The Rundown
- Energy Department, invoking emergency powers, orders the restart of oil drilling and an oil pipeline off the California coast.
- President Trump’s executive order targets water-pollution and wetlands protections in the name of more homebuilding.
- Justice Department announces consent decree to clean up Seattle-area Superfund site.
- USDA research arm publishes a report on the agency’s land and water conservation programs.
- National Weather Service issues heat warning for the western United States this week.
- Congress holds hearings this week on the intelligence community’s annual threat assessment and 20 water and energy bills.
- Reclamation’s Colorado River reservoir outlook worsens again.
And lastly, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee debates the cost of tribal water rights settlements.
“The question before us is clear. How do we continue to meet our solemn trust and treaty responsibilities while maintaining fiscal responsibility and balancing the many, many priorities that are facing Indian Country?” – Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) speaking during an Indian Affairs Committee hearing on the Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act, a bill that would settle claims for the Navajo, Hopi, and San Juan Southern Paiute to the Colorado River, Little Colorado River, and groundwater sources in northeastern Arizona. The settlement’s estimated cost is $5 billion. It did not pass in the previous Congress.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) said that inaction is a risk. “Every year that Congress fails to authorize and fund settlement agreements is another year that tribes and water users are faced with water uncertainty. We can’t ask tribes to do the work of reaching a settlement and then leave them waiting indefinitely because Congress can’t resolve its own disagreements over funding.”
By the Numbers
$668 Million: River cleanup costs that Boeing, Seattle, and scores of other parties agreed to in a consent decree with the Justice Department. The Lower Duwamish Waterway, an industrial corridor for more than a century, has been a Superfund site since 2001 and is contaminated with PCBs, arsenic, dioxin, and other hazardous substances. The activities outlined in the settlement – dredging and capping contaminated sediments – are expected to take 10 years to complete.
News Briefs
Homebuilding Executive Order
To build more homes faster, President Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps, among other agencies, to “review and revise” federal regulations regarding water pollution, water use, and wetlands protections.
The order calls out stormwater permits from construction sites, maximum pollutant loads in water bodies, and dredging and filling wetlands.
Federal court decisions and agency actions in recent years have already trimmed federal oversight of wetlands and streams that flow only after rainfall.
The order also instructs the Federal Housing Finance Agency to “reform and, where appropriate, eliminate unduly burdensome or costly” water- and energy-efficiency programs and requirements.
Freddie Mac, one of the federal housing agencies, offers a mortgage product that helps finance efficiency improvements.
California Offshore Oil Order
Chris Wright, the energy secretary, invoked emergency powers to order the resumption of oil drilling off the California coast near Santa Barbara as well as restarting a pipeline that leaked more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil in 2015 and was subsequently shut down.
The order directs Sable Offshore Corp. to restart the Santa Ynez Unit and pipeline system, which the Energy Department says is capable of producing 50,000 barrels of oil daily.
The Defense Production Act, signed into law in 1950 and cited in the order, allows the executive branch to intervene in private industry for national security reasons. It was used during the Covid-19 pandemic to spur production of ventilators and N-95 masks.
The Trump administration, which has worked to facilitate oil drilling off the California coast, used the Iran war to justify the move.
In context: Restarting Ruptured Santa Barbara Oil Pipeline Tests California’s Regulators
Studies and Reports
Scream Emoji for the Colorado River Reservoirs
Colorado River forecasts sound like a broken record – and soon they could be breaking records.
The Bureau of Reclamation updates its reservoir forecast every month. The outlook worsened slightly since February.
In the most probable scenario, Lake Powell falls low enough – below elevation 3,490 ft. – that it stops producing hydropower by December. With a heat wave coming this week, forecasters think that scenario is too optimistic.
If warm and dry continue, there is a roughly 10 percent chance – the probable minimum scenario – that Powell breaches the no-hydropower level by August and remains that low through February 2028, the end of the two-year forecast period.
These forecasts do not include actions that Reclamation could take to prop up Lake Powell: releasing less water downstream to Lake Mead or releasing more water from upstream reservoirs.
Each of those options comes with unsavory tradeoffs. Less water sent to Lake Mead will hasten its decline. More water from upstream reservoirs limits their use as a buffer in the near future.
USDA Conservation Programs
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service published a report detailing funding levels for USDA land and water conservation programs that are authorized through the farm bill and seek to reduce soil erosion, nutrient loss, and wetland loss.
Over the last four farm bills, dating to 2002, conservation program assistance has averaged $6.2 billion annually. Funding peaked in 2020 and has since dropped.
Conservation practices that are profitable to the farmer, like no-till, are more likely to be adopted without federal payments. Practices that provide public benefits but are less profitable – cover crops, field and riparian buffers – lean on public assistance.
On the Radar
Outrageous, Dangerous Heat
The National Weather Service warned of a dangerous heat wave over the western United States this week, one in which temperatures are expected to be 20 to 30 F above average.
Besides the risk of heat stress, forecasters noted that snow will melt rapidly causing rivers to surge with frigid water.
Congressional Hearings
On March 17, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will hold a hearing on 20 water and energy bills. Those bills include authorizing feasibility studies for rural water systems in the Upper Midwest; water recycling grants; technical assistance; and hydropower research and development.
Also on March 17, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee will hold a hearing on electricity reliability lessons learned from Winter Storm Fern, which struck the eastern half of the country in late January.
On March 18, the Senate Intelligence Committee will discuss the latest worldwide threat assessment from the nation’s spy agencies.
This unclassified report is published every March and describes major national security threats. The Trump administration last year ignored environmental risks such as climate change and water shortages.
EPA Advisory Board Renewed
The EPA announced it will renew the charter of the Environmental Financial Advisory Board for two years. The board is an expert panel that advises the agency on the dollars and cents of environmental regulation.
Federal Water Tap is a weekly digest spotting trends in U.S. government water policy. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.
