Issues

This section of our web site is dedicated to providing information concerning pending issues of current public interest. Please use the following quick links to move to an issue of interest to you:

Regional Tax Study - Bamberger Report
2010 Legislative Issues

2010 Legislative Issues

The following table displays the final action on bills of interest that were before the just completed session of the Colorado General Assembly. The bill number (e.g., HB10-1001) is a hyperlink to the final version of the bill. The positions (i.e., support, amend, etc.) are those adopted by the Board of Directors of the PPRWA.

The Colorado General Assembly adjourned sine die on May 12, 2010. A number of bills were passed in the closing hours of the session and were sent on to the Governor when they were enrolled into an Act format and signed by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate. The Governor had until June 12, 2010 to act on bills that reached his desk following adjornment sine die. All bills have now been acted on and this table displays their final disposition.

Absent a special session, the General Assembly will not return until January, 2011. There are no plans for any legislative interim study committees this year.

For more information concerning these bills or other matters of interest, please contact our public policy consultant, Dick Brown, at rgbscuba@aol.com.

Signed by the Governor

Summary and comments: This bill was recommended by the interim Water Resources Committee. The bill requires a new hydroelectric energy facility to be valued for the purpose of property taxation in the same manner in which new wind energy facilities and new solar energy facilities are valued for that purpose.

Signed by the Governor

Signed by the Governor

Summary and comments: This bill was recommended by the interim Water Resources Committee. The water efficiency grant program is currently scheduled to be repealed on July 1, 2012.

Section 1 of the bill extends the repeal until July 1, 2020, and authorizes up to $550,000 of annual appropriations from the cash fund beginning on July 1, 2010.

Section 2 annually transfers $550,000 from tier 2 of the operational account of the severance tax trust fund to the water efficiency grant program cash fund beginning on July 1, 2012.

There does not seem to be any opposition to the bill.

Lost on House 3rd Reading

Lost on House 3rd Reading

Summary and comments: Would require the buyer of commodity metal to photograph the seller. As amended by the Senate, the photograph would be maintained on file for 12 months. The Senate amendment would require the dealer to pay the seller by check if the amount is greater than $300, unless the payment is made via an automatic cash machine that takes a frontal picture of the seller when the transaction is paid.

The bill is included in the status of bills monitoring since many water utilities have experienced periodic rashes of theft of copper and other metals by people who sell the materials on the black market.

Signed by the Governor

Summary and comments: Under current law, the Groundwater Commission may alter periodically the areas contained in a designated groundwater basin. This bill will allow the commission to revise the boundaries of a designated groundwater basin to omit previously included areas only if the revision would not exclude any wells for which conditional or final permits have been issued.

According to an article in the Sterling Journal-Advocate, the bill is intended to provide assurance for owners of large capacity wells that those wells cannot be removed from a designated basin. According to committee testimony, there are approximately 7,000 high capacity wells in the 8 basins along the Front Range and in the Eastern Plains, and these wells serve irrigation needs as well as municipal and industrial uses. According to the testimony, there is no viable surface water alternative to meeting these needs. Apparently the bill has been brought as a defensive move to thwart potential litigation from surface water users who might be inclined to petition for boundary changes pursuant to at least one Colorado Supreme Court decision that held that the designations were never intended to be final.

The bill enjoyed a fairly easy trip through the Senate, but its House progress may be more bumpy. A group of surface water rights owners from the affected area have begun to raise issues and concerns about potential harm to the surface water. The hearing before House Agriculture may bring several of these issues to the forefront.

Summary and comments: The bill exempts public school wells that pump 15 gallons per minute or less, are located in a school district that serves a population of 25,000 or less, and are used only for irrigation from the "Water Right Determination and Administration Act of 1969".

Summary and comments: The bill defines the term "decreed consumptive use water", defines "reusable effluent" to include decreed consumptive use water, and:

*Authorizes an appropriator to use, reuse, and make a succession of uses of the return flows of reusable effluent in any place or for any beneficial use and to dispose of such water by exchange or otherwise; and

* Directs the state engineer to review contemplated uses of the return flows of reusable effluent to ensure that:

They originate from reusable effluent;

The appropriator has established an adequate measuring and accounting system to measure the volume of the return flows of reusable effluent;

The appropriator has established an adequate means of measuring transit loss between the point of introduction and the point of withdrawal of the return flows of reusable effluent; and

The appropriator can demonstrate that the return flows of reusable effluent to be withdrawn for use have previously been placed to beneficial use at least one time and discharged back to the water body after passing through a domestic wastewater facility.

The House did not adopt the conference committee report and the bill died under the rules

Declared dead under the rules

Summary and comments: As amended by the Senate, the bill now applies only to certain activities of the executive branch of state government.

Signed by the Governor

Summary and comments: This bill would add a required clause to any contract between a public entity and a contractor or designer for a public works project. The new clause requires the public entity to pay the contractor on a periodic basis for any costs incurred by the contractor for work performed until the change order is finalized.

Signed by the Governor

Summary and comments: This bill is a follow on from HB09-1303 enacted last session to address issues from the Colorado Supreme Court decision in the Vance case concerning produced water related to oil and gas extraction. The bill specifies that, except for coal bed methane wells, no well permit is required if the nontributary ground water being removed will not be beneficially used or beneficially used only for uses allowed under the "Oil and Gas Conservation Act".

The bill would also extend the well permitting and substitute water supply plan compliance deadlines for oil and gas wells, including coal bed methane wells, from March 31, 2010, to August 1, 2010.

The Colorado Water Congress has appointed a subcommittee to work on this bill.

Signed by the Governor

Summary and comments: This bill originated with the City of Waslsenberg and would change the statutes regarding municipal acquistion of water rights by acquiring the land to which the water rights are attached. Current law allows municipalities to sell the land, but not to lease it, but the statute only affect statutory cities and towns and does not affect home rule cities. The barrier has proved to be problematic when the city wishes to lease the land but not to sell it. In Walsenberg's case, the city wishes to lease land along a ridge to interests that want to install wind turbines. The City could not lease the land and hold the water rights, and the proposed change would allow such an arrangement.

Postponed Indefinitely

Summary and comments: This bill was recommended by the summer Water Resources Review Committee. It would authorizes the expenditure of up to 5% of the moneys in tier 1 of the operational account of the severance tax trust fund for the Division of Water Resources, and would allow this increase to supplant moneys that would otherwise be made available to the Division from the general fund. Eliminates theTtier 1 authorization for the Division of Wildlife to account for the increase.

There does not seem to be any opposition to the bill and it appears to be internal bookkeeping adjustments.

Signed by the Governor

Summary and comments: Following several meetings among water utility providers, staff of the CWCB and the Governor's office and the environmental activists, a worklable compromise on rewriting the bill seems to have been worked out.

As the bill would be rewritten, the CWCB would develop a set of guidelines concerning reporting water use and conservation data. These guidelines would be developed by a consensus building process involving a wide variety of parties interested in water. The guidelines would be adopted by the CWCB by mid-February, 2012 and reported to the General Assembly. The Genral Assembly has the discretion of modifying the guidelines or allowing them to go forward. Once the guidelines are adopted and implemented, covered entities (i.e., those water providers with an annual system demand in excess of 2,000 acre feet) would be required to make annual reports of their water use and conservation efforts effective June 30, 2014. For this date to work, the entities will need to begin to collect the required data as set forth in the consensus guidelines during the calendar year 2013. The report will be due to the CWCB by June 30 of each year and cover the calendar year preceding that date.

The CWCB is to make a report to the joint Agriculture committees by mid-February, 2019 on how the guidelines have been working and the data collected in accordance with the guidelines.

The PPRWA board of directors has voted to oppose this bill as it is written and has been introduced. Letter to Rep. Pommer re: Opposition to HB10-1051. The Colorado Municipal League is now officially in opposition to the bill.

Summary and comments: The bill would prohibit a public or private entity in the state that uses paper or electronic documents or records during the course of business that contain personal identifying information from disposing of such a document or record unless, prior to the disposal of the document or record, the affected entity, in the case of a paper document or record, shreds the document or record or, in the case of an electronic document or record, erases and renders indecipherable and irretrievable all personal identifying information contained in the document or record.

An affected entity that violates this prohibition is liable for a civil penalty. The attorney general or the district attorney of the judicial district in which the violation occurs is authorized to bring an action against an affected entity that violates the prohibition. An affected entity is required to include in its policy for the destruction or proper disposal of paper or electronic documents and records containing personal identifying information a requirement that such documents and records shall be shredded or erased and rendered indecipherable and irretrievable before the affected entity disposes of the documents or records.

Lost on House 2nd Reading

Summary and comments: The bill establishes the Colorado medical donation program for the purpose of allowing certain facilities to donate medications, medical devices, and medical supplies to eligible patients in Colorado. The program is modeled after the "Colorado Cancer Drug Repository Act" established by the General Assembly in 2005.

The bill was totally rewritten in House HHS. As the bill was amended, if a patient dies, is discharged or (if a resident in a long term care facility) has his or her medication changed or discontinued, the facility may collect the unused medications and return them to a prescription drug outlet so it can be redispensed to another patient, donated to a qualified nonprofit entity or to a practitioner authorized by law to prescribe the medication. The committee amendment contains a clause that ensures that a manufacturer of such medications is not relieved of any potential civil liability.

This bill is consistent with the informal PPRWA advocacy of pharmaceutical take back programs which will have the additional benefit of reducing the amount of unused medications finding their way into the wastewater system and into the waterways and riparian areas adjacent to streams and bodies of water.

Summary and comments: Currently, state law allows public moneys to be deposited in or invested with banks and savings and loan associations that are protected by the FDIC.

The bill permits the deposit or investment of public moneys into a credit union so long as the credit union is protected by the National Credit Union Administration.

The bill also authorizes credit unions to make loans to public entities.

The credit unions have proposed this legislaiton mulitple times over the past 20 years, and it has historically been opposed by the banks and savings and loans.

Summary and comments: Under current law, a person who goes into the yard of a foreclosed home or other unoccupied property to clean up trash, remove weeds, or water the lawn may be considered a trespasser and, if the person injures himself or herself while doing so, may have a claim against the landowner for negligence.

Section 1 of the bill specifies that persons who go onto unoccupied property on an unpaid basis to clean up trash, remove weeds, or water the lawn have the implied consent of the landowner to do so, and are owed an intermediate duty of care concerning hazardous conditions on the property that is more than is owed to trespassers, but less than is owed to guests or business customers.

Sections 2 and 3 amend the civil and criminal trespassing laws, respectively, to exempt persons who engage in such activity, but only to the extent of that activity and so long as they do no actual damage to the property.

Summary and comment: Under current law, a landowner can be held liable for injuries suffered by a trespassing minor if the land contains an attractive nuisance.

Sections 1 and 4 of the bill specify that a facility constructed for the diversion, storage, conveyance, or use of water is not an attractive nuisance with regard to a landowner's liability to a trespasser.

Sections 2 and 3 expand the definition of "recreational purpose" as to which a landowner's liability is limited under current law. Section 3 also specifies that a landowner is not liable for injuries to members of the public who use land for recreational purposes unless the landowner willfully or deliberately caused the injuries.

Signed by the Governor

Signed into Law

Summary and comment: The bill empowers the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to regulate the collection, transportation, and disposal of trap grease and yellow grease (jointly referred to as "grease").

Specifically, the bill requires persons, facilities, and vehicles engaged in the collection, transportation, storage, processing, or disposal of grease to register annually with the department, which registration shall include completing an application, paying a fee, and posting a surety bond or other debt instrument or method of financial assurance.

Individuals employed or engaged by other persons to collect, transport, store, process, or dispose of grease are not required to separately register. Registered facilities and vehicles must display department-issued decals. In addition, registrants will be required to complete manifests containing certain information related to grease collection, transportation, and disposal, maintain certain records for a period of 2 years and furnish the records to the department upon request, and submit timely annual reports to the department.

In order to administer the laws related to grease regulation, the bill requires the solid and hazardous waste commission in the department to promulgate rules by December 31, 2011, and periodically thereafter.

Persons registering as personal users are prohibited from bartering, trading, or selling their grease. A personal user is prohibited from taking grease from a registrant unless the registrant gives the personal user written permission to do so.

The bill applies to the existing provisions regarding solid waste-related inspection, enforcement, nuisance actions, violations, and civil and criminal penalties with respect to laws regulating grease.

As amended by House Transportation, the definition of facility was modified to exclude domestic wastewater treatment systems otherwise regulated by CDPHE.

Lost on House 2nd Reading

Summary and comment: The bill requires a water judge to consider, in decrees for water rights, leases of water for at least 10 years, or changes of use of water rights that divert at least 1000 acre-feet of consumptive use per year from one water division into another, terms and conditions to ensure that present and prospective beneficial uses of water within the water division from which water would be diverted are not impaired or increased in cost as a result of the transdivision diversion.

These requirements will be deemed to have been met if the applicant has reached a mitigation agreement with the water conservation district and conservancy districts from within whose boundaries the waters are proposed for diversion or within whose boundaries water would be purchased for exchange and the terms and conditions of the mitigation agreement are included in the decree. Districts that propose to enter into such a mitigation agreement are required to notify the public of, and hold a public meeting on, the proposed terms of the agreement.

The PPRWA Board through an email poll had voted to oppose the bill both in its original form and also with the House Agriculture amendments. The Board analysis was that the bill, if enacted, would have a disparate negative impact on water supply development in the Arkansas River Basin because of its onerous restricitions on importing water from other basins. The Board's analysis was that the bill, if enacted, would create forces that would jeopardize agriculture uses of water and would place great pressure on key aquifers.

The Board was in the final review and editing of a letter to Rep. Pace setting forth the Board's objections to the bill when Rep. Pace brought to the floor and lost the bill on 21-40 vote with 4 members excused.

The Conference Committee was unable to reach agreement and adopt a report. Bill was declared dead under the rules

Declared dead under the rules

Summary and comment: As amended by the Senate on 2nd reading, the issue would be referred to the Colorado Water Congress for study with a report and recommendations to the General Assembly by October 31, 2010.

Signed by Governor

Summary and comment: The bill would require the plumbing code adopted by the examining board of plumbers in the department of regulatory agencies to include standards for water efficiency and conservation, water-efficient fixtures and installation guidelines, and the use of locally produced materials.

Summary and comment: The bill would create the "Colorado Safe Personal Care Products Act" which prohibits a manufacturer from knowingly selling, offering for sale, or distributing for sale or use in Colorado on and after September 1, 2011, any personal care product that contains a chemical identified as causing cancer or reproductive toxicity.

The bill sets forth legislative findings and declarations regarding chemicals in consumer products and the harmful health effects of those chemicals, particularly on women of childbearing age, fetuses, and children.

The bill further establishes a process for identifying those chemicals that cannot be contained in personal care products sold or distributed in Colorado by recognizing existing lists of harmful chemicals established by authoritative bodies such as the United States environmental protection agency, the international agency for research on cancer, the national toxicology program, and the national institute for occupational safety and health.

"Personal care products", consistent with the definition of "cosmetics" in the federal "Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act", is defined to include any article intended to be rubbed, poured, sprinkled, or sprayed on, introduced into, or otherwise applied to the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering a person's appearance.

Private citizens may file suit to enforce the act, and the prevailing plaintiff may recover an award of attorney fees and costs if a violation is found. If a manufacturer violates the act, the bill authorizes the imposition of a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation per product for the first offense and up to $10,000 per violation per product for a second or subsequent offense.

This bill has been flagged because of the interest that the PPRWA has had in the incidence of such materials being detected in the surface water system downstream of wastewater plants. Many of these suspected effects were discussed in a presentation made by Dr. HC Liang (TetraTech) at the PPRWA symposium on pharmaceuticals in the water supply.

The Colorado Medical Society has voted to monitor the bill only. There are concerns that, as written, the bill violated federal preemption of the regulation of interstate commerce and that it conflicts with federal law giving the Food and Drug Administration jurisdiction over the regulation of products being sold in the country. It is not known whether the sponsors and supporting advocacy groups will amend the bill to be a labeling bill (which is apparently the case with similar law in California).

Signed by the Governor

Summary and comment: This is the annual bill to authorize project funding for the CWCB. Given the budget problems, it is a very abbreviated list of ongoing projects.

Signed by Governor

Summary and comment: This is JBC bill that is part of the budget balancing package. It would have diverted most of the CWCB construction money to the general fund. Water Congress opposed those particular sections of the bill, and they were deleted. However, the deletion was over the objections of the JBC sponsor. In the Senate, the bill was amended to divert $2 million from the CWCB so now the House must consider the Senate amendments. If the House does not concur in the Senate amendments, the bill will go to a conference committee composed of the JBC to resolve the differences.

Lost on Senate 2nd Reading

Summary and comment: The bill would alter the way interim legislative study committees are formed and operate. Generally, the independent free standing committee system would be abolished and issues would be assigned to the joint committees of reference which would serve as the interim. If passed, the bill would abolish the Water Resources Interim and place the studies that it would review under the joint agriculture committees.

Signed by the Governor

Signed into Law

Summary and comment: The bill would require every person that builds a new single-family detached residence for which a buyer is under contract to offer the buyer the opportunity to select one or more of the following water-smart home options for the residence:

* Installation of water-efficient toilets, lavatory faucets, and showerheads;

* If dishwashers or clothes washers are financed, installed, or sold as upgrades through the home builder, the model selected must be qualified pursuant to the federal EPA's energy star program at the time of offering;

* If front yard landscaping is financed, installed, or sold as upgrades through the home builder and will be maintained by the home owner, either average water use of the landscape must be no more than 10 gallons per square foot per year or turf grass shall not exceed 40% of the landscaped area; and

* Installation of a pressure-reducing valve that limits static service pressure in the residence to a maximum of 60 pounds per square inch.

As amended by the House, the bill now includes an extensive section that addresses landscaping that will apply to the builder if the landscaping is financed, installed or sold as upgrades through the homebuilder but will be maintained by the homeowner.

The House also added an amendment that is short and says: "Nothing in this Section shall preclude a homeowner from using gray water for landscaping and gardening purposes." Given the structure of the bill, it is not quite clear whether this provision is limited to the new homes that are addressed by the bill or whether the amendment is structured in such a way as to apply to any home whether it is a new home or a currently occupied home. However, the Senate Business Affairs Committee has deleted this provision.

Postponed Indefinitely

Summary and comment: Current law prohibits the construction or authorization of certain public projects in the unincorporated area of a county unless the proposed location and extent of the project are submitted to and approved by the county. Court cases have construed this provision to exempt political subdivisions such as special districts from complying with county planning and zoning requirements for public projects, particularly in connection with public projects on land encompassed within a planned unit development already subject to county regulations. The bill modifies the statutory provision requiring the location and extent review to clarify that the review does not waive or exempt any political subdivision from compliance with regulations adopted by the county pursuant to the"Planned Unit Development Act of 1972".

If passed, the bill could have the undesirable effect of precluding a water provider from being able to locate key facilities - such as water tanks, pipelines and other installations - at the most optimum site.

Signed by the Governor

Summary and comment: The bill appropriates money from the species conservation trust fund for programs submitted by the executive director of the department of natural resources that are designed to conserve native species that have been listed as threatened or endangered under state or federal law, or are candidate species or are likely to become candidate species as determined by the United States fish and wildlife service.

The bill also directs the state treasurer to transfer, on July 1, 2010, $500,000 from the capital account of the species conservation trust fund (capital account), which moneys were appropriated for instream flow protection in fiscal year 2009, to the operation and maintenance account of the species conservation trust fund (operation and maintenance account), for use in the upper Colorado river recovery program.

For fiscal year 2011, the bill:

* Reduces from $4,000,000 to $3,000,000 the amount to be transferred to the capital account from the operational account of the severance tax trust fund; and

* Transfers $1,000,000 to the operation and maintenance account from the operational account of the severance tax trust fund.

For the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years, the bill makes the following transfers from the operational account of the severance tax trust fund:

* $4,500,000 to the capital account; and

* $2,500,000 to the operation and maintenance account.