Daines Urges Colleagues to Support Clean Water Infrastructure in Montana

“These samples aren’t from third-world countries. They’re coming out of faucets in Montana” WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Steve Daines today spoke in a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing where he discussed his bill to bring clean drinking water to eastern Montana and reform the hydropower licensing process. Watch the full exchange HERE . Daines on the “Dry Redwater Regional Water Authorization Act:” The “Dry Red Water Regional Water Authorization Act” will authorize the construction of critical water systems in eastern Montana. In fact, back in 2020, Congress passed my bill for the Bureau of Reclamation to complete a feasibility study to bring clean drinking water to Dawson, Garfield, McCone, Prairie, and Richland counties in Montana, as well as McKenzie County in North Dakota. After five years, Reclamation finished their study, and in response, the Montana delegation drafted and introduced Senate Bill 4489, which will federally authorize this water system and add it to the rural water program. I want to show my colleagues why this bill is so important and why I have been working on rural water issues in this committee since day one. I brought some water samples today from Montanans in McCone County. Now, I’m not bringing these samples from a third-world country. This is literally water coming out of some faucets in McCone County in Montana. You can’t see this one quite as well. But if you look at it as closely as I can see it, you never want to think about pouring that out of your faucet and taking a sip of water from it.  Obviously, this is water that families in Montana should not be drinking. My bill will finally authorize the Dry Red Water Regional Water Authority system and bring clean drinking water to over 30,000 Montanans in towns like Glendive, Circle, Richey, Jordan, and Sidney. I look forward to working with the Bureau of Reclamation and this community to get this bill to the President’s desk and be in construction of this important project. Daines on the “Hydropower Licensing and Affordability Act:” Senate Bill 5048, the Hydropower Licensing and Affordability Act would make very targeted changes to Sections 4(e) and 18 of the Federal Power Act to ensure that federal agencies focus on the direct effects of a project when they’re licensing or relicensing a hydropower dam. Federal agencies have weaponized what’s called mandatory conditioning where they can require a hydropower operator to do specific actions before granting a license. We’ve seen this weaponization repeatedly in Montana and across the West and it has resulted in massive project costs and risk the continuation of solid hydropower projects. For example, in Montana, the Thompson Falls Dam is currently going through relicensing, and we’re fighting back against unnecessary and unrelated conditions from agencies. This bill would remove the abuse without weakening environmental or endangered species protections or limiting tribal and state consultation. Senate Bill 5048 simply adds one line to the existing sections of the law, ensuring that mandatory conditions are limited to those that, quote, “reasonably mitigate the direct adverse effect of the applicable project,” end quote. This is straightforward and should not be a controversial proposal. I look forward to working with the Chairman to include this in the permitting package or a future markup. ### Contact: Gabby Wiggins