Second Regular Session
               Seventieth General Assembly
                    STATE OF COLORADO
                                                 INTRODUCED
                                                           
                                                           
 LLS NO. 16-1279.01 Jennifer Berman x3286SENATE BILL 16-214
                   SENATE SPONSORSHIP
 Marble and Hodge, 
 
                    HOUSE SPONSORSHIP
 Saine and Danielson, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Senate Committees
 House Committees
 
 
 State, Veterans, & Military Affairs
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                         A BILL FOR AN ACT
       Concerning a study of other western states' use of real-time
            water management strategies.
       
       
                           Bill Summary
       
            (Note:  This summary applies to this bill as introduced and does
       not reflect any amendments that may be subsequently adopted. If this bill
       passes third reading in the house of introduction, a bill summary that
       applies to the reengrossed version of this bill will be available at
       http://www.leg.state.co.us/billsummaries.)
       
            The bill requires the Colorado water conservation board (board)
       to enter into a contract with the American Ground Water Trust (trust) to
       conduct a study of other western states' use of real-time water
       management strategies for groundwater and surface water. The contract
       must require the trust to complete the study within 3 months and to
       compile its research and findings for the board. Thereafter, the board and
       the trust will report on the study on or before January 15, 2017, to the
       committees of reference in the house of representatives and the senate
       with jurisdiction over natural resources and, if the study has been
       completed in time, to the water resources review committee during the
       2016 interim. The board may use up to $30,000 from the emergency
       dewatering grant account in the Colorado water conservation board
       construction fund to pay for the study. The bill is repealed, effective
       September 1, 2017.
       
       
       
       Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Colorado:
            SECTION 1.  In Colorado Revised Statutes, 37-60-115, add (11)
       as follows:
            37-60-115.  Water studies - rules - repeal. (11) (a)  Real-time
       water management strategies study. The board shall enter into a
       contract with the American Ground Water Trust, referred to
       in this subsection (11) as the "trust", to conduct a study of the
       real-time water management strategies used by other western
       states that use the prior appropriation system for groundwater
       and surface water. The purposes of the study are to determine
       for each western state using real-time water management
       strategies:
            (I)   Whether the state's use of a water management
       strategy that is based on actual hydrological conditions:
            (A)  More effectively maximizes beneficial use of water
       than the water management strategies being used in Colorado;
       and
            (B)  Allows for increases in groundwater pumping without
       causing injury to downstream water users;
            (II)  The cost that the state has incurred in transitioning
       to a real-time water management strategy and the means by
       which the transition was funded; and
            (III)  Whether the state's use of a real-time water
       management strategy has changed any of the following
       conditions within the state:
            (A)  The level of the water table;
            (B)  The amount of riparian phreatophyte transpiration;
            (C)  The amount of evaporation from soil and plants; or
            (D)  The amount of salinization of irrigated lands.
            (b)  Reporting. (I)  The board shall enter into a contract to
       commission the study as soon as practicable, and the contract
       must require the trust to complete the study within three
       months after the study has been commissioned and to compile
       the research and findings from the study for the board within
       one month after its completion of the study.
            (II)  On or before January 15, 2017, the board and the trust
       shall report on the study to the committees of reference in the
       house of representatives and the senate that have jurisdiction
       over natural resources. If the board receives the trust's
       research and findings before the final meeting of the water
       resources review committee during the 2016 interim, the board
       and the trust shall also report on the study to the water
       resources review committee.
            (c)  The board may expend up to thirty thousand dollars
       from the emergency dewatering grant account of the Colorado
       water conservation board construction fund created in section
       37-60-121 (10) (b) to pay for the study authorized in this
       subsection (11).
            (d)  Repeal. This subsection (11) is repealed, effective
       September 1, 2017.
            SECTION 2.  Safety clause. The general assembly hereby finds,
       determines, and declares that this act is necessary for the immediate
       preservation of the public peace, health, and safety.