State administrators and representatives of cities and counties, the agriculture industry, private water companies and environmentalists worked Monday to try to come up with proposed rules for water-use during droughts.
The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources had proposed a law that drew fire from almost everyone who has to account for how much water they use, Lynn Bonner reports. A group is working on a compromise that has a chance of becoming law.
Already, farm interests have negotiated a change in the administration's proposal so they will continue to be exempt from having to register water use of less than 1 million gallons a day. Instead, they will report water use in a confidential survey, and the state Department of Agriculture will report aggregate figures to the state.
The DENR had proposed uniform conservation measures for local governments according to their drought classification. For example, all cities and counties in extreme drought would have to impose the same conservation measures.
That provision was changed to let the local governments decide what measures they will use to meet water-saving targets.
No legislative committee has yet debated the bill, and there may be only a few weeks left for legislators to work, depending on how quickly the House and Senate agree on a budget.
Robin Smith, a DENR assistant secretary, urged the group to move on a proposal, which she said would be vital to the state in droughts.
She reminded the group that the state is in a drought now, and conditions are worse than last year at this time.
"Everybody knows we may not have a great deal of time left in this session," she said. "I would hate to see time run out on this."
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