craigdailypress.com

The state budget crisis and its impact on the state engineer's office is beginning to overtake debate about any individual water bill in this year's Colorado Legislature.

The chairwoman of the House Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Committee led a delegation to the Joint Budget Committee on Wednesday asking for money to restore overtime to commissioners who oversee the administration of water rights across the state.

Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, said the freeze on overtime and mileage for water commissioners, on top of the hiring freeze that Gov. Bill Ritter ordered last year, could prevent farmers, ranchers and water providers from getting their water in priority.

"If they don't get the water they're entitled to get : it affects their ability to raise a crop or water their stock," Curry said. "It also affects municipalities. They have senior water rights. The water wouldn't arrive at the headgate when it's supposed to if you don't have the staff out there administering the ditches."

District 8 Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, said the JBC is considering the agriculture committee's request.

"We've taken that under advisement to see if we can figure it out," said White, one of two Republican members on the six-member JBC. "We can't unfreeze and positions and there won't be any additional hiring. They are still frozen under the governor's order."

State Engineer Dick Wolfe told a joint meeting of the House and Senate agriculture committees last week that the 25 vacancies in his Division of Water Resources could increase to 45 if more money can't be found to beef up his staff.

A spokesman said nine of the current vacancies are on the staff of 120 water commissioners statewide. The rest are spread across division staff.

The Department of Natural Resources, which includes the water division, is recommending six-fold fee increases for some user fees.

Under DNR's proposal, which also is before the JBC, the fee for a well permit would jump from $100 to $665, the fee for administering a substitute water supply plan while water rights are being adjudicated would increase from $300 to $2,000, and the $3,000 cap would be removed from the fee to review a dam design.

White said the higher well permit fees were not out of line with overall costs but that he had not reviewed the other proposals.

"The permit piece is really a small part in the overall costs of putting in a new well," White said. "Yes, you're talking about a multiple increase in the cost of a permit, but it doesn't represent that significant of an increase in the overall cost of producing a well."

Meanwhile, several water bills are moving through the process.

The Senate this week unanimously passed and sent to the House a bill sponsored by Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, that for the first time in Colorado would legally allow some rural residents with exempt wells to begin capturing rainwater from their rooftops to water livestock and gardens.

Senate Bill 80 could be legalizing a common practice in arid Colorado.

"We don't see a lot of people rushing forward to say I'm breaking the law," Isgar said. "But it's possible people have been using runoff in a questionable way that this would make legal."

Colorado water law forbids rainwater catchment anywhere in the state because it must be allowed to move into rivers and streams for use by those who hold the water rights. Isgar said allowing rainwater catchment actually could reduce injury to downstream users because it would reduce well pumping that draws down the aquifer.

Isgar's bill would apply only to owners of exempt wells, which are not administered under the priority system. Exempt well permits are issued only to those who can not get water from a municipality or water district, but its uses are restricted.

"There hasn't been a lot of opposition because it's tied so closely to the well permit," he said. "You cannot expand usage beyond what the well permit allows."

The House sponsor of SB 80 is Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan, who also is sponsoring a more controversial rainwater catchment bill that has yet to reach the House floor for debate.

Looper's House Bill 1129, which has the backing of the State Engineer's office, sets up a pilot project for as many as 10 developments to collect rainwater from rooftops and impermeable surfaces to see what the impact would be on downstream water users.

"We will pick the projects that truly give us the data we need," said Kevin Rein, an assistant state engineer. His said his office is hoping to collect a minimum of two years of data on small, medium and large projects.

The House Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Committee unanimously approved the bill, but only after Looper offered an amendment to require participants to augment 100 percent of the rainwater collected.

"The bill now clearly states there must be a substitute water supply plan in conjunction with 100 percent augmentation," Looper said.

HB 1129 is awaiting a hearing in the House Appropriations Committee along with any other bills that require state funding.

The Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee is reviewing the annual "projects bill," which outlines next year's spending on water projects approved by the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

Most of the appropriations are to continue projects that previously have been authorized, such as a $1 million appropriation for the Colorado River water availability study or $1.5 million to develop a statewide grant program for water projects that prevent the permanent dry-up of agricultural land.

"There's really nothing controversial in it and the money's there because we get 10 percent of the (federal mineral lease) dollars," said Isgar, who is sponsoring the bill.

Isgar also said Western Slope concerns about a "water grab" are being addressed in a pair of bills aimed at helping South Platte River irrigators whose wells have been shut off or sharply curtailed because they don't have augmentation plans in place.

The House on Monday passed and sent to the Senate a bill sponsored by Rep. Jim Riesberg, D-Greeley, which eliminates the requirement that depletions from well pumping prior to 1974 must be accounted for in augmentation plans that still are pending in Division 1 water court.

House Bill 1174 affects about 400 wells users that the Central Water Conservancy District accepted into its plan after the demise of the Ground Water Appropriators of the South Platte.

The Senate sponsor of HB 1174 is Sen. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton, who also has introduced what could be the most controversial water bill of the 2009 legislative session.

Senate Bill 147 would allow the state engineer to approve substitute water supply plans in permanent augmentation plans for the repayment of out-of-priority depletions from the stream prior to 2003. The bill would apply only to wells in Division 1 (northeast Colorado) and would expire in 10 years.

"Right now, you can't use substitute supply plans for augmentation," said Hodge, whose bill is scheduled to be heard next week in Isgar's committee. "This would just give them a quicker way to get water when it's available."

A similar bill was introduced last spring when water providers said they had some surplus water to sell because of the heavy snowpack. It immediately was opposed by surface water users and Western Slope interests.

"There's language (in SB 147) to say we're not taking more water from the Western Slope," Hodge said. "We needed to assure the Western Slope that this wasn't a water grab."