Agriculture, Forestry & Economic Development- House

Chairman Mister Roger Lynch for letting me chair today's meeting. It was his idea, not mine, so please bear with me and give me grace, um, Representative Shepherd, you're recognized to present your amendment. If you're ready. Thank you Thank you, Mr. Chairman, uh, members, this is, uh. An amendment that was brought to me by The department Uh, Shane Corey asked for this amendment just to clarify some of the language in in the bill and so, uh, we'd moved to adopt the amendment. Representative Shepard has moved to adopt the amendment. All in favor say aye. All the post. The amendment has been adopted. You're ready to present your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, so this bill is a bill that has been uh brought to us, uh, from some of the entities that deal with with brine production in South Arkansas or at least one of the entities that deals with br production in South Arkansas. Um, it's been worked on with uh input from a number of different stakeholders, uh, to bring us to the point of where this bill is today. Um, basically it, as you can see it's fairly short it just provides uh for some provisions where the operator of a Bri uh. Of a rian production unit can either transfer acreage between the units or in certain cases could remove acreage from uh a unit and I do have, uh, Mark Day, who's the Um Can't think of the term. I just ask him, and he told me he's the head, head of public relations and land uh for Lanxis, which is one of the uh one of the large uh brine producers in in uh manufacturing facilities in South Arkansas. He's here and I would with the chair's permission, I ask him to join me here at the table, uh, to answer any questions that. The committee may have. It For those that aren't familiar with how a unit works. Uh, in the oil and gas industry and in this, in this industry when it comes to to brine uh production. Uh, acreage can be aggregated and put together to form a unit and therefore the production from anywhere within that unit, even though there may be different landowners or it's or different mineral owners that can be aggregated such that um the the production from the unit and the sale of Brian from that unit inures to the benefit of everybody within that unit and as you can see, uh, one part of this is to allow the transfer these. units and, and Mr. Day can speak to this Lexis had several different uh units. Uh, production units, but then several different facilities in South Arkansas, uh, some of you may have visited one of theirs, uh, because they host the standard lithium pilot project on uh their South South unit South facility, um. And So these facilities are tied to these production units and so given the capacity levels and also the I guess the depletion of brine from these different units in the future there may be a need to move acreage from one unit to another in order to maximize their production capabilities. That's correct. So we have 3 operating units. Sure, my name is Mark Day, and I work for Lanxis as the public head of public relations and land. So We have, we have 3 ron operating units, central, south and west, totaling a little over 150,000 acres and so this bill would allow us to be able to um move wells, um, from our, from one unit to another unit where we have more, uh, capacity in our bromine tower. Representative Shepherd, are you open for questions? Sure. Members of the committee. Saying no question, uh, no one has signed up to speak for or against the bill, um, Representative Shepherd, you're recognized clothes for your bill. I'm close for the bill, and I would move due pass as amended. We have a due pass as amended. All in favor say aye. All opposed? Congratulations, you have passed your bill. Moving on to House Bill 1450, Representative Painter, you were Representative Stenson Painter, District 3, Mountain Home, Baxter County and Fulton Counties. Um, Mr. Chair, I'm gonna have to say it does look good to see you in, in that chair role. Um, colleagues, uh, committee, it's a privilege to be in front of you today. HB 1450. is a Department of Ag bill. Uh, so right now they do 6 different reports and all this is doing is uh the secretary would like to see it in one report, keeping the same information and all that, just putting it in one report instead of 6. I'll be glad to take any questions. Any questions from the committee? Seeing no you recognize close for your bill. I'm close for my bill and a good vote. Uh See Anybody here to sign up to speak for against the bill, saying none, um. Order the will of the committee. Motion do pass Representative Brown. All in favor say aye. All pose Congratulations, you have passed your bill. Thank you, and I just want to say thank you and uh this was easier to consolidate than the previous bill. Thank you. I Representative Beatty in the room. of emotion. What's your motion? Just kidding. He's Uh, is anybody here to present Senate Bill 203. Well, we've moved it to deferred. we can put it on the card. Uh, Representative Beatty, if you are ready to present House Bill 1487. You are recognized to take a seat. Please introduce yourself for the record. We I'm great, uh, Representative Howard Beatty, District 95, Ashley Shico County. I'm here today to present House Bill 1487, uh, to, um, amend the number of commissioners on the Arkansas Forestry Commission Committee. Uh, this is a bill that's brought by the Department of Ag. Give a little background. Um I guess it was Acts 6:91 of 2023, uh, that created the registered foresters uh committee, and that was to review registered forester applicants rulemaking, disciplinary issues and any ethical complaint. Currently this act requires all registered foresters, uh, on the Arkansas Forestry Commission to be on the committee. So that's only registered foresters. There are 9 commission members, uh, containing a minimum of 3 registered foresters, 5 members are required for a quorum quorum to exist. Uh, in hearings concerning registered foresters' complaints before the commission, the commission has to make a ruling of fact based exclusively on the evidence, uh, that was, uh, on the evidence of matters officially noticed. Uh, the Supreme Court had concerns with members of a commission, not recusing themselves when they had prior knowledge of a case. Um, and when that is obtained, uh, commissioners must, um, avoid the appearance of any bias in making decisions due to, uh, quasi-judicial function of the committee. And if all registered foresters from the commissioner placed on the committee, uh, their recusal in a formal hearing by the commission creates a potential issue, uh, with maintenance of a quorum. So if this proposals adopted, not every registered forester on the commission will have to recuse during formal hearings of the committee providing the public with expert influenced final adjudication that it deserves in forest related matters from the commission. Uh, that currently requires all registered foresters on the committee, on the commission to be on the committee and the proposed amendment would provide. That exactly 3 registered foresters from the commission plus non-commission ad hoc members and the UAM representative served on the committee as a result, commission hearings would still benefit from the input of the foresters, uh, forester members without issues of reaching a quorum, uh, and the appearance of a bias. So with that, I'll entertain any questions, any questions members? Saying none, is anybody, uh, like to speak for or against the bill? Saying none, Representative Beatty, you recognize clothes for your bill. I'm closed not appreciate a motion to pass and and and a good vote. What is the will of the committee, uh, Representative Brown, motions do pass. All in favor say aye. All opposed. Congratulations, Mr. Beatty, you have passed your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Secretary Ward said he's sitting on a, a hill of ice or he would have been here this morning so I appreciate y'all. Gave him our best, um, Representative Maddox, you were here to present your House or Senate Bill 203, you recognized, please introduce yourself for the record and proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chair. John Maddox, District 86, uh, Mr. Chair, could I, I would like to ask Clay Stone, um, Council for the Arkansas Department of Tourism to join me at the table. Is that OK? OK, um. Clay, will you introduce yourself for the record? Yes, my name's Clay Stone. I'm general counsel for the Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism. I apologize for being late, um. My vice chair was running a bill, so it took a little bit for you to get here. So, um, I'll be very brief. I don't think that, um, there's any known opposition to this bill, but I want to talk about it a little bit. Um, it is exciting to, to all of us, um, as all of you know, Governor Sanders has said over and over, um, that she plans to make Arkansas the outdoor recreation capital of North America. Um, this bill is one of the bills that she talked about at a recent natural State Day press conference. This was one of the two that she referenced. Um This bill is intended to clarify the rights and responsibilities of the person's operating mountain bike parks, some of which may have lift access and other outdoor recreation activities. So that's what this bill does. Um, this bill also clarifies the rights and responsibilities of the persons who are engaging in these activities. So the person who's doing the mountain biking, etc. Um, so this is just laying out kind of the legal framework for everyone, um, to know the rules of the road. Before they're participating in this. The crux of the bill committee is that these are inherently dangerous activities, um, and everyone knows that and the people who know it know that, and we're just making it clear that if you are going to frankly ride a mountain bike down a mountain. There's a chance you might hurt yourself. Um, so the crux of this bill is that you are, when you engage in it, an inherently dangerous activity, you are assuming the risk of injury. So that's what this bill does. Um, we and actually Mr. Stone, counsel for, um, the department looked at many other states who have these type of activities like Washington, Virginia, West Virginia, and Colorado and modeled this legislation after that, um, the operators of these parks. Specifically, if there is a lift access park, they will be subject to the And I haven't read all of this, but what's called the ANC standards. Um, these are the standards that are applicable for, um, what we think of a ski lift or something like that. So they would be responsible to comply with that. A few other things I want to touch on about the bill. These antsy standards are what's considered the best practices for maintenance and upkeep of a lift or tramway, and it provides all the information on how they should run. Um, this code has a maintenance requirement that's both annual and seasonal. And it includes best practices on incident response. Electronic storage and require certain non-destructive testing of grips. Um, so again, they would be subject to these standards and also state inspections and standards. A little bit more about the bill. This section does give the Department of Labor and Licensing the authority to conduct to conduct investigations and inspections, um. Again, it's really just kind of laying out the rules of the road. And if you're engaged in these things, you are assuming the risk. So that's the bill and I'll be glad to take any questions. Members, any questions? are Thank you, Mr. Chair. Maddox, so are you saying that the people involved that are doing the activity are. Uh, cannot Charge anyone with any liable of anything they use on those parkways. So if you, if I go use one and I fall down or I get drugged by a lift. I'm, I'm pretty well can't sue that company. I guess you could, but you're probably not gonna get anything. Well, no, and I'm glad you asked that to, to dig a little deeper into that, and I should have done that. This bill only limits the operator's liability if the participants negligence was a proximate cause of the accident. So it's approximate cause standard, um, that it would have to be. OK. Thank you. Thank you and thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Seeing no other questions, is anybody in the audience signed up to speak 4 against the bill, saying none. Representative Maddox, you're recognized clothes for your bill. Um, I'm closed for my bill and I would appreciate a good vote. Thank you committee. Motion to pass. All in favor say aye. I'll oppose. Congratulations, you have passed your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you committee. Seeing no other bills on our calendar today, uh. We stand adjourned.