S.Amdt. 878

SA 878. Mr. UDALL of New Mexico submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 601, to provide for the conservation and development of water and related resources, to authorize the Secretary of the Army to construct various projects for improvements to rivers and harbors of the United States, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

On page 227, after line 25, insert the following:

SEC. 5005. RIO GRANDE DROUGHT MANAGEMENT PROGRAM.

(a) In General.--The Secretary, in conjunction with the Secretary of the Interior and the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, shall evaluate alternatives for operational changes and technically feasible structural modifications to completed water resources projects of the Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission along the Rio Grande River--

(1) to minimize evaporation, seepage, and other losses; and

(2) to maximize the amount of water available to water users and the environment, including the support of recovery efforts for threatened and endangered species, during periods of drought disaster in significant areas of the Rio Grande Basin, as designated by the Secretary of Agriculture.

(b) Authorization.--The Secretary, the Secretary of the Interior, and the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission may, after notification to Congress and obtaining written consent from the appropriate State water resource agencies and tribal governments in which those completed projects are located, implement any operational changes or structural modifications identified under subsection (a).

(c) Applicability.--

(1) In general.--Nothing in this section alters, amends, repeals, interprets, or modifies--

(A) the Act entitled “Giving the consent and approval of Congress to the Rio Grande compact signed at Santa Fe, New Mexico, on March 18, 1938”, approved May 31, 1939; or

(B) the Treaty relating to the utilization of waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande, and supplementary protocol signed at Washington February 3, 1944 (59 Stat. 1219).

(2) Effect on state laws.--Nothing in this section supersedes any State law.