H.B. 63 Livestock Watering Amendments: transcript

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, and committee. This, uh, this bill's interesting. We've, uh, started it probably three years ago, maybe two years for sure. And, uh, tried to, uh, work in two or three different things to get so we could do 'em all at once. It didn't quite fit, so we decided we'd just get this one out, get it taken care of. This one, it's, uh, and I'm gonna be talking, uh, we've got an amendment, uh, to it. I'll be needing to, uh, uh, when we get to that portion, we'll need to, uh, add it to the, to the system. Let's do that at the end of your presentation. That's what I figured, but I just wanna make sure and mention that's what I will be talking to, is the amendment part. Anyway, uh, it came about because as you know, uh, with, uh, livestock grazing, one of the things that that helps us with good management on our range is, is having water to help distribute the, the livestock. And, uh, we've had some, uh, and so it helps us to be able to move water from one portion of a sub, uh, of a drainage, uh, to another portion of some, uh, uh, on the sub drainage parts without, uh, and, but this bill, so that's what we're, we intend to do and, uh, is make it so it's easier to do, makes it easier for the, the, uh, person that needs to move the water. It makes it easier for the state engineer to do her part. And so, uh, it's been through the, the, uh, uh, water Development Commission and got a, um, a, a unanimous approval. It went through the, the task force got a unanimous approval. And then when we get working on it, it was interesting when I was, uh, when we first started talking about what a small pond would look like, why it made me, uh, remember about when I was a young person. And, um, uh, my dad developed a, a spring on, uh, uh, in our, uh, forest allotment. And it was about the same size as what we talked about here, making our, our, uh, our small pond, a 30 by 30 and could be up to five feet deep. And we had some, um, uh, it was really fun. Uh, my brother and I, uh, would kind of sneak up there at different times and see what animals were coming into water. And on the forest it worked pretty good, but it didn't, uh, we didn't really, we got, considering it when I talked to the, uh, grazing improvement folks over at the Department of Ag, it doesn't, it worked pretty good on the forest, but down in the, in the deserts, I, that small pond was probably not gonna be adequate. So we decided we'd see if we could change it. And it was an easy do. So we fixed it to be, uh, a small pond that would be described. And that's what the amendment does. It describes it as, as two, uh, acre feet or less. I wanted to show you a picture of what that was like on our, or what one of the things my brother and I, uh, enjoyed, uh, doing with the one my dad developed. Lemme show that picture of that. So, uh, we've got a picture here that kind of shows what happens sometimes upon the, on the forest and if we've got plugged in down here, but we're not getting our picture to come up anyway, what was interesting about what would happen up on the forest was the, the elk, the, the game would come in and one, I remember my brother and I went up there and there was always two bull elk that would come in and they would waller that small drinking pond into a mud bath. Had a pretty nice, uh, six point and a smaller four point. And we thought it was fun to go up and watch 'em until one day we went up there and it was a bear in that, uh, pond. And that was like, we were quite expecting that to be the case. But what I did remember, what my brother reminded me about was they would make it difficult for the cows to water. So I remember on that one we put a trough in and made it so that it'd work. Anyway, I was gonna show you a picture of some elk in a water pond, but I don't see one. She's working on it. Okay. Anyway, so what what we've done is we've just made it so that it's easy for the state engineer. It's easy for the producer. He has to be a private landowner, have livestock grazing on an allotment or something within the area, and, um, made it so that it can help so we can get the water distributed and get the livestock distributed and graze it, uh, in a lot, uh, and manage the grazing a lot better. And so that's basically what the, the, the bill does anyway, Or a question. Any

No, this, uh, Could include a stream. It, This can con, can con can include live water that, that gets diverted from one point to another. But, uh, in the, the cases that we've worked with most, it's the same, uh, person that owns the water rights in both, both areas. If it, uh, what we, the way we've designed it, if it interferes with somebody else's water right in any way, then, uh, then they, this, this will not apply.

Um, Terry Camp, I'm the Vice President of Public Policy for the Utah Farm Bureau. I'll be very brief. Um, Utah Farm Bureau supports this bill. Um, we've worked with Representative Chew on it for the last, um, several months, um, and believe that this, um, respects other water rights, uh, and supports stable working agricultural landscapes across Utah. Um, like you mentioned, these enc catchments down, like in Kane County and other places, this will be a huge help for those. Um, so we'd ask the committee to support this bill. Thanks.

Yeah. Troy Forest, deputy Commissioner at the Utah Department of Agri Agricul from food. Uh, we support this as well. I mean, this, this makes a lot of what we do with our GI prog program. Easier to move water in pipelines in a, in an allotment or in a, in a private land situation, to put it in different troughs without having to get a change order through the stage engineer. We see this as a big win. The the two acre feet versus the 30,000 gallons that was proposed before is huge. I mean, most of our guys aren't willing to fire up a big piece of equipment to go get a a 30,000 gallon pond on, on our desert country, but two acre feet is very real and something they can use. So, so we at the department strongly support this thank the sponsor.

Hi, Carl, it's Sierra Nelson. I live in Paradise, but I represent the Utah Wool Growers Association. And I Do you wanna share the picture? I mean, do I just say ditto at this point? Because I echo what Troy and Terry both said. We really support this bill and encourage you guys to pass it through. So thank you very much for your time today. Thank you for getting online.

Oh, good. Thank you. Mr. Chair has, has, uh, has it been amended? I just wanted to double check.

I will. I will gladly do that. Uh, both. Are there two amendments or just one?

Uh, Mr. Chair, I'd like to propose that we, uh, support House Amendment number two in Representative Chew name.

Uh, no. It's a good amendment.

Uh, Mr. Chair, I'd like propose that we pass out, uh, house Bill, uh, 63 is amended with a favorable recommendation.

I'll pass. Okay. Uh, sponsor.

I appreciate that and I'd appreciate the, the support of the committee. But I must have to say, I kind of thought I would have a, a, a, a response of some sort from the good representative from Millcreek. 'cause he, him and I have had a few discussions and he knows now you don't drink downstream from the herd. Oh, dear. Do that before He told me.

That's it. Thank you. I appreciate your support.

Okay. So I'm gonna have the state engineer come up and help me if there's any questions I can answer. So, uh, house Bill 63 is, uh, livestock watering Amendments and, and I brought all my, I or I had my, my talking points and I seem to have not put 'em in my folder, but I can do it. This one's a pretty easy one. So, you know, uh, how important it is to, uh, to disperse our, our livestock when we're, uh, have 'em out on the range grazing. And, and one the important, uh, things we use to get 'em to disperse is, is water distribution. And that's basically what what we're doing with this, uh, with this bill is, uh, if we have water, uh, we can move it around as long as we keep it in the same sub basin and, uh, don't infringe on anybody else's water rights. And, uh, and, and, uh, we started out, it, it's been a little bit of a process, but, uh, we started out, and I dunno whether you've seen some of the, the, uh, first, uh, attempts at this and, and the, the pond size and the concern that we've had with, with, uh, the size of a, of a large pond or a small pond and the definitions and stuff. But anyway, we settled on that, uh, a small pond's, uh, up to, uh, up to two acre feet. And, uh, and basically it just, if we don't infringe on anybody's, uh, uh, water right, and keep it within the same, uh, sub-basin, uh, why let, let's go out and, and get the, the livestock to disperse. So if there's any questions, I, and if, if I've failed to, to say something, well, I've got the state engine here that could help do that, but I think that, uh, she's awfully good at, at realizing it. The less said the better sometimes. Okay. Well thank you.

Hi, uh, Terry Camp Vice President of Public Policy for the Utah Farm Bureau Federation. I'll keep this exceptionally brief 'cause I'm dehydrated 'cause this room is so hot. Um, but, um, we, we support this bill. This will do a, a great job helping our ranchers and appreciate Representative Chew for sponsoring it. Thanks.

Thank you. Uh, Connor Peterson, director of Legislative and Government of Government Affairs with the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food. And we also just wanna rise in support. Um, this is a great bill and will help, um, our, our ranchers and the Grazing Improvement program. And so we thank the sponsor and the state engineer, uh, for this bill. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, Mr. Chairman, I would make a motion that we pass out House bill 63 as amended With the Favor Recommendation Motion's. In order we favorably recommend House Bill 63.

So, uh, I appreciate the motion and attention of the, the committee. I, uh, would like to mention that this is, uh, like I said, it's been a little while. We worked on it quite a bit. It's been through the Water Development Commission, through the water task force. Everybody's really interested and they think, Hey, this is a good, a good thing. Let's, uh, you know, it keeps the water in the same sub-basin, but it helps us disperse the livestock. Livestock. Let's, let's go out and do a good job of managing the range. Yeah, we really appreciate that. And, and our ranchers might just not know that you know this and that's better practice on every, everything around.

Thanks. You guys. Motion To Adjourn. Final motion to adjourn. Non debatable.

Madam Reading Clerk House Bill 63 Livestock Watering Amendments by Representative Chew. This bill was sort of natural resources, agriculture and Environment with a vote of 11 0 3.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. This bill, uh, you guys, we've needed this to come about. Uh, livestock Watering Amendments, uh, was heard in, uh, uh, legislative Water Development Commission, the Water Task Force, and, uh, it helps with the management of livestock Grazing wipe by allowing us to move water around a sub basin for more beneficial livestock placement. A person must have a water, right? You can't impact another person's water, right? But must have private land or a grazing permit to take advantage of this opportunity. And, uh, it, it's all within the same, uh, sub-basin. So with that, uh, if there's any questions, I'll see if I can answer 'em.

Uh, it's a good, it's a good bill. Helps us, uh, manage our land a little bit better with the crazing. So, uh, please, please help support me on it.

Thank you. Um, in the, uh, livestock grazing community, uh, in dealing with water rights, there is a section that deals with what we call sub-basin rights. In other words, a water right, uh, can be placed on a source, uh, and then, uh, in the current condition, we cannot move cattle between a different sources in that sub-basin. This basically clarifies that a person has a, that has a water right that doesn't infringe on another water right. May also be able to move that water right to from point source to point source without depleting or without any additional, uh, necessary uh, uh, water right allotment. Um, must own the, you must own the private property or grazing allotments within the sub basin to take, take advantage of opportunity. Uh, it's been through, uh, both of our, uh, kind of committees that we let water law go through and without. I'm open to any questions. Looking for questions again to the bill, not seeing any today. Senator, I'm gonna go to you for a motion.

I would move that house. Bill 63. Be read a third time.

Motion to table house bill 63 for on third for fiscal impact.

Thank you Mr. President. Uh, livestock Watering Amendments helps with livestock grazing management. It, uh, allows moving livestock water around a sub-basin, uh, using different points of diversion. Person must have the water right and can't infringe on another water. Right. Uh, and with that I'm open to any questions.

I'd move that house. Bill 63 under suspension of the rules pass.

Senator Millner. Um, what this bill does is, uh,