Photo: Coyote Gulch archives
Colorado's legislators can't help themselves when it comes to improving on state water law. The 2009 legislative will see some spirited debate on several fronts according to preliminary indications from lawmakers.
Rainwater harvesting
Kathleen Curry and Jim Isgar plan to introduce a bill to allow rural property owners to utilize rainwater catchments on a small scale. The bill will limit the catchments to properties served by an "exempt well," that is, a well that is allowed to pump regardless of priority because the amount of water produced is so small that it is assumed that no senior rights holder will be harmed.
Another bill would set up pilot studies of rainwater harvesting in subdivisions. A study last year in Douglas County showed that little, if any rainwater, actually gets to surface water streams in many cases.
Senator Isgar says that he expects another bill to allow rainwater harvesting in cities and towns -- similar to the bill sponsored by Chris Romer last year -- but he will not be a sponsor.
Coalbed methane well produced water
In order to extract methane from coal seams it is often necessary to pump water from the formation. The produced water is often of sufficiently high quality that it can be used for livestock or irrigation. Currently the water is usually re-injected.
Another bill from Isgar and Curry seeks to establish the rules and ownership around the produced water in order to allow the good water to be put to beneficial use.
Fountain Creek IGA
Lawmakers will also get a chance to approve the Fountain Creek intergovernmental agreement between El Paso and Pueblo counties which both counties approved the week before Christmas. The IGA is an outgrowth of the Fountain Creek Task Force which worked for a couple of years on solutions to the bickering between the two counties over management of the Fountain Creek watershed.
Piceance Basin water quality network
Another bill to be introduced by Curry would fund a water quality network for the Piceance Basin from oil and gas severance tax funds.
Community Grants
Finally, a bill to earmark $10 million in oil and gas severance funds for small community water projects is being sponsored by the Colorado Municipal League.
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