Agenda - 11-05-1990 - Laserfiche WebLink

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(5) The bill is vague about returning water to the supplying river 4 basin. Ought such returns include counterbalancing transfers by neighboring jurisdictions? (6)' There are many potential uses that may de -water a stream. How does this bill deal with evaporation, irrigation or industrial processes with significant environmental impacts? (7) Transfers within a basin may dry up significant stretches of a stream. Why does this legislation not address intrabasin transfers? (8) The bill requires that all thirteen vague criteria be met. Will this effectively preclude the EMC from approving additional transfers or will it license unwise transfers based upon political whim? (9) The bill appears to regulate agricultural uses. Does this conflict with existing agricultural laws? (10) Existing legislation prohibits transfers in basins that cross state boundaries. Does this bill seek to supercede current law in this regard? The draft bill's vagueness and inconsistency seems to us to derive in part from an incomplete understanding of our actual water manage- ment problems. The State Water Supply Plan currently being developed by the Division of Water Resources should help to define both our existing problems and those that can be realistically expected to arise in the future. In the absence of this plan or a similarly comprehensive study, any proposed legislative solution is apt to be unsatisfying and ad hoc in character. The bill also seems to founder for lack of .a set of guiding prin- ciples indicating where, when and why transfers are to be regulated. In February 1990, the Triangle J Board of Delegates adopted a Resolu- tion Regarding Interbasin Transfers based upon the following prin- ciples: (1) We should focus on ensuring adequate water, not just in "named rivers, but also in lakes and smaller streams. (2) We should consider cumulative transfers, both into and out of basins, to evaluate their Impacts on streams, rivers and lakes. (3) We should manage our water resources for the benefit of the area as a whole, respecting stream and lake capacities and making efficient use of available supplies.