ACWA e-News for December 21, 2011

A draft report on quantifying the public benefits of water storage projects is available for public comment.

Titled “Description and Screening of Potential Tools and Methods to Quantify Public Benefits of Water Storage Projects,” the report examines five benefit areas: ecosystem improvement, water quality, flood control, emergency response and recreation.

The Department of Water Resources and the Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional Task Force are releasing alternative water conservation measures to reduce urban demand. The proposed alternative "best management practices" (BMPs) are intended to guide water users in how to operate more efficiently in order to better conserve water.

President Barack Obama today signed legislation providing for the distribution of hydroelectric power from Hoover Dam for the next half-century.

HR 470, the Hoover Dam Power Allocation Act of 2011, reauthorizes Hoover Dam to continue distributing power through 2067, and sets aside 5% of its electricity for use by new entities, including Native American tribes, irrigation districts, electric cooperatives, and other entities that previously lacked access.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club are suing the Bureau of Land Management to prevent gas drilling known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on federal lands. The lawsuit asserts that the bureau leased more than 2,500 acres in Monterey and Fresno counties to oil company representatives without doing a thorough analysis of the potential environmental impacts of fracking.

To cultivate and ensure meaningful public involvement and transparency in the Bay Delta Conservation Planning process, state and federal agencies proposed a number of modifications to the BDCP Memorandum of Agreement today.

The giant omnibus appropriations bill funding the federal government for Fiscal Year 2012 contains a total of $915 billion in discretionary funding for federal agencies. The omnibus bill combines nine Appropriations bills, including: Defense, Energy and Water, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Interior/Environment, Labor/Health and Human Services/Education, the Legislative Branch, Military Construction/Veterans Affairs, and State/Foreign Operations.

EPA’s Science Advisory Board is conducting a study to estimate the value of water to the U.S. economy. At the SAB’s first meeting on December 5, EPA officials implied the study might be used to justify the cost of various regulations currently under consideration. Later in the meeting, SAB members sought clarification from EPA on the scope of the study. EPA officials indicated the study should focus only on the “market” value of water and suggested the SAB take a sector by sector approach to quantifying the value of water. 

The Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, chaired by U.S. Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH), this week held a hearing called, “Integrated Planning and Permitting: Opportunity for EPA to Provide Flexibility” to review EPA’s proposed integrated planning and permitting regulatory prioritization effort under the Clean Water Act. 

The Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife held a hearing on “Our Nation’s Water Infrastructure: Challenges and Opportunities” December 13.  Bipartisan sentiment ran through the hearing, both parties mutually agreed on the witnesses and expressed support for increased funding for water infrastructure. 

On Thursday December 8 the Senate Water and Power subcommittee held a hearing on challenges and opportunities to address domestic and global water supplies. During the hearing, Dr. Peter Gleick, President of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California listed several observations and recommendations for the subcommittee.

A bipartisan group of 25 Senators, 14 Republicans and 11 Democrats, sent a letter last week to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urging floor time for HR 872, Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2011.

Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-22), along with Congressmen Ken Calvert (R-44), Jerry Lewis (R-41), Gary Miller (R-42), Devin Nunes (R-21) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-46), sent a letter on Dec. 5 to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar demanding that the new Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Smelt biological opinion be grounded in the best available science. The existing opinion was recently struck down by a Federal court and ordered to be redone.