Increase water storage and conservation in western states with Brenda Berman and water resource efforts from colorado, idaho and arizona. This is about an hour. The hearing of the Senate EnergyNatural Resources soouks will come to order. I want to apologize for being tardy. Im trying to be in a few places at once. Thanks for your patience. Throughout the rest, water is essential to everything we do. The infrastructure took centuries to build. Without these dams and canals and reclaim water plants the American West would not be the worldwide destination that it is today. It has taken tremendous foresight. They have been great investments. In my home state in arizona, what started as a 10 million federal investment which now contributes 250 billion to the nation. Earlier i toured all 15 counties in arizona. I saw forehand how these Major Investments shaped the state. From hoover dam, salt river praur project, federal investment in these projects is therefore critical. When i visited in january, local water experts including one of our witnesses here today laid out to me how the water districts maintain and manage imperial dam and related infrastructure which supplies water to california and arizonas massive economy. Irrigation projects have unleashed the economy. The return on the investments for our nation is clear. It is our turn to step up and make the next round of investments. We must ensure existing facilities keep running and develop the next generation of products. The bipartisan bills will do just that. My bill s2044, the water supply infrastructure rehabilitation and utilization act which im proud to work side by side to develop will make huge strides in addressing significant needs at the existing bureau. The beneficiaries of the assets are responsible for covering the costs. They do so by building the costs into rates that water users pay throughout the year. As with any large scale Infrastructure Project, Large Capital upgrades are needed from time to time. We call this extraordinary maintenance and its often accompanied with a price tag too high to fold into a single year of rates. Imperial dam has upwards of 50 million in needed renovations. Because the water districts are operators, they dont have access to many traditional financing tools needed to fund these critical repairs. This is something that wade and the team brought to my attention right when i visited you there. That has directly resulted in this legislation. My bill addresses this by setting up an account. It allows operators to repay the cost with interest over a longer period of time. My bill modifies the authority to provide Greater Transparency and control to congress and to stake holders so this authority is utilized. The bill establishes a Pilot Program to modernize operations and increase water storage at existing dams without new construction. It looks at the needs of existing infrastructure, the drought resilience and water supply infrastructure act focuses on the need for new infrastructure. Nearly every basin in the west will require new storage and supply to provide drought resilience in the face of population and economic growth, changing run off regimes. The needs and opportunities for developing new Water Resources are different for every community. S 1932 recognizes that fact by creating a broad set of tools that allow water managers to keep all options on the table. We are in an exciting time and have a oo rel opportunity to move forward for solutions. Instead of knee jerk reactions and false choices between Water Development and the environment that permeated the debate, groups are coming together to develop comprehensive solutions. I look forward to continuing this constructive approach and look forward to hearing from our witnesses who are doing hard work to develop needed infrastructure by promoting partnerships rather than conflict. We dont have a rank member here today. Do we have anyone else who wants to make a statement . Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today. Thanks to all the witnesses and i welcome the two from colorado. Thank you very much for all of you being here today. Every time you say uma county. Arizona. Its a little bit cooler. Wonderful. Thanks a lot. Before turning to our witnesses, i ask unanimous consent to add a statement from senator feinstein to the record along with support from 58 water districts and municipalities for s1932. These include Water Council of arizona, salt River Project, cities of phoenix. Without objection they will be placed into the record. Lets now turn to our witnesses. We have five great witnesses to discuss Water Infrastructure and the three bills before us today. First up is commissioner of reclamation. Nearly everyone on the panel has arizona roots. Next we hear from mr. Wade noble, a water attorney from yuma who represents a number of irrigation districts that rely on facilities. He also serves in leadership and advisery positions, national Water Resources association and the family farm alliance. What do you do in your free time, wade . Im glad you could be here. Thanks for making the trip out from arizona and for all the work you do. After that, well hear from mr. Marshall brown, general manager for aurora water in colorado. He is also representing the Water Reuse Association. I would note, he comes from aurora by way of scottsdalism i know that we can trust him. Then we will hear from senior counselor for the Theodore Roosevelt partnership. And finally managed recharged Program Manager for the Idaho Department of Water Resources, another arizona transplant. I really didnt plan this, but it is dprat to have a lot of arizonaens on the panel. Commissioner, its good to see you again. Youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you. Chairman mcsally, senator gardner, members of the subcommittee who are here with us perhaps virtually. Im commissioner of the bureau of reclamation. Thank you for providing me the opportunity to appear before you today. Before i begin my remarks, i would first like to again thank you and thank this committee and your staff for their leadership and excellent quick work on the Colorado RiverDrought Contingency Plan authorization act this past spring. It was really incredible work and is moving forward. Just this past week, i was in san diego for a signing ceremony where the water commission, the republic of mexico section and United States section signed a joint report. And this report describes how the United States and mexico will protect lake meade elevations to benefit the Colorado River. This is really the last step in moving forward with our drought and scarcity plans. Its a great accomplishment for cities, states, tribes and all the others who depend on the Colorado River. And thank you. The committee has my written statement so i will use my time to highlight some of the underlying areas where we think the Committee Seeks to address the drought resiliency act, the water supply infrastructure rehabilitation and utilization act, the okafor recharge act. As co sponsors are aware, as a nation, we need to invest in new and existing infrastructure. We need to invest in storage to increase water reliability. And we need to impruchb conviance to secure our Water Supplies for future generations. Reclamations, dams and reservoirs, water command systems and Power Generation facilities are integral components of the nations infrastructure and the economies of the western states. This infrastructure is key to reclamations continued success. We operate just under 500 dams throughout 17 western states. We impound 338 reservoirs with total Storage Capacity of 140 million acre feed. We are the largest of water in the United States. It irrigates 10 million acres so 20 of the farmers in the west and provides Drinking Water to 31 million people. It is the second largest hydro power producer in the United States. We have provided some handouts to help explain the back drop of where we were. Youll see in front of you, one is a map of 2019, the condition in the west for 2019. And the other is exactly a year ago. So 2018. If you look at the two, what a difference a year makes. So if you look at the rio grande, last years spring run off was at 18 . This year its at 160 . Last year the Colorado River basin was in its fifth driest year on record that we know about. And this year, were at 144 of average. I think we even had some snow in june. So this is the back drop we work in. We need as water managers to be able to deliver water whether its wet or whether its dry. And there can be very large swings in the west. So just a thought to keep in mind of like what is the infrastructure we need when its a dry year like 2018 in some areas or a wet year like it can be in 2019. Well see what we have in store for us in 2020. Let me give an example in the Colorado River. Despite a wet year, the Colorado River is in its 19th year of drought. Despite that, we have consistently delivered our treaty obligations to mexico and we have not yet had to declare a shortage in the lower basin. What is the reason for that . First, as you saw in the spring, a lot of cooperation between the states, water districts, a lot of water savings. We have a robust storage system. Federal surface storage is about 60 million acre feed. The federal reservoirs can store four times the annual flow. F if you compare that to somewhere like california, the Sacramento River has about the same run off as the Colorado River. Only their storage is barely up to a years run off. So that means in a time like 2017 which was the wettest year on record in california, we had to let most of that water go out of the system. In 2018 which started off very dry in california and worked its way up, we werent able to make deliveries. We had to take several months where we had farmers who didnt know if they were going to get water or not. The investment thats made in the colorado systems are the generations that went before us that invested in the systems, thats what provided the efficiency, the flexibility, the conservation, thats what increased our water supply reliability during this drought and for the future. Across the west, we look at all of the above approach. We encourage diversity of resources. We have many programs that help with that. We view water reuse, water recycling as well as ground water recharge as important parts of this water supply strategy. Wed like to work with the committee to keep working with you to strengthen the bills that we are here to discuss today. We would like to discuss other windrelated. Thank you for your time. Absolutely. Im going to do something a little nontraditional since we started late. Im going to wait to have you testify. Im going to let mr. Brown testify and then let you ask some questions and then we will continue on with the panel just because he has a hard stop. Flexibility is the key to air power we used to say in the military. Mr. Brown. Good morning. To start, id like to thank chair woman, Ranking Member mansion and members of the subcommittee for inviting me here to speak about these issues today. I appreciate the opportunity to represent the city of aurora and also the Water Reuse Association who represent over 250 utilities and over 300 other businesses and institutions across the country that implement water recycling. Aurora water is a utility located east of denver, colorado. We provide Drinking Water, wastewater and storm water suvtss to a population of over 370,000 people. Aurora water and the Water Reuse Association strongly support the drought resiliency and water supply infrastructure act or senate bill 1932 and thank you for your leadership on this important legislation. Senator gardner has long been an advocate on critical water issues and we very much appreciate your leadership. Meeting the water needs of a growing community in the arid west is challenging. Auroras water supply infrastructure is extensive and complicated. Aurora owns or partners in 12 reservoirs located throughout about a third of the state of colorado. And we manage and maintain hundreds of miles of pipes. We have three Drinking WaterTreatment Plants as well as reclaimed Water Treatment facility. As most of the water supply is located west of the Continental Divide and most of the population is to the east, aurora must transport and store water including transporting it over mountain ranges up to this requires large and a concerted effort to move on through tunnels pipelines and pumping facilities, and requires that we build and maintain large reservoirs to effectively utilize that supply. Senate bill 1932 creates valuable funding programs for utilities like aurora water to help address the enormous Capital Needs required to build and maintain the infrastructure necessary to sustain the growing populations that we have. In order to ensure our ability to provide water we must create robust systems that integrate multiple increasingly complex components or technologies. For example, aurora water has Storage Capacity to meet three years of our annual average demand to help us through variable climate and endemic droughts. This is integrated into a system that also includes our ability to reuse 100 recapture and reuse, essentially 100 of our wastewater return flows. We use that for irrigation and to meet potable demands. While weve invested over 700 million in process including riverbank filtration aquifer recharge and recovery, advanced oxidation in order to create those reuse capabilities, we are not done. Source water conditions, we are planning to add 150,000 acre feet of additional storage in our system, and since we operate in essentially closed loop, increasing levels of salinity and we know that eventually probably in the not too distant future we are going to have to start removing the faults from that water in order to continue were using it. Reusing it. Those types of needs and projects can benefit greatly from the legislation being considered here today. While the roles of Government Agencies may not be exactly the same today as they have been in the past, there remains a critical need for partnership at a local state and national level. Almost 36 of the land in colorado is federally owned and systems like auroras, both our current or existing are not possible without partnership and support. Thank you again for allowing me the opportunity to visit today about how senate bill 1932 could be hugely beneficial to us and assist aurora water and other similarly situated water providers in meeting these needs into the future. This bill goes a long way of providing realistic and sustainable funding mechanisms to help us develop or expand these complex multifaceted systems and solutions to address those ongoing what it needs. We are going to go to miss kassen next. We are going a little bit out of order. Exactly. Thank you for letting me beyond this panel when i dont have a tie to arizona. The Conservation Partnership is an alliance of 1600 Outdoor Recreation and science organizations dedicated to ensuring allamericans enjoy quality places to hunt and fish. We appreciate the opportunity to testify about how to help the west build drought resilience in the face of decreasing Water Supplies and increasing demand. Will focus federal policies and resources will allow us to meet a range and of needs. Congress can incentive id incentivize Water Conservation, innovative technologies, and strategies to help build a future with thriving cities and rural communities, diversified economy, sustainable agriculture, and Healthy Rivers and watershed that provide recreation and ecological benefits to residents and businesses a life. Alike. After recreation infuses 887 billion into the economy and is especially important for rural america. Fish swim in clean flowing rivers and streams, migratory birds feed and rest on ruslans. Local bird populations ripe in their quarters. recognize how many interests complete for the limited Water Supplies of the west. Experience shows that Cooperation Among diverse interests is the only path that leads to durable solutions. Recently this committee helped pass the Colorado River dcp, an example of basin wide cooperation, thank you. One of the bills you are considering would build on the sit success of dcp. I suggest several modifications for your consideration. The committee shirted sure compliance with state and federal laws in support of the governor of the state for section 3 storage projects at each step from feasibility to construction. Second, we asked the committee to expand eligible products in section 3 to sections that store and retain water in features of the landscape for later release just as we are in storing restoring systems and can save money by diminishing effects of coastal flooding, this approach can be a powerful tool for responding to drought and a strategy to ensure that Water Supplies also maintain flows and habitat for fish and wildlife. Like built water Storage Infrastructure retains wet season precipitation and releases it during the dry season for use. It does so using the landscape. The quintessential western infrastructure stores 70 per 75 is the mountain snowpack. There are other systems, mountain meadows, wetlands, floodplains and aquifers. Many groundwater projects in the rest wes use natural infrastructure. As part of the platte river recovery implementation program, the tamarack state wildlife area , the other yuma, [ laughter ] partners pump water to ponds that let the water seeped into the ground and move back to the river arriving in late summer and fall to augment low flows. It improves Wildlife Habitat and contributes immeasurable water for the recovery of endangered cranes downstream in nebraska. Another is the cochise conservation and Recharge Network along the san pedro, a desert river that supports fish, migratory birds,. The partners use 6000 acres of land along 25 miles of river to direct storm water in affluent basins that allow the water to infiltrate replenishing local groundwater for communities and boats for fish and wildlife. Third, 1932 authorizes over 1 billion for water projects but one of the most effective and important strategies to combat drought and build a more resilient future is not there, and thats Water Conservation and efficiency. The bill includes no money for reducing water demand nor for the voluntary temporary compensated water demand management activities that will be critical in the Colorado River basin to implement dcp and elsewhere in the west. It encourages the committee either by reauthorizing existing legislation like water smart or bold new programs to add funding for conservation on efficiency to this package. Thank you for inviting me. T rcp looks forward to working with you to make water Delivery System sustainable and for a hotter and drier and more crowded western future. Written testimony includes other suggestions and id be happy to answer questions. I hope im not setting a bad precedent but i greatly appreciate this. And he really appreciates this too. I would ask the consent for a number of letters to be entered into the record in support of senate bill 1932 from the National Water rights association, the Colorado Water congress, the metropolitan district of california, the Water Infrastructure network and others, i just as they be entered pick without objection. Instagram its good to see you. This is your first time testifying in front of congress so well done. Aurora has an incredibly diverse water supply system and to boost a part of that system as well correct . If youve ever gotten a chance as i have, i think with partners of aurora standing in the tunnel in water that was this deep, the Coldest Water you can ever imagine, incredible engineering feat. I know you are here on the behalf of the reuse association. New water storage is incredibly expensive and can take years. You mentioned you started planning in 2000 for a project you hope to complete between 2050 and 2070. That increase of capacity has become increasingly difficult. So how do we refocus the importance on increasing supply through other means . That increases in importance as well as you did for aurora and some of the other projects. Can you walk through the reuse system that youve had and how that impacts us . The water reuse system we have, obviously wastewater return flows are available year round so its a critical supply that doesnt exactly match up with our demands necessarily. And, its also got some challenges associated with treatment but provide huge opportunities from consistently available supply. And also requires that we dampen the demand associated with supply so we can meet the needs during peak demand periods such as the summer when the supply doesnt increase compared to lower demand periods in the winter when the supply is still there. Our system is a multibarrier approach, very high quality water, fairly expensive source of supply and weve shared that supply with some of our partners. In order to use it effectively we will have to expand the system in the future to meet increasing wastewater return flows and will also have to build storage in the system in order to store the water when its available as compared to the seasonal demands for the supply. Fantastic opportunity. It gives us the ability to recapture roughly all of our indoor wastewater return flows but in order to utilize those we have to store some of those during the nonpeak demand periods to use them during peak demands. Commissioner berman, i dont think ive seen you since the signing of the dcp. Congratulations. Thats an important punishment to make necessary by and important accomplishment to make necessary by a next ordinary drought. The basins are looking at this but vital for us to focus on the supply side, how important is it for us to take into account and all of the above approach as we look at water . Not just storage but conservation, desalination, and an increase of water supply in the west . Its absolutely critical. Communities need to be looking at all of their possible Water Supplies. That is groundwater, conservation, desalinization where thats the right thing to do. Its creating that redundancy so if you know in the system surface water may not be there if you have several years of drought in a row, you can turn back and rely on the groundwater. Through water smart programs, through title 16, desalinization, all the programs you are looking at here and others, we believe in and all of the above strategy. This kassen thanks for being here and thanks for trying to find a solution on the Good Samaritan language and hopefully we can have another opportunity. The project that you identified, dealing with the platte river and talking about some of the natural opportunities to store water within systems, could you talk about how we could do a better job of that in the legislation . The number one thing would Committee Staff actually circulated some language along with this bill with some potential ads with carefully crafted definitions. Section 3 talks about surface water storage and groundwater storage. You could add a definition and add natural interest infrastructure water storage as well. It would not be, i dont think, complicated, but a lot of these projects, and tamarac is one example, there is a pump. So there is a piece of built infrastructure, but then the rest of the process project is natural and uses the seepage and coming back to the river. A lot of the natural Infrastructure Project are taking advantage of pieces and using little pieces of build and a lot of the landscapes to do the work. Thank you for the accommodation. Next im going to go to sen. Risch and mr. Nova will clean it up. Thank you very much mme. Chairman. I have a bill that is the aquifer recharge flexibility act. None of my friends seem to be here but my friends from the east coast dont understand how important water is to us and dont understand what minimal amount of water we get in Eastern Idaho. We get about 11 inches total and not much better upstream where mr. Hipke is from. We do a lot of Different Things to use our water to be able to do what we do in idaho and that is to have a state where even though we are owned two thirds by the federal government, are able to do a lot of things with raising crops or those kinds of things. Water is critical that is relatively recent. I use the word relatively, is recharge. It is incredibly important to us particularly in Eastern Idaho where we have the eastern snake plane office aquifer which is about the size of lake erie. Isnt that right . Lake erie is a pretty sizable body of water so you think, well gosh, this shouldnt be a problem. Is a problem because it is in the aquifer and we have become very efficient at drilling wells and taking water out of it in order to irrigate and do other things. Its important that we monitor that aquifer and recharge it where possible. Thats what this bill is designed to do. He is in charge of the programs and has done an excellent job of it. But because ive said two thirds of the land is owned by the federal government and they get cranky when you do thinks that you think need to be done but they dont particularly if they live back east like a lot of them do, its important that we have laws that allow us to do this and allow us to do it more smoothly. This bill will make it more smooth to cross blm land when a canal already holds a recharge that will take place on reclamation land and facilities contained nonproject water for recharge. These are things that are really important and i think mr. Hipke will be able to tell us how important these things actually are for recharging this aquifer. Without further ado id like to introduce hipke with your permission. He can explain to us, if you would, how this bill will provide greater flexibility in the use of beloved federal lands to get water to aquifers. So mr. Hipke, the floor is yours. Sen. Risch, im honored to testify on behalf of the idaho water Resource Board on f 1570 the aquifer recharge flexibility act. Im the recharge Program Manager for the state of idaho and also have been mentioned, i previously work in the state of arizona for many years on their recharge program. I wanted to thank sen. Risch for his tireless work on behalf of the board and other states in the west on this important legislation. Idahos largest and most productive aquifer is the esva and underlies much of southern and Eastern Idaho. This aquifer has been declining since 1952. The declines have a direct impact on both the groundwater and surface water users of the area. About 1 million acres of irrigated agriculture as well as cities towns distances and industries rely on water pumped from this aquifer. In addition, the declining spring flows from the aquifer have an important, and impact on about 600,000 irrigated acres that divert water from the snake river. The spring flows provide water for the largest concentration of commercial fitch hash fish hatcheries and feed service surface water to the complexes that provide idaho with clean electric energy. Over much of the last two decades, water the users have been embroiled in Court Battles and at least for appeals over this declining aquifer. In 2015, the state of idaho and water users throughout the region reached historic agreements to stabilize and rebuild this aquifer. As part of the agreements groundwater is collectively agreed to reduce use by 240,000 acres annually. In addition, idahos legislature test the Resource Board with developing a program to recharge 250,000 acres annually. On average about 1. 4 on average about 1. 4 million acrefeet in a given year are available for aquifer recharge. Most in the winter and during Flood Control operations in the spring. The aquifer efforts is a major undertaking for the state of idaho. The state is committed to constructing the infrastructure needed to accomplish these goals having invested nearly 20 million on these improvements to date. Since 2017 idaho has recharged 1. 2 million acrefeet. Groundwater users have recharged an additional 400,000 acrefeet during that time. All recordsetting accomplishments, but more must be done to restore this aquifer and others in the state based on studies conducted by the board, many recharge flights require the use of federally owned property to conduct recharge activities, existing irrigation canals that cost federal land, or a purpose other than aquifer recharge. Or, canal systems and federal ownership were congressional authorization did not include aquifer recharge. By utilizing existing infrastructures including canals under federal ownership to recharge aquifers we can optimize the use of these systems for multiple uses and benefits while maintaining the cause of aquifer recharge to affordable levels. However, obtaining necessary authorizations or permits has been one of our main challenges. F 1570 would help provide greater accessibility to recharge other aquifers in idaho. This would authorize reclamation and other federal agencies to allow the use of existing excess capacity and federally owned canals to deliver recharge water to aquifers with a minimum of red tape, all consistent with state water laws and policies. In conclusion, managing declining aquifers is a critical issue for most western states. Idaho was at the forefront developing largescale managed aquifer recharge to active actively manage aquifers. The enactment will help idaho and other western states to use management recharge as a key tool dealing with this critical issue. Combined with other resource bills being considered, they will be provided additional strategic tools that would encourage partnerships and investments in water storage, reuse recycling decolonization, and aging delivery infrastructure. Thank you for the opportunity to testify as an important part of this legislation. I appreciate it. Mr. Noble . Chairman mc sally, sen. Risch and other unseen but appreciated members, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the water supply infrastructure rehabilitation and utilization act as 2044. This is important to our agriculture and whole nation and sen. Mc sally if you will permit a deviation in prepared remarks, we express to you our appreciation for the work that you have done. Personally we had the opportunity to sit down and discuss this problem. You came to yuma, you observed, he listened, you learned, you acted. You exercise leadership, and we thank you for that. My name is wade noble from unit arizona. You my is at the southern end of the Colorado River. Yuma county agriculture provides winter vegetables to 85 of the United States and canada. Across the west the bureau of reclamation facilities on average are 50 years old with some facilities 100 years old. In general, irrigation districts operate and maintain reclamation owned facilities. These are transferred works. Acclamation retains ownership, but transfers routine operation and maintenance of Irrigation Systems and extraordinary maintenance and Capital Improvements of facilities and infrastructures to the district. In some instances theres an additional layer. Reclamation contracts with one district as the responsible party for the routine Operation Maintenance and extraordinary maintenance and Capital Improvements of a shared transferred work. The other irrigation district sharing the facility or system become funding parties. They are not directly responsible for completing routine and extraordinary maintenance and Capital Improvements, but they are financially responsible for the work. Imperial dam is an example of a shared reclamation transferred work. The example shows the financial impacts to the Funding Party and irrigation districts as a result of the extraordinary maintenance and Capital Improvements needed on aging infrastructure. Imperial and irrigation districts located in california and diverting almost 3 million acrefeet of Colorado River rotter for agriculture and Imperial County cities and towns, is responsible party for imperial dam. Iid is contractually obligated to perform routine and extraordinary and for maintenance at the dam. However the arizona and other irrigation districts sharing the imperial dam im a are obligated to pay their portion of the costs. In 10 years a districts will spend over 15 million of extraordinary maintenance on Capital Improvements. Because funding parties are not the responsible party, they have yes funding less funding or finance options and there is difficulty in obtaining grant monies or seeking traditional financing. They are responsible for partisan smaller districts leaving them with only two options. Increasing assessments or burning through reserves. The aging infrastructure account addresses extraordinary maintenance challenges and creates a general fund for operating entities and project and officially areas seeking funding. While my testimony is focused on section 2, it is not meant to ignore the other two substance other two sections, section 3 authorization of appropriations for the reclamation safety of dams act is important to address western and National Needs of Water Infrastructure. Appropriation of an additional 550 million for safety of dams will ensure reclamation can financially address infrastructure woes, no pun intended. Section 4, review a flight controlled curves Pilot Project is important for nationwide water managers providing tools and flexibility to Flood Control and reservoir projects and allow managing entities to react to everchanging climate conditions. In arizona friends and colleagues of the salt River Project would benefit in the operation of roosevelt dam. If Pilot Projects are successful it will change how we manage systems and create programs resilient to climate variability. Considered as a whole, s 2044 will have significant positive impact on Water Infrastructure needs and water resource management. Again we appreciate the opportunity to testify to the subcommittee. It has been a privilege and pleasure. I prepared to answer questions, but the easy ones please. I will started off. You explain the challenges that we have with examples like imperial dam and others, partners dont have any other choice but to in one year payback for any investment in Capital Improvements. You shared that in your verbal testimony. Can you further explain why some of the other options for others for other options for Debt Financing what work or Yuma Water Users Association are cases like this. Traditional other options available include things as private financing narrowing or bonding. Those are simply not available to smaller districts. As the funding parties, they dont have access to collateral and cant pledge it. Financing is much more expensive as the Interest Rate is usually higher. If we turn to bonding, that can be quite expensive. Just the cost of implementing a bond measure is very high. In addition, there are problems that Interest Rate is higher and you have to commit reserves which generally are not sufficient to cover the entire bond. Those options are just not available. Rate thanks. Speaking from your role at family farm alliance, how common is this challenge of access to capital for water managers around the west . The response i prepared for this particular item, we chatted with several people involved and find its very, that there are many situations where they simply cannot privately fund or bond things that need to be done. Its not that they dont or never have, its just that it is widespread. Commissioner burman do you have anything to add . I would say this has been a long discussion about how to finance improvements to aging infrastructure. We tend to work with the committee and partners on all of the ideas that could work there. Great thanks. As you know commissioner burman the bill is intended to improve how extraordinary Maintenance Authority is utilized. Do you know that since enactment , how many times reclamation has used extended repayment authority for extraordinary maintenance projects . We came up with 19 instances of where reviews that. Can you walk me through the process for seeking funding and extended repayment . What avenues do they have to weigh in . We have the directive in standard which are really the roles of how this works. Its about approaching your local office of reclamation talking through what is needed, and on the official side there needs to be a repayment contract that is signed. That can all be worked through. The most significant hurdle is appropriations which it is for all the things we do. When you work with an area office about a project coming up, if its going to happen under this authority, then under the authority from 2009, it has to be through appropriations. You are in the process of competing with all of the other projects subject to appropriations. Now i want to shift to safety of dams. Its my understanding that at some point there had been discussion as to whether major impair repair items qualified under safety of dams. Large diversion dams, are they eligible if they meet other criteria . If they meet other criteria all dams large and small have the ability to be under the safety of dams program. Art of the reason we included this increase is to ensure that there is enough cap room to accommodate any new projects added to inventory if needed. The imperial dam is one such project. We would certainly work with un committees and mr. Noble and clients to move forward to work on imperial dam. I want to talk about supply portfolio. Hearing your testimony the diversity of water supply infrastructure not now is something that stuck out. s multiple infrastructure options on the table. Can you talk about the importance of the approach for strengths and weaknesses of the different component . Again, it is fun and challenging and not a very common resource anymore. The days of being able to find a supply that is fairly pristine and putting it through a Treatment Plant delivering it to customers, those days are pretty much gone. All of the supplies, the quality of supplies is complemented compromised whether you look for new sources of supply or reuse projects. Technologies are constantly evolving giving us new opportunities to deal with Water Quality challenges. And again, the seasonal and annual variability is in supply also present significant challenges. Supplies are not always available at the same time that the demands are there. We have to build systems that are extremely robust and multifaceted, and take advantage of it. A bunch of different technologies. Take advantage of different types of storage. There was a little bit of testimony talking about challenges and opportunities with storage looking a little different. We cant build storage like we use to so we habs have to be more. Underground storage is a good option but by itself at least in multiple settings does not work without surface storage integrated with the underground storage scale to get it out of our systems. Really as systems grow and expand and or progress to meet existing demands, we have to have multiple tools in the toolbox that afforded us the opportunity to take advantage of emerging technologies in and outside the box storage opportunities. And, create systems that are robust. We cant afford to let any of our water go wasted or unutilized when we have that water in our systems. Sen. Cantwell . Thank you madam chair and i think the witnesses for being here. Miss kassen when you said theres a lot of hot dry and more crowded west, you couldnt have been talking more specifically about the Pacific Northwest because that is exactly the way we feel. The most recent seasonal drought map definitely put us in the bullseye as far as that brown area. Its no secret that that then is an overlay to some of the challenges we face in fire season as well. Im very concerned that we continue to adopt strategies. You outline some like the smart Water Program and some we are able to help integrate into the yakima basin program, and mr. Hipke, is at the right pronunciation . You talked about the aquifer recharge so in concept i certainly support this bill. Why, at least for areas like the Pacific Northwest, shouldnt we be focusing on recharge and integration, holistic integration plans likely would have been able to successfully do . If you are going to have warmer and drier conditions, less snowpack but you are still going to have water. Recharging aquifers is an easy layup and coordination on the conservation side and smart strategies, making best use of that seem to go handinhand. Do you have comments about the recharge . You didnt specifically call that out. Ive been doing recharge for over 25 years, so im a big fan of that. Having said that, having worked extensively in two different states and seen the broad differences between them, i am an extreme fan of adapting management and what has been discussed here. We need a lot of tools in the toolbox. The situation is changing rapidly. Its not a one size fits all. In idaho, for the esp a, recharges a good tool that we use and thats not the only tool in that area. And other areas it may not be an option and then we need to look at storage. As you mentioned, theres a lot of demand and the supply is much more variable. We need to be flexible enough to take advantage of it when its there. Do you have ideas about what we could do to get better evangelizing of these cooperative programs . I almost still see us in a divided universe. There are those in the Pacific Northwest who believe in that cooperation coordinated and innovation. I see other parts of the country continuing to fight over water. What can we do to better evangelizing get people to adopt to these approaches . I think the Colorado River basin we feel like we are doing cooperation as well so there are some places outside of the northwest. One thing to think about in terms of increasing retention and the landscape and improving storage in nontraditional ways is theres a project that trcp s partner worked on in montana on 9 mile creek which was drainage that had been adversely affected by legacy mining. They were there to do restoration but landscapes retain more water. Healthy areas impact systems and after they spent 10 years during the restoration, they got the university of montana to come in and measure the amount of additional water flow that was coming from that restored landscape into the stream. Measurable quantities of water that you can achieve in some kinds of water supply projects and water management. The environment gets to be a secondary beneficiary in this restoration project. Water storage and supply was a secondary benefit of the restoration so it goes both ways. I think talking about the Success Stories is certainly one way to evangelize. I also think having robust support programs for it so that people are in scented on smart water or restoration, and doing a better job on coordination, one of the reasons we fought hard on the fire bill to get fire funding fixes is because we were doing unbelievable stream restoration work and would have a fire come through and knock it out. We have to get this coordinated and the challenges we face are getting greater. We did have votes called nearly 50 minutes ago so i will be the last there. Maintenance account created in s 2044 requires recognition to take requests for funding that are transferred works and not those operated by reclamations. I know this is not the case for you my but in your experience, our districts responsible for oh and am facing repayments . Sen. Mc sally yes they are. The difference between reserved works and transferred works as far as funding is more soft and there is sharing between the district and reclamation as to the cost of the repairs and work giving done. Have the opportunity to appropriate for their share of the work. Would it make sense for us to add that to the bill . Yes it would. Reserved works . Yes. We may follow up on that with you. Commissioner burman . How do you feel . The more flexibility we have the easier it is to work. I know we have a number of questions that we also want to ask and i know members want to ask for the record. I really would appreciate if you are willing to answer those questions that were submitted for the record. Thank you for your patience and flexibility. Its important to hear your test testimony on pending bills as we move them forward to address this issue of Water Infrastructure and investments for the future. These questions may be submitted for the record before close of business on friday and the record will remain open for two weeks. We ask you to respond in writing and they will be made a part of the record. Thank you for coming today and the hearing is now adjourned. Mg is one hour and 20 minutes. The hearing will come to order. The chair is authorize