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Committee backs deadline for methodology changes to water injury determinations
Summary
Senate Bill 1061 was advanced to the House floor after sponsors said it would require the director to issue any new methodology for determining material injury under conjunctive management by Dec. 1 of the year before implementation, giving growers time to plan.
The House Resources and Conservation Committee voted to advance Senate Bill 1061 after Representative Stephanie Mickelson said the bill aims to prevent last-minute methodology changes that have disrupted growers.
“Where this came from,” Mickelson said, was a past episode in which the department moved from a steady-state model to a transient-state model and did so close to planting season, producing “a lot of confusion and problems” for farmers. Mickelson said SB 1061 “sets up a date time certain for the department to have a new methodology order that they have to put out which is December 1 of the year preceding when they would want to implement it the following spring season between March and May.”
Mickelson said the change was negotiated in a work group including surface- and groundwater users. Committee members asked technical questions. Representative Miller asked how changing when a methodology is announced affects growers; Mickelson replied the transient model can raise calculated injuries sharply in a dry year and that late changes can force severe curtailments. Ms. Jenn Nicholson, appearing for stakeholders, said the aim is to “give people enough time to basically have enough flexibility to figure out a new plan so that you don't put people out of business.”
Representative Raybould moved to send the bill to the floor with a due-pass recommendation; the committee approved the motion by voice vote. The transcript records no roll-call tally.
