Congressman Scott Tipton (R-CO) stressed the importance of surface water storage in Colorado and other Western states today during a Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power hearing entitled, A Roadmap for Increasing our Water and Hydropower Supplies: The Need for New and Expanded Multi-Purpose Surface Storage Facilities. The purpose of today’s hearing was to examine the multi-track, often conflicting and outdated regulatory framework that creates process-related hurdles inhibiting water storage projects from moving forward and making them unviable for private investment.
Tipton noted that the natural cycle of rivers in the West is one of boom and bust, surplus and drought, and underscored the importance of a stable water supply for western economies, environmental protection efforts, flood mitigation, jobs and food security. The uncertainties of annual water availability (such is the case in Colorado during low snowpack years) can imperil communities which are hindered by a cumbersome and outdated regulatory framework that impedes the ability to store water for vital purposes.
“Water is one of the most important natural resources in Colorado and a main driver of economic growth,” said Tipton. “Prudent supply management and the ability to store much needed water will allow communities to support jobs that depend on the availability of water, protect food security, control flooding, ensure continued recreational opportunities, provide water for the development of hydropower, and meet environmental protection needs.”
With the exception of the Animas-La Plata project in Southwestern Colorado, the Bureau of Reclamation has not built any large multi-purpose dams or reservoirs over the last generation.
“Without the ability to store water that falls on Colorado’s slopes, the West as we know it would not exist. The Colorado Water Conservation Board has estimated that by 2050 Colorado will need an additional 1 million acre feet of water to meet projected demands. This figure accounts for water saved through conservation. Water conservation is something all westerners know the importance of but conservation alone is not enough,” said Tipton. “New water storage will play a role in meeting future demands. Without new water storage and continued conservation we could see as many as 700,000 acres of agriculture land dry up in Colorado by 2050 due to urbanization and urban water transfers. The dry up of this agricultural land has the potential to harm rural economies and the environment.”
In his questioning of Dr. Robert Shibatani, CEO & Principal Hydrologist of the SHIBATANI GROUP, Tipton asked about the various beneficial impacts of increased surface storage for flood mitigation, hydropower development, and other uses, as well as discussed the need to update the outdated and cumbersome regulatory process.
Video of their exchange is available here.
“[Water storage] facilities in my view, can serve as an effective new platform to directly meet the challenges posed by a growing population, refocus attention on retaining a larger portion of a valuable public trust resource for a wide variety of beneficial uses, encourage a broader commitment to improving the nation’s aging water infrastructure, and provide direct climate change adaptation,” said Shibatani in his testimony. “Ensuring water security can provide a vital foundational basis for robust national economic recovery.”[…]
Tipton’s full opening statement is available here.
From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Gary Harmon):
Unnecessary federal regulations are choking off development of needed water projects, U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., said Tuesday.
“The growing West needs new water projects,” Tipton said at a subcommittee hearing addressing water and hydropower supplies.
A headwaters state, Colorado sends some 10 million acre feet of water downstream to other states every year, Tipton said at the hearing of the subcommittee on water and power.
Increasing water storage in the West is critical because of the surplus-drought cycle, Tipton said, calling for streamlining the federal regulatory permitting process.
The state of Colorado estimates that it will need to capture an additional 1 million acre feet of water annually by 2050 to accommodate a growing population, Tipton said.
Anywhere from 500,000 to 700,000 acres of farmland could be dried up by that same year, in transfers to cities, Tipton noted.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has completed only one large, multiple-use impoundment — the Animas-La Plata project near Durango — in a decade.
Additional storage could be used for a variety of purposes, from meeting the demands of growth as well as the goals of protecting the environment and endangered species, Tipton said.
Regulations and lawsuit threats have prevented private investment in reservoir development,
Robert Shibatani, CEO and principal hydrologist of the California-based Shibatani Group, testified at the hearing.
“I know private sector investors who are chomping at the bit” to invest in water projects, Shibatani said. If projects can win approval, Shibatani said, “They’ll sign checks fast.”
The hearing was called to draw attention to what the subcommittee described as “a conflicting and outdated regulatory framework that creates process-related hurdles inhibiting water storage projects from moving forward and making them unviable for private investment.”
More infrastructure coverage here.