From The Denver Post (Joey Bunch):
For the second year in a row, a legislative storm is brewing in Colorado over who legally owns drops of rain.
A bill that would allow gardeners to store 110 gallons of runoff from their roof in up to two rain barrels passed on a 10-2 bipartisan vote in a House committee Monday. Republicans in the state Senate let a similar bill expire without a vote on the chamber floor at the end of last year’s session.
Opponents cited state water law that says rainfall must be allowed to move unabated back into the ecosystem to feed aquifers and reservoirs for those who hold expensive water rights.
In theory, proponents say, when the rainwater goes on gardens or lawns, it would then return to the larger environment. In the bargain, rain-barrel users would get a sense of how little it rains in Colorado and how much water they use on their property,
“This is a simple tool that will encourage water conservation and encourage people to use water wisely at their homes,” said Rep. Jessie Danielson, a Democrat from Wheat Ridge, who is one of the bill’s sponsors.
Colorado is the only state that bans rain barrels and is one of just four states that restrict so-called rainwater harvesting, joined by Arizona, Oklahoma and Utah, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Reagan Waskom, director of the Colorado Water Institute and chairman of the Colorado State University Water Center, said an experiment showed no detectable impact on downstream runoff. Nearly all of it is absorbed in the soil, just as it would if it was not captured.
CSU is neutral on the bill, he said.
“The water that’s captured in a rain barrel would be captured in the soil, anyway,” Waskom said. “You’re not going to be able to measure it.
“It’s very important, every drop, to the downstream users,” he said.
Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, a chief opponent last year, said the bill would face problems in the Senate if it does not acknowledge the state’s prior appropriation doctrine, which ensures those with senior water rights get their share. The bill also must identify a state agency or other authority to see that happens, he said.
From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Charles Ashby):
Colorado would become the last state in the West to allow its residents to collect rainwater in barrels from their rooftops under a bill that won approval in a House committee on Monday.
Similar to a measure that failed last year, the bill would allow homeowners to have up to two 55-gallon rain barrels, but they can only use the water for the purpose of irrigating their lawns and gardens.
In the House Agriculture, Livestock & Natural Resources Committee, which approved the measure on a bipartisan 10-2 vote, proponents of HB1005 said even if all homeowners in the state took advantage of the bill, it would impact a small amount of water in the state.
Yet opponents said that amount is still an impact that could make or break a single farm or ranch downstream.
Jim Yahn, manager of the North Sterling and Prewitt reservoirs in northeast Colorado, said all water in the state is part of a prior-appropriated system that is based on first in time, first in line. That means people own water rights, and those with the most senior rights get the water first.
Taking any water out of the system is a violation of that major tenet in water law, he said.
“Every drop of water is valuable,” Yahn said. “Anytime you get any runoff from your lawn, if you have captured some of that in a rain barrel, you’ve taken water out of the system.”
Proponents, however, said water that is allowed to run off of rooftops either evaporates before making it into that system or is absorbed by plants.
Trapping it and letting people put it for outdoor use causes homeowners to save water because they are using less from their taps, meaning more ends up for downstream use.
“We have an opportunity to support a pretty straightforward bill that will encourage the urban and suburban water users across the state to think twice about the amount of water that they are putting on their landscaping,” said Rep. Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge, one of the sponsors of the bill. “If they can save even a little bit, it will translate down the line to more water for farms.”
Some opponents of the bill said they would have an easier time with it if it included a clause that would allow for moratoriums on rain barrel use at times when there is a “call” on a river.
That happens when downstream water users who have more senior rights demand their water in dry years.
Rep. Jon Becker, R-Fort Morgan, said the state’s water engineer needs to have more control over the use of such barrels, but the bill doesn’t allow for it.
“To say (there is) a de minimis impact is not necessarily the truth, and is not anything we can prove,” he said. “Because of that, I want to see in the bill someplace that there is an easier way for the state engineer or objectors to come in and talk about this.”
The measure heads to the full House for more debate.
From The Durango Herald (Peter Marcus):
After a slippery ride, lawmakers on Monday advanced a measure that would allow Coloradans to collect rain water that falls on their roofs.
The House Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Committee backed House Bill 1005 by a vote of 10-2, after a more than two-hour hearing. It now heads to the full House for consideration.
The measure is written similar to last year’s bill, which died on the second-to-last day of the session after it failed to receive a Senate floor vote despite a last-minute effort to garner support.
The bill would allow people to capture rain from their roof in up to two 55-gallon barrels for use in their garden or on their lawn.
Sponsors of the bill are hopeful that they can muster enough support to drive it through the legislative process, especially following a study by Colorado State University in September that stated that allowing 100 gallons of rainwater storage per household would not decrease surface runoff by any detectable amount on a typical lot.
“Instead of it going into your windowsill, or possibly a sidewalk, you could use it where you see fit … on your tomato plants and your flower garden,” said Rep. Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge, a co-sponsor of the bill.
Critics raise concerns about eroding the state’s prior appropriations system, in which water rights are granted to the first person to take water from an aquifer or river, despite residential proximity.
In an effort to address the water rights controversy, some rural lawmakers pushed an amendment that would have allowed the state engineer to intervene if complaints over water rights arise. But the amendment was defeated.
“It was mentioned that a lot of the opposition would go away if … the state engineer had the authority to intervene or had some oversight if necessary. … To me, this amendment actually does that. … I just think it would take a lot of the angst about this bill away,” said Rep. J. Paul Brown, R-Ignacio, who voted for the bill despite the amendment failing.
Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose, raised concerns with Colorado being a water provider among 18 states that have a prior appropriations system. He voted against the measure.
“We’re not even talking the same thing here,” Coram told supporters of the bill. “We’re a headwater state. We’re the rooftop. We run in every direction.”
State water officials did not take a formal position on the legislation. But James Eklund, director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, said the effort could help with a narrative on water conservation in the West.
“The concept of residential rainwater harvesting aligns with the CWCB’s philosophy of promotion of education and water stewardship at a local level …” Eklund said.