Water Policy
March 14, 2010--Water, rafting measures get contentious (Durango Herald)
It seems to happen to every legislator at least once in his or her time at the Capitol. A bill you are certain is noncontroversial becomes far more complicated and contentious than you expected. That is the case with a bill I am sponsoring, House Bill 1051, which establishes an annual reporting requirement for water providers.
March 12, 2010--Davis named to state water panel (Pueblo Chieftain)
Alexandra Davis of Nederland has been appointed director of the Colorado Interbasin Compact Committee by Gov. Bill Ritter. Davis is the Department of Natural Resources’ assistant director for water.
March 10, 2010--Major political players train sights on Curry rafting-rights bill (Colorado Independent)
Former Democratic state Sen. Michael Feeley, a lawyer-lobbyist who spent seven years as Minority Leader, is behind an advertising campaign aimed at torpedoing a rafting rights bill floated in the House by Rep. Kathleen Curry.
March 6, 2010--Court ruling cutting off Atlanta from federal reservoir could have national implications (Los Angeles Times)
Sixty years ago, the late Atlanta Mayor William Hartsfield resisted helping to pay for Lake Lanier, a new federal reservoir being built north of town. Atlanta had plenty of water, he wrote Congress. Thanks, but no thanks. Those words came back to haunt Atlanta last year. A federal judge ruled that the city has been illegally tapping Lanier for years as its primary water source.
March 3, 2010--Water-rights owners sue state - again (Durango Herald)
Lawyers for senior water-rights owners sued the state government Monday in La Plata County and five towns, saying the state engineer is failing to protect water-rights owners from gas and oil companies. Gas and oil companies remove water from the ground after they drill wells.
February 27, 2010--House passes water bill (Durango Herald)
Ordinarily, it's a no-brainer for the Legislature to approve an annual bill that accepts hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government for water projects. But not Friday in the House. The federal government puts up the money in low-interest loans as long as the state pays for a fifth of the costs and the state Legislature OKs the projects on the list.
February 17, 2010--House passes rafters' legislation (Pueblo Chieftain)
A bill that allows rafters to go aground on private property passed the House on Tuesday and awaits the governor's signature to become law. Sponsored by state Rep. Kathleen Curry, unaffiliated-Gunnison, HB1188 sparked debate over commercial rafters' rights to travel public waterways and the rights of property owners. In the end, rafters won out, as the bill passed 40-25.
February 6, 2010--Pace's water transfer bill dies on House floor (Pueblo Chieftain)
A bill that would have required mitigation agreements between communities where water transfers originate and their destinations died Friday in the House with strong opposition from urban legislators. Rep. Sal Pace's HB1159 was killed on second reading, with 23 members in support and 36 opposed.
February 4, 2010--Water transfer bill passes committee (Pueblo Chieftain)
Opponents said Rep. Sal Pace’s proposed law to mitigate economic and ecological impacts of originating communities in water transfers duplicates processes already in place, but the bill passed through committee by a 9-4 vote.
February 1, 2010--Water fights brew (Durango Herald)
Lawyers, rafts and money: Those are the debates in store for Colorado's water community this year at the Legislature. A Pueblo Democrat wants to make sure that water imports from wet basins to dry ones don't harm people in the original basin. And a Gunnison representative wants to make sure rafting guides can float the state's rivers, no matter who owns the riverbank.
