WGA urges Army Corps to engage states in rule-making process for surplus and storage water at reservoirs

Western Governors have joined the Western States Water Council (WSWC) in asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to work with states on rulemaking for the treatment of surplus water in Corps-managed reservoirs.

The Western Governors' Association (WGA) expressed its concern about the Corps rulemaking process in a letter to Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works). Read the letter.

WSWC, which represents 18 Western states on water policy, sent a similar letter to the Corps on Aug. 6. Specifically, the WSWC and WGA are concerned that an expanded definition of “stored water” in the Corps rulemaking process could make the natural flows of the river (water that would normally pass through a reservoir if not for a dam) subject to contracts and fees. Such a measure would fail to recognize state authority over management of surface water.

The WGA letter, signed by WGA Executive Director James Ogsbury, asserts: "It is critical that this important undertaking recognize ... Congress’ longstanding deference to state law with respect to the allocation and use of water. Water belongs to the states, which have exclusive and Constitutional authority over its consumptive use and the allocation and adjudication of water rights."

WGA and WSWC also are concerned that the Corps rulemaking process may not be flexible enough to accommodate states’ differing legal doctrines and hydrology. Involving the states would ensure that differing state perspectives would be accounted for in the new Corps rules.

The WGA letter urges Assistant Secretary Darcy to "initiate a substantive dialogue with the states." The WSWC letter makes a similar request, concluding that "the Corps’ surplus water rulemaking and storage water reallocation study should ... be developed with robust and meaningful state participation." Read the story in the Dickenson Press about the WSWC letter. In addition, the influential water-issues blog Circle of Blue also noted the letters in its weekly Federal Water Tap roundup.

A guest editorial in the Capitol Journal in Pierre, S.D., called the Corps’ rulemaking of "great concern to the state of South Dakota, its people, businesses and the Indian tribes, all of whom have vested legal rights to Missouri River water as a natural resource." Read the column.

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