From The Durango Herald (Peter Marcus):
The Colorado House on Tuesday gave overwhelming bipartisan approval to a bill that would allow Coloradans to collect rain water that falls on their roofs.
The House passed the bill 61-3…
House Bill 1005 now heads to the Republican-controlled Senate, where Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, has previously objected to the measure. He chairs the Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee, where the bill was assigned last year and delayed in committee over objections from Sonnenberg.
The concern is with 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.
A study by Colorado State University in September, however, stated that allowing 100 gallons of rainwater storage per household would not decrease surface runoff by any detectable amount on a typical lot.
With the amendments added this week, and the momentum behind the bill, it has its best chance of passing through the Legislature this year…
“The people of Colorado have spoken and their elected officials have listened,” said Pete Maysmith, executive director of Conservation Colorado. “Citizens in our state want the senseless ban on rain barrels to be lifted so they can use this conservation tool to water their lawns and gardens.”