Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Water Policy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee clears three Department of Water Resources technical fixes; bills advance from Energy and Natural Resources
Summary
The House Energy and Natural Resources Committee unanimously recommended do-pass on three technical bills from the Department of Water Resources addressing dike permitting thresholds, permit language and State Water Commission vice-chair language.
The House Energy and Natural Resources Committee unanimously recommended do-pass on three technical bills from the Department of Water Resources on Thursday.
House Bill 1041 updates Century Code section 61-16.153 to remove outdated dike permitting thresholds that were left unchanged after last session's dike-permitting rewrite. Matt Lindsey, engineering and permitting section manager for the Department of Water Resources, told the committee the bill "is a cleanup effort ... to remove outdated permitting thresholds" so the complaint statute mirrors the revised permitting statute. The committee approved HB1041 on a unanimous do-pass vote.
House Bill 1042 corrects a drafting oversight in Century Code 61-04-14 that referred to both an application and a permit; the change makes clear the section applies to permits rather than permit applications, Department staff told the committee. Kimberly Fisher, groundwater section manager, said the revision "makes the wording more clear and consistent" and will not change the law's intent or application. The committee recommended a do-pass.
House Bill 1043 fixes contradictory language about appointment of the vice chairman of the State Water Commission. Director Reece Hawes (testimony identifies him as Reece/ Reece Haas earlier in the record) said the bill strikes inconsistent language so that the governor's appointment authority in section 61-02-05 is not contradicted by later language in 61-02-08. The committee recommended a do-pass.
Why it matters: all three bills are technical, agency-request bills intended to reconcile inconsistent code language after prior statutory revisions. Department staff said the bills remove sources of confusion between permitting and complaint statutes, clarify administrative procedures and reduce the risk of conflicting interpretations.
Committee action and votes: the three bills were each approved by the committee on recorded do-pass recommendations and will proceed to the next stage. Committee members recorded unanimous support on the rolls for each measure.
Ending: Committee staff said the bills are corrective in nature and would not change substantive permitting standards.
