visit http://www.regulations.gov/#!home to comment.
