CO lawmakers turn focus to water issues

The looming crisis on the Colorado River, which supplies water to seven states and feeds the billion-dollar agricultural industries in California, Arizona and Colorado, is prompting Colorado lawmakers to ramp up their attention to water issues.

That includes converting what was once an interim committee that met only a few times a year to look at a limited number of issues to become year-round.

Under Senate Bill 10, sponsored by Sens. Jeff Bridges, D-Greenwood Village and Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa, the interim water resources and agriculture committee is getting a new name and something of a new mission.

Simpson told the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee recently that the intent is to help lawmakers become better educated and engaged on water issues.

Current law allows the water committee, as an interim body, to meet up to eight times a year, but in the last few years it’s frequently met no more than three times, usually in late summer and early fall.

The bill would allow the committee’s chair to call meetings as needed throughout the year, and at a minimum of four times, Simpson said.

Basin planning

It could also expand the committee’s ability to visit each of the state’s eight major basins on a more regular basis, he added. However, the committee hasn’t made a field trip to any river basin since 2016. Its only field trips during the past seven years have been to the annual Colorado Water Congress summer conference in Steamboat Springs.

The committee’s last look at basin implementation plans was in 2014. Those plans dictate the projects each basin roundtable develops to protect agriculture, ensure municipal and industrial water supplies, and for the South Platte, the future of major storage projects.

Basin roundtables have updated their implementation plans in 2015 and 2022. The committee has not looked at those plans since they were updated. It does receive an annual review of changes to the state water plan.

The water committee sends to the General Assembly a half-dozen bills per year, including the 2022 measure that set aside $60 million for compact compliance for the Republican River and Rio Grande River basins.

Attorney James Eklund, representing the Colorado Water Congress, spoke in favor of SB 10 in the Senate ag committee hearing. “We’re facing an unprecedented time of challenge and crisis,” he told the committee. Having the legislature engaged at this level sends a good message around the West, he added.

“I can’t highlight enough the importance of this conversation; the sense of urgency continues to grow as demands for water in this state increase and supplies decline. It’s important for us as a legislative body to be as informed as we can,” Simpson said.

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