Members warn new Directive will restrict Americans’ access to public lands and interfere with state and private water rights.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
–Today, Senate Western Caucus Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY), Congressional
Western Caucus co-chairs Stevan Pearce (R-NM) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) as
well as House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) and
House Water and Power Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (R-CA), joined
38 other lawmakers in sending a letter
to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warning that the U.S. Forest
Service’s recently proposed Groundwater Resource Management Directive
(Directive) will restrict access to public lands and interfere with state
and private water rights.
The Directive
would initiate the Forest Service’s authority over state-managed
groundwater resources claiming that surface water and groundwater is
“hydraulically interconnected” and that the agency could object to
state-regulated projects on “adjacent” land that purportedly harm
groundwater.
In their letter,
the lawmakers warn that this Directive, which was proposed without state
or local input, will encourage litigation, restrict Americans’ access to
our public lands and potentially interfere with adjacent state, local and
private land and water rights.
“Like other
proposals stemming from this Administration, including the Forest Service
Planning Rule, the Interim Directive on Ski Area Special Use Permits, the
Blueways Secretarial Order and the proposed Clean Water Act Jurisdictional
rule, this Directive seeks to further federalize water resources at the
expense of state authority. This sweeping proposal additionally
seeks to impose water use restrictions and deny agricultural,
recreational, and other economic activity in 155 National Forests and
their adjacent state, local and private neighbors in 40 states. The
end result could be lost jobs and reduced recreational access to public
lands, with little or no environmental benefit,” Caucus
Members wrote.
In addition to
Barrasso, Pearce, Lummis, Hastings and McClintock, the letter was signed
by Senators Mike Enzi (R-WY), John Cornyn (R-TX), John Thune (R-SD), James
Risch (R-ID), David Vitter (R-LA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Mike Lee (R-UT),
Dean Heller (R-NV), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Jerry Moran
(R-KS), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Representatives Trent Franks (R-AZ),
Mark Amodei (R-NV), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Walter Jones
(R-NC), Don Young (R-AK), Rob Bishop (R-UT), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), David
Schweikert (R-AZ), Scott Tipton (R-CO), Chris Stewart (R-UT), Mike Coffman
(R-CO), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Paul Broun (R-GA), Jason Smith
(R-MO), Mike Simpson (R-ID), Lamar Smith (R-TX), Glenn Thompson (R-PA),
Eric Crawford (R-AR), Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Steve Daines (R-MT), Cory
Gardner (R-CO), Jeff Denham (R-CA), Raul Labrador (R-ID), Billy Long
(R-MO) and Adrian Smith (R-NE).
The
Honorable Tom Vilsack
Secretary
U.S.
Department of Agriculture
1400
Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, DC
20250
Dear
Secretary Vilsack:
We are troubled by the U.S.
Forest Service’s recently proposed Groundwater Resource Management
Directive (Directive) to manage water resources purportedly
impacting National Forest System (NFS) lands.
Like other proposals stemming
from this Administration, including the Forest Service Planning
Rule, the Interim Directive on Ski Area Special Use Permits, the
Blueways Secretarial Order and the proposed Clean Water Act
Jurisdictional rule, this Directive seeks to further federalize
water resources at the expense of state authority. This
sweeping proposal additionally seeks to impose water use
restrictions and deny agricultural, recreational, and other economic
activity in 155 National Forests and their adjacent state, local and
private neighbors in 40 states. The end result could be lost
jobs and reduced recreational access to public lands, with little or
no environmental benefit.
The Directive specifically seeks to “[m]anage surface water and
groundwater resources as hydraulically interconnected,”[1] laying the groundwork for
unilateral, federally-imposed mandates on the exercise of
state-endowed water rights. The Directive further requires
Forest Service cooperation with the Environmental Protection
Agency[2] and an
evaluation of “applications for water rights on adjacent land that
could adversely affect NFS groundwater resources and identify any
potential injury to those resources.”[3] In addition, the
Directive appears to expand or modify permit requirements relating
to climate change that could impact water users adjacent to NFS
groundwater resources.[4] These and other
provisions would impose a chilling effect on existing and future
water resource development and the uses dependent on that
development not only within NFS lands but outside these lands.
We are further concerned that
this Directive will lead to regulations that undermine the Forest
Service’s statutory multiple-use responsibilities for managing the
nation’s national forests and grasslands. The proposed
Directive could also encourage litigation and impose de facto
federal buffer zones on water users and job creators adjacent to NFS
lands. In addition, this action has been pursued without the
initial and necessary input from impacted states, farmers,
recreationists and ranchers and many others who would be directly
impacted by this Directive.
This proposal has reinforced
our belief that the Forest Service is continuing its action to
override state water laws. We therefore urge you to withdraw
this ill-timed and punitive Directive.
2
Id, p. 9.
3
Id, p. 17.
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