During a Senate Energy Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) questioned Shannon Estenoz, the nominee to be Deputy Interior Secretary, about water infrastructure failings and public cooperation.
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NewsTranscript
00:00And we have Senator Daines. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank my co-chair
00:08of the National Park Subcommittee. Angus and I keep the National Park Subcommittee, we
00:12call ourselves co-chairs. No matter who's in majority control, we are co-chairs and
00:17that's the way we will continue to operate that as long as we're both in that
00:20committee. So, Angus, thank you. Thanks for your service,
00:26Assistant Secretary Snows, and congratulations on your nomination to be the number two
00:30over there at DOI. I look forward to hearing more today about how you
00:35think about managing there and should you be confirmed. I will tell you, last
00:39night I was going back and forth with Cam Shawley, Yeltsin National Park. He was
00:44grateful for your outreach to him. Angus, the co-chair of the Park Subcommittee, should know
00:50that because of the fast action of the Rangers at Yeltsin National Park acting
00:56on some credible intelligence, they prevented what could have been a mass
00:59casualty event over the Fourth of July holidays. They confronted a shooter and
01:04they they killed him. One Ranger was was wounded, thankfully. He's going to be okay.
01:11They had surgery, but I know Cam was grateful for your outreach to him and
01:17during the time, not only what happened in Yellowstone Park over the Fourth of
01:21July holidays, but also with the housing issues there, with the flood that we
01:25dealt with, and I know Cam's grateful for your outreach and your support and I
01:29am too. Thank you. I want to talk about the St. Mary siphon. You thought I'd talk
01:34grizzly bears right out of the gate. I will get to grizzly bears here, but I want to
01:37talk about the the St. Mary siphon failure. This includes the the Bureau of
01:45Reclamation in terms of what we need to do to recover. It's currently working to
01:50address the catastrophic failure. We had two siphons in the St. Mary River which
01:56provide water essentially irrigators at Montez Highline. If confirmed, will you
02:01work with Reclamation, the farmers and ranchers on the Highline? The Highline is
02:05the northern part of our state up close to the Canadian border. It's very arid.
02:09It's dry. We depend on on water to stay alive up there and the irrigation
02:16systems in the St. Mary's infrastructure. I just want to get your
02:20commitment that you would work with us and use all available resource at your
02:24disposal to replace these siphons and ensure the work is done as quickly as
02:30possible. Senator, I appreciate the question and I'm sorry to hear
02:36that we have a water management infrastructure failure. No one knows
02:39how serious those are better than I do and if I am confirmed, I absolutely will
02:43work with you and with BOR to ensure that we're addressing that issue
02:47adequately. Yeah, this is one of the situations where you can't miss one
02:50irrigation season. Right now we've got high temperatures. We've had a cool, we
02:53had a cool June and July and suddenly the temperature spikes. July in Montana, it's
02:57higher temperatures and it gets to be very... And Senator, I'm sorry, may I just
03:01quickly, may I thank you for acknowledging the incident in Yellowstone
03:07and let me just say to the committee, Senator Daines is correct. The bravery of
03:13our law enforcement officers in Yellowstone did indeed likely prevent a
03:18disaster and potentially a mass casualty event. It is true that one of
03:22our officers was shot. A very young officer. He is going to be okay.
03:28He's with his family now and if Senator Risch was here, I would
03:33thank him because our officer was flown to Idaho Falls and the medical
03:38professionals in Idaho cared for him and we're very grateful for
03:41that. So thank you for raising that. Of course, and thanks for your outreach. I do
03:46want to talk grizzly bears. Okay, yes sir. Of course. So last February, of course, FWS
03:52initiated not a 17-month status review. It's called a 12-month status review for
04:00a reason. If they were to initiate a 17-month status review, we'd be expecting
04:04the result here this month, but it's a 12-month status review. So, you know, the
04:11data is very compelling in terms of where the recovery target is, where the
04:15actual populations are. My question is, would you help us and focus on getting
04:26this 12-month review done that should have been completed in February? Senator,
04:31so thank you and it's good to talk grizzlies with you again. And first of
04:37all, let me acknowledge that I agree with you 100%. Not that my agreement matters
04:42because the facts are what they are. The Greater Yellowstone ecosystem population
04:46is recovered. The numbers from 2022, 965. Not only that, as I said earlier, the
04:52Northern Continental Divide population is also recovered at more
04:56than 1,100 bears. And we do have this petition in front of us that's asking
05:01us to delist the GYE as a distinct population segment. It's that
05:05definition that, you know, we're working through. It's got, you know, we've tried
05:10to do that before. We've tried to do that twice before and the courts have
05:13rejected it. And so we're working through that. We're working through our delisting
05:17criteria. And in the meantime, I want to say, because I didn't say it earlier when
05:21we were chatting about grizzlies, I just I need to say for the record how
05:26grateful we are to both Montana and Wyoming for the stewardship of grizzly
05:30bears. And grizzly bears are doing well in those states because the states are
05:35taking good care of grizzly bears. And we know that. Um, and then I also want
05:39to say for the record that, um, we want grizzlies to be recovered and delisted.
05:46I say that with without reservation. We want that. I want that for all of our
05:50listed species, right? A delisting is a celebration. It's but as I mentioned in
05:56the in the E. S. A. The path that you used to get there also matters. It's
06:01not just the listing decision. It's the path you take. That's often what courts
06:05will attack. So we want to make sure we've got the path, right? Yeah, thank
06:09you and agree. But there's no reason we can't get this 12 month study wrapped
06:14up. It's 17 months. Yes, sir. We got to get this rapid now. You all the
06:20interior can decide to slow roll listening to the election if you'd like.
06:23I think that's a big mistake. I think it violates the integrity of this
06:27process. If we don't just commit to the 12 month, it should have been done in
06:30February. It's now the middle of July. Senator, I can assure you that this
06:35process is running based on on the what the needs of the process are. And I
06:40agree with you, you know, driving toward, you know, a decision. When's
06:43it gonna be done? Well, I think we're I don't I don't have I don't have a date
06:48for you. But as I mentioned to you when we met a couple of weeks ago, this issue
06:53may be it's in the top five for the Fish and Wildlife Service leadership. I
06:57can tell you Martha's been out to Montana and Wyoming now a couple of
06:59times in the last month. So this is a top priority. And and I want to stay in
07:07touch with you also in in in the days and weeks ahead. I'm just a little
07:12skeptical. I know it. I know that we're gonna see this get done before the
07:16election. I just think we need to get it done. I mean, just for the sake of the
07:18bears agreed for the sake of the process. I hope we can dissolve the
07:23politics if we might be able to sign and stay focused on the science and get
07:27this. I realize you want to get a solid review done so it protects ourselves
07:31when we get litigated in court. Right. But I mean, at some point, is it 12
07:36months? Is it if we gave you two years, I'm afraid you come back here and say
07:38we're at 36 months and still thinking about it. I appreciate that. I
07:41appreciate that, Senator. You're right. And and we have, you know, it's further
07:45a little bit further complicated because we have three petitions before
07:48us that are all related, you know, and so, um, so I appreciate it. And as
07:53always, I will stay in contact with your office in the days. I'm well over
07:56my time. And the chairman's very gracious. I just I got to talk the
07:59Ninth Circuit Cottonwood fix just one. It says, Will you commit to working
08:03with this committee to get this bipartisan voted out of here by voice
08:07vote fix to save our forest management industry in the West? Absolutely.
08:14Senator, you know, it's one of the great regrets. When I was first in
08:17front of this committee in 2021, you and I agreed. Let's work together on
08:20Cottonwood. Tried to do an administrative fix. Couldn't get that
08:23done. Then we I tried to, you know, I we tried to help and work with you
08:27statutorily. So, yes, well, and I'm grateful we've got, you know, I've got
08:31my colleagues over on this side of the dice here have been supportive of this.
08:35Now I think we're ready. We could use your help here to get this cross
08:38finished. Thank you, Senator. Thank you. Thank you.