[Senate Report 115-96]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 126
115th Congress} { Report
SENATE
1st Session } { 115-96
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TO AUTHORIZE THE USE OF THE ACTIVE CAPACITY OF THE FONTENELLE RESERVOIR
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June 8, 2017.--Ordered to be printed
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Ms. Murkowski, from the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 199]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was
referred the bill (S. 199) to authorize the use of the active
capacity of the Fontenelle Reservoir, having considered the
same, reports, favorably thereon without amendment and
recommends that the bill do pass.
PURPOSE
The purpose of S. 199 is to authorize the use of the active
capacity of the Fontenelle Reservoir.
BACKGROUND AND NEED
Fontenelle Reservoir in the State of Wyoming is a principal
feature of the Seedskadee Project, one of the initial projects
authorized under the Colorado River Storage Project Act of
1956. Authorized uses of Fontenelle Reservoir storage water
include irrigation, fish and wildlife, recreation, flood
control, and municipal and industrial water use, as primary
purposes, with power generation specified as the only secondary
purpose.
Currently, Wyoming has the perpetual right to market
120,000 acre-feet of the original 190,250 acre-feet active
capacity from the reservoir. However, in order to increase the
use of water storage and supplies from the reservoir,
infrastructure improvements must be made to prevent erosion.
S. 199 would authorize the Secretary to enter into an
agreement with the State of Wyoming to make infrastructure
improvements to enable the use of all active storage capacity
of Fontenelle Dam and Reservoir, including the placement of
sufficient riprap on the upstream face of Fontenelle Dam, on
the condition that the State pay for the entire project,
including the study, design, planning, and construction of the
project.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
S. 199 was introduced by Senator Barrasso on January 24,
2017.
Companion legislation, H.R. 648, was introduced by
Representative Cheney in the House of Representatives on the
same day. H.R. 648 was passed by the House of Representatives
on a vote of 408-0 on March 15, 2017, and was received by the
Senate and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural
Resources on March 21, 2017.
In the 114th Congress, S. 1305 was introduced by Senator
Barrasso on May 12, 2015. The Subcommittee on Water and Power
held a hearing on S. 1305 on June 18, 2015. The Committee on
Energy and Natural Resources met in open business session on
July 30, 2105, and ordered S. 1305 favorably reported as
amended (S. Rept. 114-135).
The measure was included in Amendment No. 3234, which the
Senate agreed to on April 19, 2016, as an amendment to S. 2012,
the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016, which the Senate
passed, as amended, on April 20, 2016.
Companion legislation, H.R. 2273, was introduced by
Representative Lummis in the House of Representatives on May
12, 2015. The Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans held a
hearing on June 25, 2015. The Committee on Natural Resources
reported H.R. 2273, as amended, on March 14, 2016 (H. Rept.
114-450), and the House of Representatives passed the bill, as
amended, by voice vote on July 5, 2016. The bill was received
by the Senate and placed on the Legislative Calendar on July 6,
2016.
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources met in open
business session on March 30, 2017, and ordered S. 199
favorably reported.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in an
open business session on March 30, 2017, by a majority voice
vote of a quorum present, recommends that the Senate pass S.
199.
SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS
Section 1(a) authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to
work with the State of Wyoming through cooperative agreements
to enable the use of all active storage capacity of the
Fontenelle Dam and Reservoir.
Subsection (b) outlines the minimally required components
of the agreements, including that the State of Wyoming shall be
responsible for all funding of activities carried out under
this act.
Section 2 includes savings provisions specifying that
nothing in this act modifies, conflicts with, preempts, or
otherwise affects the Boulder Canyon Project Act; the Colorado
River Compact of 1922; the Boulder Canyon Project Adjustment
Act; the Treaty between the U.S. and Mexico relating to the
utilization of waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of
the Rio Grande; the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact; the
Colorado River Storage Project Act; the Colorado River Basin
Project Act; or any State of Wyoming or other State water law.
COST AND BUDGETARY CONSIDERATIONS
The following estimate of the costs of this measure has
been provided by the Congressional Budget Office:
S. 199--To authorize the use of the active capacity of the Fontenelle
Reservoir
S. 199 would authorize the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to
plan and construct a project to expand water storage at
Fontenelle Dam and Reservoir in southwestern Wyoming. Under
current law, the amount of water storage available to the state
of Wyoming at the reservoir is the difference between full
capacity and the lowest water level that allows all of the
authorized purposes of the Fontenelle project to be performed.
Under the bill, the BOR would coordinate with the state of
Wyoming to design and construct modifications to the Fontenelle
Dam and Reservoir to allow the project to operate at a lower
water level, thus expanding the amount of storage available to
the state. S. 199 also would require the state to contribute
100 percent of the costs to design and construct the project.
Those contributions would be classified as offsetting receipts,
which are treated as reductions in direct spending, and would
subsequently be spent without further appropriation.
Enacting S. 199 would increase receipts and the associated
direct spending; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply.
However, CBO estimates that the net effect on the budget would
be negligible. Enacting the bill would not affect revenues.
CBO also estimates that enacting the bill would not
increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of
the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.
S. 199 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would benefit the state of Wyoming. Any costs incurred by the
state to fund the project or participate in cooperative
agreements would result from complying with conditions of
federal assistance.
The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Aurora Swanson
(for federal costs) and Jon Sperl (for intergovernmental
mandates). The estimate was approved by H. Samuel Papenfuss,
Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
REGULATORY IMPACT EVALUATION
In compliance with paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee makes the following
evaluation of the regulatory impact which would be incurred in
carrying out the bill.
The bill is not a regulatory measure in the sense of
imposing Government-established standards or significant
economic responsibilities on private individuals and
businesses.
No personal information would be collected in administering
the program. Therefore, there would be no impact on personal
privacy. Little, if any, additional paperwork would result from
the enactment of the bill, as ordered reported.
CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED SPENDING
The bill, as reported, does not contain any congressionally
directed spending items, limited tax benefits, or limited
tariff benefits as defined in rule XLIV of the Standing Rules
of the Senate.
EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS
Because S. 199 is similar to legislation considered by the
Committee in the 114th Congress, the Committee did not request
Executive Agency views. The testimony provided by the Bureau of
Reclamation at the hearing before the Subcommittee on Water and
Power on June 18, 2015, follows:
Statement of Dionne Thompson, Deputy Commissioner for External and
Intergovernmental Affairs, Bureau of Reclamation U.S. Department of the
Interior
Chairman Lee and members of the Subcommittee, I am Dionne
Thompson, Deputy Commissioner for External and
Intergovernmental Affairs at the Bureau of Reclamation
(Reclamation). Thank you for the opportunity to provide the
views of the Department of the Interior (Department) on S.
1305, which would amend the Colorado River Storage Project Act
(Public Law 84-485). The amendment authorizes Reclamation to
increase the active capacity and, as a result, the amount of
water developed by Fontenelle Reservoir in Wyoming. With the
concerns described below appropriately noted, the Department
does not oppose S. 1305 in its current form.
Fontenelle Reservoir is part of the Seedskadee Project, a
participating project under P.L. 84-485. The dam and reservoir
are located in the Upper Green River Basin in southwestern
Wyoming about 50 miles from Rock Springs. Fontenelle Dam is an
embankment dam standing 139 feet high with a crest length of
over a mile (5,421 feet). Fontenelle Reservoir has a total
capacity of 345,360 acre-feet and is operated for municipal and
industrial water use, power production, flood control, and fish
and wildlife--in support of the Seedskadee National Wildlife
Refuge. Recreation facilities at Fontenelle Reservoir are
managed by the Bureau of Land Management under an agreement
with Reclamation. The intent of S. 1305 is to increase the
yield of Fontenelle Reservoir, further developing the State of
Wyoming's allocation of Colorado River water under the Colorado
River Compact. To understand how S. 1305 would increase the
water available to Wyoming, it is important to review some
basic engineering features associated with Fontenelle Dam.
In general, the active capacity of a reservoir is the space
between the highest elevation at which water can be stored and
the lowest elevation from which water can be released so as to
allow operation for all authorized purposes. Power is an
authorized purpose of the Seedskadee Project. The lowest
elevation at which Fontenelle Powerplant can be safely operated
is approximately 40 feet above the bottom elevation of the
inlet to the powerplant, and is referred to as ``minimum power
pool elevation.''
In order to protect the upstream face of a dam from erosion
caused by wave action, large stones that are resistant to
erosion and wave action are placed on the upstream side of the
dam. These stones are referred to as ``riprap''. In keeping
with engineering practices, Fontenelle Dam includes riprap
protection on the upstream face of the embankment. Because the
dam would not be operated with any frequency below the lowest
power production elevation, original construction and
subsequent modifications did not include placing riprap on the
upstream face of dam below minimum power pool elevation.
For some years, the State of Wyoming has expressed interest
in placing riprap below the minimum power pool elevation, and
this project has come to be known as the ``Riprap Project.'' By
doing so, it would be possible to operate the reservoir within
a greater range of elevations--increasing the operating range
and yield of the reservoir. S. 1305 would authorize the
Department to undertake the ``study, planning, design and
construction activities'' necessary to consider and implement
the Riprap Project (a lowering of the elevation of the riprap).
In considering the Riprap Project, Reclamation has had
concerns, and we appreciate the chance to review this
legislation as it was drafted over the past several months. We
are pleased to note that each of these concerns appears to be
addressed in the introduced language of S. 1305.
S. 1305 amends P.L. 84-485 to authorize consideration and
implementation of the Riprap Project. In doing so, it grounds
the Riprap Project on the statute that originally authorized
the Seedskadee Project. S. 1305 relies upon the authority of
the Contributed Funds Act (Act of March 4, 1921) as the means
for the State of Wyoming to provide the funding to consider and
undertake the Riprap Project. With this arrangement,
Reclamation believes that the Riprap Project can be implemented
without any request for new appropriations, and with no
foreseeable impact to Reclamation's already constrained budget.
It is unlikely that the Riprap Project will adversely
affect other states dependent on the Colorado River or Mexico
beyond what they would face when the Upper Basin States make
full utilization of their apportionments, considering their
apportionments and required releases from the Upper Basin to
the Lower Basin under current operational guidelines that
implement key provisions of the Law of the River including the
Colorado River Compact. Having said that, if S. 1305 becomes
law, it will be important to conduct additional analysis to
ensure that other interests are protected. S. 1305 includes the
following elements that should provide some assurance of no
adverse impacts to other water uses.
First, S. 1305 appears to create robust sideboards to
prevent the Riprap Project from conflicting with law, compacts,
and treaties. This protects against Wyoming expanding its
entitlement to Colorado River water. In Section 2, S. 1305
provides reassurance that it will not modify, conflict with,
preempt, or otherwise affect any applicable federal statutes or
decrees, including, but not limited to:
Boulder Canyon Project Act
Colorado River Compact of 1922
Boulder Canyon Project Adjustment Act
Treaty between the United States of America
and Mexico relating to the utilization of waters of the
Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande
Upper Colorado River Basin Compact
Colorado River Storage Project Act (P.L 84-
485), other than as indicated in Section 1 of S. 1305
Colorado River Basin Project Act (Public Law
90-537; 82 Stat. 885)
Any State of Wyoming or other State water
law
Second, S. 1305 amends P.L. 84-485 to authorize the
planning, design, and construction of the Riprap Project. The
bill's stated purposes include ``making it possible for the
States of the Upper Basin to utilize, consistently with the
provisions of the Colorado River Compact, the apportionments
made to and among them in the Colorado River Compact and the
Upper Colorado River Basin Compact, respectively.'' P.L. 84-485
sets a clear boundary around the Riprap Project; it cannot
permit Wyoming to expand its entitlements under the Colorado
River Compact and the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact.
Another important element of S. 1305 is the definition of
active storage capacity. Although active capacity can generally
be understood as the difference between the upper and lower
elevations at which a reservoir may be operated, the elevation
of both the upper and lower limit may also be defined by
considerations beyond engineering. Other considerations often
limit the degree to which a reservoir may be drained. These
considerations include issues of law, hydrology, economics, and
environment. S. 1305 acknowledges these limitations; in the
bill ``active storage capacity'' is ``defined or limited by
legal, hydrologic, structural, engineering, economic, and
environmental considerations.''
Environmental compliance concerns also are addressed under
S. 1305. The bill requires compliance under the National
Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the
National Historic Preservation Act.
While S. 1305 is clearly written to integrate with existing
law, regulations and contracts, there are some questions
associated with operation and design that may limit the scope
of the Riprap Project. Reclamation has not studied the
operation of Fontenelle Dam at the lower elevations proposed
under the Riprap Project. The original planning and design for
the facility did not include operations at such low levels.
Operation at lower levels could raise the following issues that
should be explored by the study to be authorized by this Act:
Water Delivery Requirements--At lower
reservoir elevations, the rate at which the reservoir
can be drained is slowed (because of the reduced
hydraulic head). Without the study and planning that
would be conducted pursuant to this bill, Reclamation
does not know whether water can be delivered at such
rates as would be necessary.
Instream Flows--Under current operations and
agreements, Reclamation is required to deliver 5,000
acre-feet to the Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge
for fish and wildlife purposes on an annual basis. As
noted above, without additional study Reclamation does
not know whether it will be able to meet these flow
requirements at lower reservoir levels.
Power Generation--Operating the reservoir at
lower elevations will affect powerplant operations.
There would be periods when the powerplant cannot be
operated efficiently and when the powerplant cannot be
operated at all. The result will be impacts on
Reclamation's ability to generate and deliver power
under P.L. 84-485. There is a potential for impacts to
irrigators and municipalities that use Colorado River
Storage Project power as well as to the members of the
Colorado River Energy Distributors Association, which
rely upon and purchase the power.
That concludes my statement. I am pleased to answer
questions at the appropriate time.
CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee notes that no
changes in existing law are made by the bill as ordered
reported.
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