Water And Irrigation - Digest of Bills

Digest of Bills - 2003

WATER AND IRRIGATION

S.B. 03-45 Ground water - regulation of wells - permit fee increase - well inspections program - appropriation. Increases the regulation of water well construction contractors and pump installers by:

● Requiring continuing education of such contractors and installers as a condition of licensure;

● Specifying additional enforcement authority of the state board of examiners of water well construction and pump installation contractors; and

● Creating a well inspection program to be paid for through license fees and an increase in well permit fees that would be paid into a newly-created well inspection cash fund.

Appropriates $401,460 to the department of natural resources for implementation of the act. Out of such sum, appropriates $10,000 to the department of law for legal services and $26,112 to the department of personnel, central services, fleet management program and motor pool services, for implementation of the act.

APPROVED by Governor May 14, 2003
EFFECTIVE May 14, 2003

S.B. 03-47 Legislative water resources review committee - exemption from bill limits - time of meetings - selection of chair. Deletes the repeal date for the water resources review committee's ability to report committee bills exempt from any applicable bill limits. Allows the committee to meet during the regular session of the general assembly. Specifies that the power to appoint the committee's chair alternates annually between the house of representatives and the senate.

APPROVED by Governor March 20, 2003
EFFECTIVE March 20, 2003

S.B. 03-73 Water rights - substitute water supply plans - temporary approval by state engineer. Allows the state engineer to temporarily approve annual substitute supply plans under limited circumstances, including the absence of injurious effect on other water rights, for junior appropriators who had plans previously approved by the state engineer in the South Platte basin. Requires notice and comment and an opportunity to appeal the state engineer's determination to the water court. Requires such appropriators to file an application for adjudication of their supply plans by December 31, 2005, or cease diversions.

Ratifies the state engineer's Arkansas river rules.

APPROVED by Governor April 30, 2003
EFFECTIVE April 30, 2003

S.B. 03-85 Water rights - loans - instream use. Allows the division engineers within the division of water resources to approve loans of agricultural water rights within a particular stream system for up to 180 days in up to 3 years out of 10 upon submission of evidence quantifying the rights and a finding of no injury to other water rights. Allows the state engineer to approve loans of water rights for up to 180 days in up to 3 years out of 10 to the Colorado water conservation board for instream use during a drought upon a finding of no injury to other water rights. Requires notice and an opportunity for comment, and allows an appeal to the water judge.

VETOED by Governor May 22, 2003

S.B. 03-110 Colorado water conservation board - construction fund - projects list - litigation fund. Authorizes the expenditure of moneys in the Colorado water conservation board ("board") construction fund ("fund") and the severance tax trust fund perpetual base account for certain enumerated water projects. Changes the amounts authorized for certain projects in previous years.

Appropriates moneys from the fund for:

● Data collection;

● Satellite monitoring system maintenance;

● An instream flow decision support system;

● A database pilot program;

● A document imaging system;

● Floodplain map modernization;

● A Cache La Poudre river floodway project;

● Technical assistance for local governments;

● A Gunnison river streamflow transit loss cooperative study;

● A statewide water supply initiative; and

● A study of the Colorado river return reconnaissance study.

Restores balances in the small project feasibility study grant fund, the emergency infrastructure repair loan fund, and the flood response fund. Expands:

● The board's continuous spending authority over the litigation fund to the balance of the fund; and

● The purposes for which the board may expend the fund.

Increases the board's authority to make loans from the fund from $1 million to $5 million.

APPROVED by Governor May 19, 2003
EFFECTIVE May 19, 2003

S.B. 03-115 Change of agricultural water right - basin of origin mitigation - special taxes. Defines "removal of water" as a change in the type and place of use of an absolute decreed agricultural water right from irrigated agricultural use in one county to a use not primarily related to agriculture in another county. Defines a "significant water development activity" as any removal of water that results in the transfer of more than 1,000 acre-feet of consumptive use of water per year by a single applicant.

Requires applicants for a significant water development activity to notify affected local governments, school districts, and water districts. Prohibits significant water development activities unless the water right is the subject of an agreement or a decree containing terms and conditions designed to address the impacts of the change on the county in which the water had been used.

Authorizes water courts to impose mitigation payments upon any person who files an application for removal of water as part of a significant water development activity. Requires the board of county commissioners of the county from which water is removed to distribute any moneys collected among the entities in the county having bonded indebtedness in proportion to the percentage of their share of the total of such indebtedness.

Allows counties, alone or pursuant to an intergovernmental agreement, to levy a county sales tax, use tax, or any combination of such taxes of up to 1% for the purposes of purchasing, adjudicating changes of, leasing, using, banking, and selling water rights. Requires the ballot question for such proposed tax increases to clearly state that approval may result in a sales or use tax rate in excess of the current limitation. Requires the county to establish standards for the use of such revenues.

APPROVED by Governor April 7, 2003
EFFECTIVE August 6, 2003
NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause. For further explanation concerning the effective date, see page vi of this digest.

S.B. 03-181 FY 2002-03 budget reduction bill - ground water - well permits - fees. Increases well permit fees from March 1, 2003, to July 1, 2006, to be deposited in the ground water management cash fund as follows:

● Monitoring wells: From $60 to $150;

● Location correction: From $20 to $150;

● Replacement and extensions of wells: From $60 to $200;

● Late registration: From $60 to $300; and

● Geothermal wells, wells in designated basins, new wells outside of designated basins, change in use or alternate point of diversion, and determination of water rights: From $60 to $440.

Makes a supplemental appropriation.

APPROVED by Governor March 5, 2003
EFFECTIVE March 1, 2003
NOTE: Section 10 of the act provided for a March 1, 2003, effective date; however, the Governor did not sign the act until March 5, 2003.

S.B. 03-236 Ballot question - revenue bonds for water infrastructure projects - rules - repeal - increase in small water project threshold - feasibility studies. Finds that Colorado's existing water infrastructure is insufficient to enable the state to fully exercise all of its compact entitlements to water. Declares that voter-approved revenue bonds are necessary to fund construction of water projects that will ease Colorado's vulnerability to drought.

Requires the submission of a ballot question to the registered electors of the state at the November 2003 election seeking their approval to allow the Colorado water conservation board (board) to issue water infrastructure revenue bonds (bonds) up to $2 billion for the purpose of financing water infrastructure projects that have been reviewed by the board and approved by the governor and to exclude revenues derived from bond proceeds and projects financed by bonds from state fiscal year spending. If the voters of the state approve the ballot question, requires the board to issue bonds for such projects. Requires a minimum of $100 million of such bonds to be available to finance approved water infrastructure projects that augment or improve existing water infrastructure facilities or conserve existing water supplies without creating new water storage facilities.

Sets forth procedures and requirements for issuing bonds. Specifies that the principal and interest on bonds shall be paid solely from:

● Revenues and receipts derived from the sale of water or power or other assets from a water infrastructure project whose construction, development, or improvement was financed in whole or in part by bonds;

● Bond proceeds; and

● Earnings from the investment of bond proceeds.

Further specifies that holders of bonds may not look to any other revenues of the state for payment of the bonds.

Creates the water infrastructure development fund (fund) in the state treasury. Requires unpledged bond proceeds and revenues and receipts derived from the sale of water, power, or other assets from a water infrastructure project financed by bonds to be credited to the fund. Requires interest and income earned on the deposit and investment of fund moneys to be credited to the fund and continuously appropriates all moneys in the fund to the board to finance approved water infrastructure projects, to pay any unpledged costs of issuing and administering bonds, and to pay other expenses related to bonds or the financing of approved water infrastructure projects. Specifies that bond proceeds, earnings on bond proceeds, and revenues and receipts derived from the sale of water, power, or other assets by the board from water infrastructure projects financed by the bonds and earnings on such revenues and receipts are not to be included in state fiscal year spending.

Requires the board to make annual reports to the general assembly regarding bonds and specifies information to be included in such reports. Specifies that the powers conferred by the act are in addition and supplemental to, and not in substitution for, and the limitations imposed by the act do not directly or indirectly modify, limit, or affect, the powers conferred to the board, the state treasurer, the department of natural resources, or the Colorado water resources and power development authority by any other law.

Provides for the repeal of the referred measure provisions of the act if the ballot question to be submitted at the November 2003 election is rejected by the voters.

Increases the maximum cost of small water resources projects from $100 million to $500 million. Requires the board to provide for reimbursement of the costs of project feasibility studies prior to the start of construction only when the Colorado water resources and power development authority arranges financing of the project and the contract unconditionally requires such repayment.

APPROVED by Governor June 5, 2003
EFFECTIVE June 5, 2003

H.B. 03-1001 Flexible use of water resources - subsidy for issuance of bonds - state cooperation for easements - temporary substitute water supply plans - state technical assistance for water provider billing systems. Requires the Colorado water resources and power development authority to subsidize the cost of issuance of bonds and notes for water management facilities that are raw water diversion or storage projects and that are jointly sponsored by 2 or more governmental agencies.

Allows the state engineer to approve, after notice and comment, the temporary operation of substitute water supply plans including temporary changes of water rights. Allows entities that pay for repairs necessary to remove a reservoir storage restriction imposed by the state engineer to apply for approval of the use of such storage as a substitute water supply plan.

Requires state agencies to cooperate with entities seeking rights to easements for water conveyance and storage structures.

Authorizes the department of local affairs to provide technical assistance to local government water providers to implement tiered billing systems that show customers' water usage.

APPROVED by Governor April 25, 2003
EFFECTIVE April 25, 2003

H.B. 03-1005 Ground water - augmentation requirements - extension for divisions 1 and 3. Extends the implementation dates for certain more stringent water augmentation requirements that will apply in the Denver basin aquifers and in the San Luis valley confined aquifer.

APPROVED by Governor May 2, 2003
EFFECTIVE May 2, 2003

H.B. 03-1318 Water banks - administration by water districts - rules - repeal - appropriation. Requires the state engineer to promulgate rules to govern operation of a water bank to operate within a particular water division upon request by a water conservancy district or water conservation district located within such division that agrees to serve as the operator of the bank. Prohibits the transfer of water through the banks between divisions. Repeals the existing Arkansas river water bank pilot program.

Appropriates $100,000 to the department of natural resources for the implementation of the act.

APPROVED by Governor June 5, 2003
EFFECTIVE June 5, 2003

H.B. 03-1320 Loans of water rights to Colorado water conservation board - requirements for approval - appropriation. Authorizes water right owners in any basin or county in which the governor has declared a drought emergency or in which any other emergency is declared to loan water to the Colorado water conservation board for use as instream flows, subject to requirements that the state engineer determine that such temporary instream flows will not injure existing water rights of others. Sets forth requirements and duties for division engineers in determining whether or not injury will occur.

Appropriates $5,000 from the ground water management cash fund to the division of water resources in the department of natural resources for the implementation of the act.

APPROVED by Governor June 5, 2003
EFFECTIVE June 5, 2003

H.B. 03-1334 Interruptible water supply agreements - approval by state engineer - fee - rules - appropriation. Declares that interruptible water supply agreements can maximize the beneficial use of Colorado water resources without the need for an adjudication and without injury to vested or decreed conditional water rights. Defines an "interruptible water supply agreement" as an option agreement between 2 or more water right owners whereby, during the calendar year of a drought emergency declared by the governor and the following calendar year, the loaning water right owner agrees to stop its use of the water right if the option is exercised and the other water user may divert the loaned water right subject to the priority system and approval by the state engineer.

Authorizes the state engineer to approve the temporary operation of interruptible water supply agreements without the requirement of an adjudication. Requires applicants to pay a fee established by the state engineer by rule. Gives interested parties an opportunity to review and comment upon the application and to file an expedited appeal of the state engineer's decision to the applicable water court. Requires the parties to the appeal to pay fees for the expedited appeal.

Appropriates $65,280 to the department of natural resources, division of water resources, for the implementation of the act.

APPROVED by Governor June 5, 2003
EFFECTIVE June 5, 2003