WASHINGTON – A House of Representatives panel has met to learn more about removing government regulations in order to update water-storage infrastructure.

The Water and Power Subcommittee spoke Tuesday with constituents from the West to decide whether removing government regulations on water-storage infrastructure would be helpful.

U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, used the example of the Grand Mesa Water Conservancy District, which serves Delta County. The board of directors from the district made plans to rehabilitate breached reservoirs in the fall of 2008. They found various regulations stopped their construction, and it has still not been completed.

Tipton also made the point that water is being directed in urban districts. He says it leaves rural areas of the West “dried up in terms of farms to feed the people that choose to live in those cities.”

Because two-thirds of dams under the Bureau of Reclamation were built in the first 60 years of the agency’s existence, they have not been adjusted for population growth.

Dan Crabtree from the Durango office of the Bureau of Reclamation said the Animas-La Plata Project’s dam will likely be the last it builds. They are in the business of mostly municipal water, as well as rehabilitating existing dams.

Another factor in expanding water storage is the unpredictable nature of the climate. U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock of California remarked on his home state’s problems. Last year billions of gallons of water had to be released because of lack of storage – while this year, California suffers from a very dry winter.

Tipton agreed.

“Water flows on by, and it’s not put to any use,” he said in an interview.

He looked to ways to create water storage in an environmentally sound way, by a natural basin or underground.

The president of the Family Farm Alliance, Patrick O’Toole, said members of the alliance receive all irrigation water from the Bureau of Reclamation. The Bureau of Reclamation is the largest wholesaler of water in the country.

“We have to make a recommitment to that commitment we made generations ago,” said O’Toole. “It is important to have rural infrastructure.”

“The best environmentalists we have are our farmers and ranchers,” Tipton said.

Bill Midcap, the director of the Renewable Energy Center at the Rock Mountain Farmers Union, said his concern is in repairing existing infrastructure as opposed to building new dams and reservoirs.