The National Groundwater Association’s annual Legislative Conference was held this week in WashingtonD.C.
Ron Shipe, Shipe Well Drilling and IGWA Treasurer and Brent Welty, Welty & Sons Well Drilling and IGWA Past President represented the Indiana Groundwater Association Sunday, February 24th through Tuesday, February 26th.
Ron and Brent along with Robert Stone, Senior Vice President of Franklin Electric, and Michael Morris of Lee & Ryan Environmental Consulting, met with Rep. Mark Souder of the 3rd District, Scott Morrison in Senator Evan Bayh’s office and Amy Oberhelmarin of Senator Lugar’s office.Rep. Souder, as usual, gave them 45 minutes of his time.(Last year he spent the same amount of time with Mike Kaufman and Donna Sheets.)
Robert Stone also met with Rep. Mike Ferguson of the 7th District (interim for Rep. Julia Carson, recently deceased).Robert Stone and Michael Morris also met with Danny Crouch of Rep. Mike Pence’s office.
The NGWA’s legislative staff and Chris Reimer along, with the DUTCO legislative consultants, prepped everyone with the issues at hand.The key issues at this time were:
Geologic Carbon Sequestration – disposal of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the subsurface via well injection is one of the considerations as a viable approach to mitigating greenhouse gas buildupThe CO2 generated from large industrial sources is captured, compressed and transported where it is injected into a deep geologic system to be permanently sequestered.
Secure Water Act S. 2156 – water shortages are being experienced now and are anticipated over the next 20 years.While states are gathering data to inform decision making, no state has met it data collection goals.Only 28 states responding to an NGWA survey are confident they know the potential yield from all of their state’s aquifers.One of the key objectives is to enhance the data collection in order to base the monitoring activities on sound science.
Clean Construction USA sponsored by the EPA to regulate the heavy-duty vehicle and its fuel as a single system.The NGWA asks that they be used as a resource when evaluating and implementing programs regarding this issue.
Past issues that were also mentioned are:
LUST – Leaking Underground Storage Tanks – Last year Rep. Souder wanted to know how many were in his district.The NGWA researched and came up with the information.
Geo Thermal Heat Pump Credit
Safe Drinking Water Grants
A detailed report will be included in the next newsletter.For more information on these issues, please visit www.ngwa.org
Legislative Fly-In Sponsored by the National Groundwater Association
Mike Kaufman, Kaufman Well Drilling, Waterloo, Indiana and IGWA Treasurer and Donna Sheets, IGWA Executive Director attended the 10th annual National Groundwater Association’s Legislative Fly-In.
The program was kicked off with the 2007 NGWA Affiliate State Leadership Conference on Sunday, March 4th held at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill.We brought back a couple of ideas for our committee meetings on March 24th!
Monday, March 5th, we met at the Capitol Hill Club right across the street from the congressional offices.We were prepped to review the national message for the following issues:
LUST – Leaking Underground Storage Tanks:Funding Needs – in a nutshell, 211 million dollars per year is raised through a fuel tax of 1% of .01 sold in the US.Only 70 million dollars is actually appropriated to the states.According to the National Association of Convenience Stores, Indiana has 14,049 underground storage tanks.As of this writing, we are researching exactly how many of these tanks are leaking and need immediate action.The states have identified this as the number one ground water contamination source.
Household Water Well System Program – The NGWA is one of a small number of not for profit organizations to receive a $1 – million grant to establish revolving 1% low interest 20 year loan programs, maximum amount of $8,000, to households who are economically disadvantaged.Congress appropriated $10-million over a ten year period starting in 2002.The goal is to continue this program into the future with some modifications.Currently the NGWA has drawn $100,000 on their approved amount this fiscal year.(The NGWA had to put $100,000 up front to be eligible.) There are many examples of loan recipients but the most common are single parents, typically mothers with young children who have no in-home drinking water due to well collapse or pump failure.There are 22 states participating in this program with the NGWA and Indiana is one of them.According to Paul Humes, NGWA’s CFO, there are a couple of loans processing at this time in Indiana.
Ground Water Monitoring and Data Collection Briefing -There are 36 states that expect water supply shortages, either statewide or in certain areas, in the next ten years.The ability to drill large and small capacity wells in the future may hinge on the quality of the data being fed into models at the state and local level.The key objective is to establish a collaborative framework among federal, state, local and non-governmental entities to address data gaps on ground water resources.
Geothermal Heat Pump Systems – There is currently a $300 federal tax credit for residential geothermal heat pump installation.The objective is to have the credit continue beyond December 31, 2007.Geothermal heat pumps are among the most efficient heating and cooling technologies available, according to the EPA’s Energy Start Program.
On Tuesday, March 6th, Mike and Donna delivered legislative materials to Senator Lugar’s office as he sits on the Ag Committee, Rep. Ellsworth who sits on the Ag and Small Business Committees and Rep. Donnelly who sits on the Ag Committee.They met with Ann Terry in Senator Bayh’s office and Brian Fauls in Rep. Burton’s office.
Rep Mark Souder and his Legislative Assistant, Brett Swearingen, met with them personally for 30 minutes.Rep. Souder is Mike Kaufman’s congressman and he was very interested in learning how Mike’s business is impacted by issues in his county.We greatly appreciate the time afforded us by Rep. Souder.He asked for more information on LUST and how it is impacting Indiana.
This was a great experience for Mike and Donna.Next year we would like to see more representation from the Indiana groundwater industry.We would encourage you to work this into your budget for 2008.If you would like more information on these issues, please contact the IGWA office at 888-443-7330 or email ingroundwater@msn.com
On December 22nd, 2006 I scheduled a meeting with the following members of Governor Daniel’s staff;
Shannon Kiely, Governor Daniel’s Legislative Director
Andrew Norris, Governor Daniel’s Legal Assistant
Joani Howell, Rep. Bill Ruppel’s Legislative Director
Jan Zarich, Rep. Lehe’s Assistant
Indiana Groundwater Association members in attendance were:
Fred McAninch, The Rig Doctors, IGWA Legislative Chair
Brad White, RJM Sales & Marketing, IGWA President
Rick Ortman, Ortman Drilling of Kokomo
Also in attendance were representatives from the Indiana Department of Transportation and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
In my presentation, we communicated that although we may have the license plate issue settled (no complaints as of this writing), it was actually just the tip of the “ice-berg”.The following issues are still unresolved:
1)Height exemptions
2)Weight exemptions
3)Length exemptions
4)Width exemptions
5)Inter-state highway movement (never had this)
We still have the following exemptions:
1)Federal exemptions from excise tax for trucks for mounting new or used units
2)Indiana fuel tax
3)Federal fuel tax
4)Federal highway use tax
Under federal law and DOT rules, we are strictly off-road equipment, not trucks equipment.They count the carrier and drill unit as one.
We had a good and lively dialogue that needs to be addressed.As of this date, I have heard nothing as the result of our discussion.I will follow up on this issue. As of this writing, we are LEGALLY not LEGAL on many roads and highways due to the above.We received many puzzled looks of disbelief from our comments and remarks.We are hoping all was understood.They had a hard time comprehending that our small business industry affects over four (4) million people in this state.
Should you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at 317-839-7534.If you are interested in serving on the Legislative Committee or experience any issues that should be shared with our membership, please contact me at 317-839-7534 or the IGWA staff at 888-443-7330 or 317-889-2382 or via email at ingroundwater@msn.comWe will post these items on our website and develop a call to action when appropriate.Thank you.
