South Carolina General Assembly
120th Session, 2013-2014

Download This Bill in Microsoft Word format

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

H. 4505

STATUS INFORMATION

Concurrent Resolution
Sponsors: Rep. Bowen
Document Path: l:\council\bills\nbd\11292ac14.docx

Introduced in the House on January 16, 2014
Introduced in the Senate on February 18, 2014
Currently residing in the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources

Summary: Water management program

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

     Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1/16/2014  House   Introduced (House Journal-page 228)
   1/16/2014  House   Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Natural Resources 
                        and Environmental Affairs (House Journal-page 226)
    2/6/2014  House   Recalled from Committee on Agriculture, Natural 
                        Resources and Environmental Affairs 
                        (House Journal-page 23)
    2/7/2014          Scrivener's error corrected
   2/18/2014  House   Adopted, sent to Senate (House Journal-page 23)
   2/18/2014  Senate  Introduced (Senate Journal-page 11)
   2/18/2014  Senate  Referred to Committee on Agriculture and Natural 
                        Resources (Senate Journal-page 11)

View the latest legislative information at the website

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

1/16/2014
2/6/2014
2/7/2014

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

RECALLED

February 6, 2014

H. 4505

Introduced by Rep. Bowen

S. Printed 2/6/14--H.    [SEC 2/7/14 1:02 PM]

Read the first time January 16, 2014.

            

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

TO JOIN THE SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA JOINT WATER CAUCUS TO ENCOURAGE STATE AGENCIES, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS, TO IMPLEMENT A WATER MANAGEMENT PROGRAM FOR THE SAVANNAH RIVER BASIN TO ENSURE CONTINUOUS OPTIMIZATION OF WATER QUALITY AND QUANTITY MANAGEMENT OF THE WATER RESOURCES SHARED BY SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA THROUGHOUT THE SAVANNAH RIVER BASIN.

Whereas, the South Carolina and Georgia General Assemblies have formed a Joint Water Caucus to encourage and provide political support for an ongoing bi-state program of optimizing the management of shared water resources in the Savannah River Basin (SRB); and

Whereas, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as managers of these shared water resources, along with appropriate state agencies are conducting a comprehensive study of the impact of recent droughts in order to determine what improvements to the SRB Water Management Manual should be implemented; and

Whereas, Clemson University has successfully demonstrated in the SRB, new state-of-the-art technologies that would greatly enhance the collection and availability of real-time water quality and quantity data throughout the SRB; and

Whereas, increasingly unpredictable climate changes continue to make weather predictions less reliable and therefore management of water resources based on historical data less reliable; and

Whereas, this unpredictability and the reliance on rule curves based on past weather patterns has compounded the negative impact of several severe droughts in the SRB over the past decade due to unnecessary releases of water reserves from the SRB reservoirs prior to and during early stages of the droughts. Now therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

That the members of the South Carolina General Assembly, by this resolution, join the South Carolina and Georgia Joint Water Caucus in encouraging the appropriate state agencies of both states, in conjunction with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as part of their current study, to explore, develop, and implement a flexible adaptive water management program for the Savannah River Basin that utilizes real-time data and applies lessons learned during recent droughts to define the most practical and conservative reservoir storage rules based on actual conditions and real-time data to ensure continuous optimization of water quality and quantity management of the water resources shared by South Carolina and Georgia throughout the Savannah River Basin.

----XX----

This web page was last updated on February 19, 2014 at 9:38 AM