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Volume 8, No. 18
August 31, 1984 �1 ATER LINE.
National Water Resources Association 955 L'Enfant Plaza, North Bldg., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20024 (202)488-0610
***By the time you receive this issue of National Water Line, Congress
will be returning to Washington for a final five week session before the fall
elections . If present plans are adhered to, Congress will adjourn sine die on
October 4. That does not leave much time for a session that is certain to be
highlighted by a great deal of political sniping.
The reclamation states have much at stake in the bob-tailed session. Some
of the items deserving our attention are:
• September 20th is the day for a subcommittee hearing on S 1981 , the
bill to increase the authorization for the Small Reclamation Projects Act by
$600 million. A similar bill (HR 4444 ) is pending before the House Rules
Comm. This will be a tight squeeze. NWRA has been urging both houses to move
on this legislation, so we will do well to get letters , telephone calls and
telegrams flowing to Sens James McClure and Don Nickles and Reps Morris Udall
and Abraham Kazen to get this legislation passed this year.
• Legislation to create a new board to take the place of the old Water
Resources Council . These provisions are in the pending public works
authorization bills. Under the Senate bill, S 1739, the board would be known
as a National Board of Water Policy and would include the Secretaries of the
Army, Interior, and Agriculture and the Administrator of the EPA and a
chairman appointed by the President. The Senate bill provides that the Board
would be an " agency" as defined under the Sunshine Act and would be required
to hold its meetings in public.
In the House bill , HR 3678 , the Board would be known as the National
Board on Water Resources Policy. Its membership would be the same as in the
Senate bill except that it would include two members appointed by the
President form among nominees recommended by the Speaker of the House and the
President pro tempore of the Senate . Both bills also provide for the
appointment of an advisory committee to represent state and/or regional
interests .
Both bills would also reimpose the old principles , procedures and
standards promulgated by the Water Resources Council and replaced by the
Reagan administration with a set of "principles and guidelines . " The
principles and standards would remain in effect until the new Board had
promulgated new ones . (The National Wildlife Federation has filed suit
challenging the "repeal" of the principles and standards . ) The public works
bill has passed the House, but the Senate has not yet acted . Sen Malcolm
Wallop, in a letter to NWRA for its midsummer meeting in Jackson, Wyoming,
came out strongly against the national board and the mandate that binding
principles and standards be adopted.
"Under the Carter administration, we had binding principles and standards
for planning under the now defunct Water Resources Council , " Senator Wallop
wrote. "These binding rules buried more than 50 western water projects due to
unnecessary delay. The National Water Policy Board is modeled after the Water
Resources Council with one important distinction. It would be established as
an independent federal agency in government, funded at $5 million annually.
It would also have the power to make national water policy under the federal
rulemaking process . We need greater flexibility where water projects are
concerned, not centralized federalism. "
On the other hand, the Western States Water Council, at its recent
meeting in Idaho Falls, was unable to find consensus on the water policy board
proposal . Its water resources committee was unable to budge from the
council ' s 1981 position saying only that the whole question of the WRC role
should be examined. Some at the WSWC meeting were willing not to do anything
in support of the water policy board but did not want to do anything to oppose
it; others were willing not to do anything to oppose it but did not want to
support it.
**We were in error in NWL two weeks ago when we reported that provision
for the National Groundwater Commission is included in the pending Clean Water
Act amendments . The National Groundwater Commission is in the 1984 amendments
to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which have passed bot the
House and Senate and will be the subject of a House-Senate conference shortly
after Labor Day. The National Groundwater Commission provisions are in the
House version of the bill, but not the Senate ' s.
1984 CONVENTION, HYA' IOENIX, ARIZONA, NOVEMBER 11-15
841164 l I <,.
._ - - - ,__ _ __._.-__ :__ _.. _ :_ie L.v c.. usSLon was or:g:_na____y Introduced by Rep
Robert Edgar (PA) . A spokesman for Edgar said the commission would consist of
19 members , six of whom would be appointed by the Speaker of the House and
four by the majority leader of the Senate. Eight persons would be appointed
by the President from among lists submitted by the National Governors
Association, the National League of Cities and other organizations . The
director of the Office of Technology Assessment-an arm of the US
Congress-would also be a member.
The commission would be charged with making a wide ranging analysis of a
variety of groundwater problems and would have to submit its report by October
30 , 1985 , and go out of existence on January 1 , 1986 . A $7 million
appropriation would be authorized to fund the commission.
There is no provision for a groundwater commission in the Senate version
of the bill, so this is one of the issues which will be dealt with by the
conference.
***Early replies indicate there will be a good turnout for the October
4-5 meeting in San Francisco to discuss the Reclamation Reform Act and the
regulations to implement it. Asst Sec Robert Broadbent, Acting Commissioner
Bob Olson, Depty Asst Sec Hal Furman and Rich Atwater , Dir of Policy and
Management will be there to discuss and hopefully resolve any problems with
RRA. If you plan to attend and have not yet registered, please do so ASAP !
Registration fee is $75 per individual. For any additional information please
call Litsa at 202/488-0610 . The Sheraton Inn-San Fran Airport has set aside a
bloc of rooms which may be reserved by calling 415/342-9200 or 800/325-3535 .
Be sure to identify yourself as attending the NWRA meeting for special rates.
Note: It is important that persons participating in the meeting do some
homework before they get there, particularly by way of preparing a check list
of problems that have arisen and how they should be resolved. Effective use
cannot be made of the time if participants go into the meeting unprepared, and
we must have a good meeting among the water users on the first day if the time
with the Dept of Interior officials on the second day is to be productive!
***Former Louisiana Governor David Treen, Chairman of the special 12
member commission to reexamine plans for the Garrison Diversion Unit in North
Dakota, called the first meeting of the commission for August 30 in Wash-
ington, DC. He has announced the first public hearings of the commission will
be held in Bismarck, ND on September 10-11 , 1984. During that first trip to
ND , the Commission will also inspect some of the facilities of the Garrison
Project.
***A consortium of environmentalists and industry-labor organizations has
signed a letter to members of the Senate urging action on S 431 , the
amendments to the Clean Water Act . Groups signing the letter include the
National Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club, the Izaak Walton League of
America , the Environmental Policy Institute, the Clean Water Action Project,
the National Utility Contractors Association and the National Environmental
Develoment Association ' s Clean Water Act Project . NEDA includes such
organizations as the building and construction trades department of the
AFL-CIO, Anheuser-Busch , Chevron, Exxon, the Florida Fruit and Vegetable
Association, General Mills, Tenneco and Campbell Soup.
The House version of the bill, HR 3282 , passed the House on June 26 by a
vote of 405-11 . The House bill has a section in it requiring each state to
devise plans for the control of non-point source pollution (of which agri-
culture is the most pervasive cause. ) The Senate bill had provisions in it
for control of non-point source pollution, but they were considerably modified
as a result of the efforts of Sens Symms ( ID) , Abdnor (SD) , Bentsen , (TX) and
Simpson (WY) .
***WELCOME ABOARD ! On behalf of the Board of Directors and the NWRA
membership, we would like to welcome Pennzoil Company of Houston, Texas . Paul
Kruse , their Washington, DC representative enrolled Pennzoil Company because
of their interest in energy and water resources . We also would like to
welcome Morrison-Knudsen Co, Inc of Boise, Idaho. Bob Bruce, Manager-Business
Development enlisted the company because of their interest in dam safety
engineering and construction. We look forward to working with our newest
members and we encourage them to participate in our activities.
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