Chairman Hager called the conference committee on House Bill 12-18 to order on the proposal to clarify when environmental assessments (EAs) apply to assessment drain projects and to add a study of EA thresholds.

The committee agreed to keep the $1,000,000 dollar threshold that is currently found in state code for assessment drain projects and to maintain a moratorium on requiring EAs for those projects while a study of thresholds is completed. Chairman Hager said the proposed subparagraph 3 "makes it just really tight to assessment drain projects" and that "the dollar amount is the $1,000,000 that was that is in code right now." Senator Kessel said the change "just let[s] us go do the study and go forward with that threshold in place."

The nut graf: committee members said the combination of the moratorium and the directed study aims to address perceived weaknesses in how the EA tool evaluates agricultural land benefits and to avoid what members called unintended cost-share outcomes.

Members discussed why additional time and study were needed despite existing EAs. Senator Enget asked why historical information from the roughly "over 50" EAs already completed was not being used and "why do we need another 2 years to assess?" Committee members responded that the EA tool, developed during the 2019 legislative session, contains gaps for agricultural land valuation that have produced lower benefit scores and therefore lower cost-share outcomes. A committee member said the EAs already completed have been reworked multiple times to reach appropriate cost-benefit analyses for assessment drain projects.

Representative Doctor described the bill’s origin, saying a prior session’s change "circumvented water commission and they went down to $2.50," and framed the current language as intended to prevent a repeat of that outcome. Committee members said the proposed language would preserve the million-dollar threshold while the study is conducted and would allow the interim Water Topics Committee to review how agricultural benefits are evaluated and whether thresholds should change after the study.

No formal motion or vote on final passage occurred during the meeting. Committee staff indicated they would run the agreed language to Legislative Counsel to produce the official LC form; Chairman Hager said the committee could reconvene once that drafting is complete. The chairman adjourned the conference committee at the end of the discussion.

Ending: The committee’s next steps are to place the amended language into LC form and to schedule a follow-up meeting for possible consideration once the legal text is available. The substance of the bill as discussed would (a) maintain the $1,000,000 EA threshold in state code for assessment drain projects and (b) add a directed study of thresholds and EA valuation for agricultural land, with the interim Water Topics Committee tasked to review the results.