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Interstate Water Management Committee Meeting Summary February 3, 2020 Conference Call

  1. Call to Order—Chair Drew Dehoff, SRBC called to order at 1:03 p.m. Central
  • Introductions of Participants on the call:  Drew Dehoff, Sue Lowry, Sam Swartz, Rhonda Manning, Brian Atkins. 
  • Update of the 2006 Interstates Report 
  1. Finalizing Report and Primer—Drew has a call tomorrow with his graphic design contractor and may need to circle back with committee members for any details or perhaps photos.  Drew will have a better completion schedule estimate as well after this meeting tomorrow.
  • Roll out details—if the updated report/Executive Summary/Primer are ready to release prior to Roundtable, go ahead and send out with an announcement as there may not be room on the RT agenda for any ICWP specific items. 
  • Discuss January 8 all-committee webinar
    • Drought recommended as cross cutting topic for all committees—the first quarterly all-committee webinar might be with Veva Deheza (NIDIS) as was discussed by the Water Data and Science committee.  Veva will be asked to address issues related to all four committees, including interstate aspects. As several of the DEWS (Drought Early Warning System) are based on river basin boundaries, there is an inherent interstate aspect. 
  • Develop 2020 workplan and identify 1-3 Principle Statements topics. Drew will work on one or two sample statements for the next call. Drew mentioned that he sees the Interstates committee serving 2 main functions: 1) outward facing which would focus on the benefits of interstate collaboration and encourage with federal agencies and others; and 2) inward facing of education our members and other on how effective interstate organizations are structured and the types of issues they address. The case studies from the updated report could also provide suggested webinar topics for the committee to host. 
  • Internship Project ideas—no intern applications were received. 
  • Other items for the Committee’s consideration
    • Begin to develop other issues for 2020 Workplan
      • Update on MS/TN groundwater litigation
      • Compact case studies
  • Next call or webinar—A committee date will be set for after the Roundtable to begin to address non-report update topics. 

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Interstate Water Management Committee:  Educate public officials about value of interstate water management organizations.  Provide a forum for sharing current trends in interstate issues.

2019 Accomplishments:

  • Updated the 2006 “Interstate Water Solutions” report
  • Drafted an Interstates Water Primer
  • Updated Interstate Water Management Case Studies

Issues for 2020 Workplan

  1. Complete Interstates Report update
    1. Complete Primer
    1. Update on MS/TN groundwater litigation
    1. Compact case studies—Many of our state/interstate members have expertise on individual compacts and their administration.  The water quality issues between Arkansas and Oklahoma has been suggested.  There are likely other examples across the country.  Sue mentioned seeing Stephen Bartell at the ARWA meeting and he is willing to provide an update on the various interstate litigation the Dept. of Justice is involved in.
    1. Work with interstate water organizations to highlight, promote and nourish regional approaches and effective organizations.

Hear about Federal cases:  Stephen Bartell—Solicitor’s office

Federal Reserved Rights Primer (perhaps Norm Johnson could do a similar webinar to what he presented at AWRA)

Ask member states/interstates to give talk on recent litigation

            Republican River Basin (KS and NE)

            Montana v Wyoming—Chris Brown from Wyoming AG’s office

            Ken Brazil mentioned some Water Quality interstate litigation

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