Recent Issues
The 2010 state legislature considered several important bills addressing water issues, especially water efficiency. Below we have highlighted a few of note. To read the most recent press release regarding this spring's water legislation, click here.
House Bill 1358
The Water Smart Homes by Bill Representative Fischer (D- Fort Collins) and Senator Johnston (D-Denver) allows new home buyers to choose more water-efficient home features including low flow toilets, high efficiency washing machines, and low water use landscaping. A broad coalition including water providers, landscapers, agricultural interests and conservationists applaud this bill as it will result in water savings statewide. If 100,000 Water Smart Homes are constructed over the next 40 years, by 2050, those homes will save approximately 2 billion gallons of water per year. To read this new law, click here.
House Bill 1051
Representative Pommer (D-Boulder) and Senator Whitehead (D-Durango)sponsored this bill which gives water planners an accurate picture of current water efficiency efforts. It builds on existing efficiency and conservation programs by centralizing data regarding water efficiency plans in Colorado. The legislation will funnel crucial data to the Colorado Water Conservation Board. Click here to read HB 1051.
Senate Bill 25 and House Bill 1204
Two other important pieces of water legislation also passed this spring. Senate Bill 25 by Senator Whitehead (D-Durango) and Representative Baumgardner (R-Winter Park) extends funding for the Colorado Water Conservation Board's Water efficiency grant program. House Bill 1204 by Representative Soper (D-Westminster) and Senator Toctrop (D-Thornton) allows the State Board of Plumbing examiners to consider conservation and efficiency as they select the State Plumbing code.
WaterSense Branding System
The Environmental Protection Agency is currently working with several pilot cities, including Denver, to develop their WaterSense branding system which provide consumers with information on reliable, affordable and effective products and services which use water efficiently. These state bills build on a national conversion of products, rebates and leadership on water efficiency.
Federal Legislation Promoting Water Efficiency
There are also two pieces of federal legislation that promote water efficiency. The first HR 2368, would provide long term support for EPA's WaterSense Program. The other, HR 1908, the W.A.T.E.R. Act, sponsored by Representative Mike Coffman (R-Colorado), would provide a personal tax incentive for individuals who purchase WaterSense Products.
Past Successes
Recreational Water Rights
In 2006 CEC worked to bring together a coalition of more than 70 stakeholders to advocate for recreational water rights, called Recreational In-Channel Diversions (RICDs) through Senate Bill 05-37. These rights allow cities and others to appropriate water for use in whitewater parks, and to boost the recreational experience of whitewater rafting and kayaking runs. These rights also carry intrinsic environmental benefits, creating large flushing flows that clear rivers of debris and sediments and creating new aquatic and riparian habitats. Read the bill here. The right to float poses as an ongoing tough and controversial issue in 2010, as evidenced in House Bill 1188. CEC is commited to ensuring legal access to our streams and rivers as long as the rights of private landholders are protected. To read HB 1188, click here.
Stormwater Rulemaking
In early 2006 we collaborated with stakeholders on the West Slope to successfully urge the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission hold a rulemaking hearing on stormwater runoff permits. This rulemaking pushed for high standards and best management practices to ensure that erosion and polluted run-off from oil and gas wells and drill sites do not harm Colorado's water supplies.
Clean water is an essential right for all of Colorado, and maintaining high water quality standards continues to be a priority for the conservation community. We've also continued to work to provide state funding for the Water Quality Control Division, to help the Division stay on track to fulfilling their mandate of protecting Colorado's water quality. In January of 2006 the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission held a rulemaking meeting and agreed with conservationists and the diverse coalition that water quality standards should be upheld in the face of increased oil and gas development. This victory helps ensure that as oil and gas development expands, our water supplies are protected.
Water Conservation
House Bill 07-1132 was a major stride in water conservation legislation. It helps to ensure that water quality is taken into account when water is diverted from Colorado's rivers and streams. This bill also allows water court judges to consider potential negative impacts on water quality when changes to irrigation water rights from agricultural use to another type of use, such as residential use, are proposed. Negative impacts to water quality are measured against standards established by the Water Quality Control Commission. This bill is good for water quality and protects water right holders and their access to clean water. To read the law, click here.
Water Efficiency
Senator Jack Taylor (R-Steamboat Springs) and Representative Kathleen Curry (D-Gunnison) introduced and eventually helped pass Senate Bill 07-008, which expands the water efficiency grant program administered by the CWCB to any state or local governmental entity that provides water at retail to customers, providing funding to smaller communities that might not otherwise be able to afford to do water conservation and efficiency planning. Under the grant program, the state or local governmental entity is provided funding to develop, adopt and implement a plan to encourage customers to use water more efficiently. Click to read the bill here.
Strengthening the Instream Flow Program
Recognizing that junior rights would not adequately serve Colorado’s instream flow needs, the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) has been granted access to acquire existing water rights for conversion to instream flow, through voluntary lease, purchase, or donation from a willing party helping to restore flows to depleted reaches and prevent the drying up of Colorado’s rivers and streams. The state legislature passed three important bills in 2008 to strengthen the instream flow program.
House Bill 08-1346 appropriates funds for the CWCB to acquire water and to assist with transaction costs. Allocating $1 million to the CWCB's instream flow program would free the CWCB from having to rely exclusively on charitable water rights holders willing to donate water to the state. This allows the CWCB to compensate water right holders to commit water to instream flow use and to offset the transaction costs of such deals. To read more about this bill, click here.
House Bill 08-1280 builds on 2007's instream flow bill (HB 07-1020) by clarifying that leasing water to the CWCB's instream flow program will not result in loss of the underlying water right. Removing the leasing penalty would protect water right holders who enter into long-term instream flow agreements with the CWCB, just as the 2007 legislation protects those who make short-term instream flow loans. Click here to learn more about the bill.
House Bill 09-1067 creates tax incentives for instream flow donations. A tax credit, similar to that for conservation easements on land, would help encourage voluntary instream flow donations. Read this bill here.
