Spring has arrived and lambs and calves are running around and enjoying the warm days. All the while, 100 legislators are clamoring around the Capitol all smiles because one of their bills has survived the multiple committees, floor debates and final passage and is on the way to the governor’s desk. Others are bemoaning the fact that a bill of theirs died. My bills seem to be in a circling pattern waiting on the final budget numbers and the Appropriations Committee.
Two of those bills should be up this week as the Senate is now debating the budget and the House will hear it next week. The eradication of phreatophytes from our rivers and streams in order to salvage thousands of acre feet of water, and the long-acting reversible contraceptives bill both have $5 million holding their places in the proposed budget.
Phreatophytes, also referred to as Russian olives and tamarisk or salt cedar, inhabit many of Colorado’s rivers, streams and small drainages below 6,500 feet in elevation. Colorado lost a lawsuit with Kansas for failure to comply with compact agreements with that state. This cost us $30 million and we had to drain Bony Reservoir. Colorado has done some eradication of the pheatophytes on the Republican River and, with this bill, should be able to complete the process and salvage enough water to put some back into Bony Reservoir.
The LARC bill will also continue a pilot program Colorado has been involved in that has provided 30,000 IUD or hormone implants to at-risk young ladies. A grant of $23.6 million from the Susan Buffet Foundation will run out in June. This program cut the 15- to 19-year-old pregnancy rate by 40 percent, and the abortion rate dropped by 42 percent in this age group. This alone saved the state from spending more than $130 million in welfare and entitlements, not including additional costs the counties and local government would bear.
Water issues continue to be always on the table. We vigorously fought an in-stream flow bill in the House for several reasons: one was that it only applied to the area west of the Continental Divide. I felt that the Front Range should be just as responsible for healthy rivers as Western Colorado. I have not see any desire to curtail trans-mountain diversions to the Front Range and that might be a good place to start if the aim is truly to leave more water in our rivers and streams. My biggest concern with this bill was that it created a new water right in diverting what was called non consumptive water rights. All Colorado water rights are based on consumptive use. Water is used and all the water that is not consumed by the user is returned to the river or stream for the next person who has a water right to use. This process happens five to seven times in most cases.
Rainwater continues be subject of concern. One bill that I opposed would have allowed anyone to collect rainwater from their home. It sounds rather minor, but we were told that it would use about 5,000 acre feet of water. Water north of the metro area has sold for as much as $25,000 per acre foot. The bill had no mechanism to protect the downstream water rights holders who might be harmed if rainwater collection became rampant in highly populated areas. You can already collect rain water if you are using a permitted well from a non-tributary source.
I am also sponsoring a bill that allowing rainwater collection in a pilot program for new developments, ensuring that rain water collection has the engineering to verify that it will not harm downstream users. My priority is protecting the Prior Appropriations Doctrine and ensuring that we have done everything we can do to meet our water needs in our ever-growing and arid climate.
Don Coram represents House District 58 in Colorado’s General Assembly. Contact Rep. Coram by phone at (303) 866-2955 or by e-mail at don.coram.house@state.co.us.