Letters

A collection of letters that have been adopted and sent by the Western States Water Council:

Corps Rulemaking on Water Supply and Surplus Waters

On December 16, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) published a notice of proposed rulemaking, 81 FR 91556, updating its policies on the use of Corps reservoir projects for domestic, municipal, and industrial water supply. The revisions are intended to “enhance the Corps’ ability to cooperate with State and local interests in the development of water supplies,” take into account court decisions, legislative provisions and other developments, to bring greater clarity and consistency across regions, and to facilitate or avoid interfering with other lawful uses of water. The Corps proposes to define key terms and improve its interpretations and practices under the authority of the 1944 Flood Control Act (33 USC §708) and the 1958 Water Supply Act (43 USC §390b). Further information may be found here. Comments may be posted to www.regulations.gov under docket #COE-2015-0016 through May 15. A selection of some of the related letters submitted is included below:

Western States Water Council

Western Governors’ Association

City of Hillsboro, Oregon

Missouri Tristate Water Association

Nebraska Lewis and Clark Natural Resource District

North Dakota Water Users Association

EPA Rulemaking on Water Quality Standards for Tribes

EPA is considering a rulemaking effort regarding baseline Water Quality Standards for hundreds of tribes without Treatment as States authority. EPA first informed WSWC about this effort during our Council meeting in Washington, D.C. in March 2016, and reached out in multiple webinars during the year to provide information and answer questions.

On September 19, 2016, the EPA Administrator signed an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) to invite comments on whether to establish federal baseline water quality standards (WQS) for Indian reservation waters that do not currently have Clean Water Act (CWA)-effective WQS in place, and if so, what those WQS should be and how they should be implemented. Additional information is available at: https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=EPA-HQ-OW-2016-0405 or at EPA’s site https://www.epa.gov/wqs-tech/advance-notice-proposed-rulemaking-federal-baseline-water-quality-standards-indian#comment

The deadline to respond to EPA’s solicitation for comments was December 28, 2016. A selection of some of the related letters submitted is included below:

WSWC Comment on EPA Baseline WQS

South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources

North Dakota Division of Water Quality

Washington State Department of Ecology

Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality

National Congress of American Indians