Last week, U.S. Congressman Paul Gosar, sent a letter with five other Committee Chairmen to U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Chief Tom Tidwell urging the agency to withdraw its proposed Directive on Groundwater Resource Management.
According to the Congressional Western Caucus, the Groundwater 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.
The letter was also signed by Congressional Western Caucus member and Committee Vice-Chairman Cynthia Lummis (WY), Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans Chairman John Fleming (LA), Subcommittee on Federal Lands Chairman Tom McClintock (CA), and Vice-Chair Doug LaMalfa (CA). The letter echoes similar concerns voiced by the Western Governors Association and others about how the proposal could usurp state management of groundwater, according to the Congressional Western Caucus.
Congressman Gosar and 42 lawmakers previously sent a letter on June 24, 2014, to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, advises the Congressional Western Caucus, warning that the U.S. Forest Service’s recently proposed Groundwater Resource Management Directive will restrict access to public lands and interfere with state and private water rights. They also urged withdrawing the directive at that time.
“It has been universally recognized since a 1935 Supreme Court Case that the sole authority over groundwater resources belongs to individual states. This balance of power has always protected the specific and unique needs of every individual state so that they can better allocate and administer the groundwater resources that rightfully belong to the people of each state,” Gosar said in a statement released Friday.
“Alarmingly, the attempted water grab by the USFS and its misguided groundwater directive was proposed without input from state or local leaders and without any meaningful outreach to water users themselves. The current draft of the proposed directive would expand federal authority into areas traditionally regulated by states, despite the fact that the USFS has shown no evidence that justifies the need for this new proposed policy,” continued Gosar.
“I was pleased to see the USFS put a temporary hold on their attempted water grab but now it is time to put an end to the uncertainty created by this disastrous proposal. Arizonans have had enough of the continued efforts by federal agencies attempting to gain more control over our precious resources.” Concluded Gosar, “The USFS must formally withdraw this flawed rule once and for all.”