Water Issues

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the importance of water and my concerns with the Biden administration's unnecessary overreach.

We use water to sustain ourselves; for industrial manufacturing; for swimming and recreation with our family and friends; to bathe; and to produce the most affordable, abundant, and safe food supply in the world.

Agriculture is the largest industry in Kansas' Big First District and across the State, so water conditions determine good or bad crop years, the amount of time livestock producers spend hauling water or moving cattle to land with a better pond, and ultimately, the kinds of foods that show up on the grocery store shelves across the country.

In western and south-central Kansas, the Ogallala aquifer is the main source of water and represents the supply of one-third of the State of Kansas. The Ogallala covers about 175,000 square miles across eight States from South Dakota to Texas, making it the largest aquifer in the country and one of the largest in the world.

At the beginning of the 20th century, States began pumping water from the Ogallala to irrigate the land for agricultural production use. In arid climates like western Kansas, irrigation transformed the Dust Bowl ridden region into the incredibly productive land that we see today. On average, Kansas has about three million irrigated acres with nearly 2.6 million acres irrigated with water from the Ogallala and the rest of the High Plains aquifer. The Ogallala's groundwater is essential to our food supply, as it supports nearly one-fifth of all of the wheat, corn, cotton, and cattle produced in the United States.

In 2018, when I was Lieutenant Governor of Kansas, we worked with the Ogallala Water Coordinated Agriculture Project to hold the first ever Ogallala Aquifer Summit in Garden City and gathered stakeholders from the eight States covering the aquifer to discuss the need to conserve water and sustain the Ogallala region's agriculture productivity over the long-term, adapting new technologies and voluntarily reducing water waste.

Since then, producers like Lynn Goossen have made changes to their operations to reduce the amount of water they pump and protect Ogallala. Goossen Farms has shifted from irrigated corn to a wheat rotation, adapted conservation practices when applying fertilizer, and changed from flood to sprinkler irrigation. Understanding the depletion of the Ogallala caused Mr. Goossen to take on leadership within his Groundwater Management District and work with other producers to voluntarily use their water wisely.

Efforts at the State level in Kansas through Groundwater Management Districts have also supported the sustainable use of the Ogallala aquifer where districts work with communities to set their own water conservation goals and control measures; develop plans to reduce water withdrawals in a designated area; and continue using water in a manner that is economically viable. The research from the Northwest Kansas Technical College Water Technology Farm has helped producers like Tim Franklin in Sherman County. The Franklin family farm was early to enroll in a Water Conservation Area, and uses the technology developed and tested at Northwest Tech to help meet their water reduction goals.

These voluntary, locally led efforts to safeguard our water were supported during the Trump administration when they published a reasonable and clear definition of ``waters of the United States'' in the Navigable Waters Protection Rule. This rule provided certainty for farmers and ranchers, and designated authority back to States to regulate their own waters after years of Federal overreach.

Unfortunately, President Biden has once again determined that the Federal Government knows best and announced his intent to review the rule, likely signaling a return to the Obama administration's WOTUS rule, which sought to Federally regulate every small stream, ditch or puddle of water. This announcement is especially frustrating as many western States currently face an extreme drought, leading to a severe water shortage for not only our agriculture producers, but also drinking water and hydroelectric energy generators. Further regulation adds insult to injury.

Producers and water users at the local level know their community best, which is why I joined several of my House colleagues on legislation that would codify the Navigable Waters Protection Rule and on a letter to President Biden stating our strong opposition to any return to the expanded Federal jurisdiction over waters around the country. I have also led legislation that would push back on executive overreach in our agriculture, energy, and natural resource sectors.

Our farmers and ranchers are the original conservationists and continually update practices to reduce water use and inputs so that they can continue to produce safe, affordable food while maintaining their water supply for generations to come. We must provide certainty regarding their local water rights and continue to stand in opposition to any overreaching regulations that threaten the livelihoods of Kansas farmers and ranchers.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source