Summary and comments: This bill seeks to establish some consistency among state agencies subject the Administrative Procedures Act that issue various "permits". The term "permit" is defined in the bill as a grant of authority by an agency that authorizes the holder of the permit to do some act which is not forbidden by law but is not allowed to be performed without authority. The term "permit" does not include professional licenses issued by an agency with the responsibility for regulating professions or occupations.

The acronym for the bill is the "CLEAR Act" which stands for "Creating Level Expectations for Application Review."

The bill would establish that the rules that were in effect when an application was made continue to govern for applications that were filed under them - basically a "don't move the goal post" standard. The bill includes changes to statutes that govern the activities of the agencies. There are two exceptions to the standard that apply to the statute or rule change if the change materially affect the public health and safety and if the existing unchanged rules would likely result in an situation that is unsafe to the public if the applicant did not comply with the new standard. In the event that either of the two exceptions would occur, the agency is required to treat an application as pending, provide the applicant with a written explanation for why the application is being held up as incomplete and provide the applicant a reasonable opportunity to comply with the new standards.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has not reviewed this bill

Summary and comments: The bill seeks to clarify Colorado law with respect to the conditions under which graywater may be used. The bill defines graywater as wastewater from sources other than toilets, urinals, kitchen sinks, nonlaundry utility sinks and dishwashers which is captured within a residence, business or industry. The bill would require that the captured water meet standards established by the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission; the standards would exclude drinking water as a use. The bill specifies that the uses of the graywater must be the same as those allowed by the user's water rights and that if the graywater is used in that manner there would be a statutory determination that the use does not cause injury to any other water right. The bill further specifies that the graywater can only be used if the Commission has adopted guidelines and if the local government with jurisdiction over the property has authorized the use. Enforcement would be vested in the local government.

A version of this bill was considered by the Water Resources Interim Committee but failed to secure enough votes to be recommended as being an exempt bill.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has reviewed but not taken a position on this bill as yet.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has taken a position of support.

Permitted Mine Operations - Requirements for Replacement Water

Summary and comments: This bill was recommended by the Water Resources Interim Committee. The bill recognizes that some mining operations construct impermeable areas that capture precipitation and as a result of that capture eliminate preexisting natural evapotranspiration. Under current law, the mining operation is required to replace the amount of water that has been captured and which would have historically reached the stream in order to prevent injury to other senior water rights. However, water that is lost through natural evapotranspiration does not affect stream depletions since the water never reached the stream. Current law does not recognize this natural phenomenon and the mining operator is not given credit for the natural evapotranspiration against his obligation to replenish the stream unless the mining operation is a sand and gravel mine in which case there is a separate statutory recognition of the loss and replacement standard. The bill specifies that for any mining operation, there would no requirement for replacement water of the amount of water lost to natural evapotranspiration resulting from impermeable surfaces.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has taken a position of support

Regulatory Navigator

Summary and comments: The bill would require the Director of Research of the Legislative Council to provide a regulatory navigator to assist the public in finding any state, local or federal regulation or rule along with information as to how to contact appropriate governmental officials. The navigator would not become involved in any regulatory problem solving and his or her activities would be limited to directing a requestor to the right sources of information.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has not reviewed this bill

Exempt Drinking Water Treatment Facilities from Certificate of Designation

Summary and comments: This bill was recommended by the Water Resources Interim Committee. Under current law, a drinking water facility is required to obtain to secure a certificate of designation from the local government if the facility stores, treats or processes solid waste originating at the facility. Such facilities fall under the jurisdiction of the Solid and Hazardous Waste Commission and the Water Quality Control Commission. The bill, which was brought jointly by the affecting municipalities and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, would exempt such facilities from the requirement thus allowing them to dispose of their own solid wastes on their own property subject to rules for waste impoundment and solid waste disposal.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has taken a position of support

Pharmaceutical Take Back Programs

Summary and comments: A version of this bill was considered by the Water Resources Interim Committee but did not secure enough votes to be recommended as an exempt bill.

This bill seeks to prohibit the disposal of drugs and medications (both terms defined in the bill) into the state waters effective January 1, 2017. The bill specifies that disposal would have to be accomplished by use a drop box or other authorized collection method established by a local program or disposing of the waste in an approved facility, at an approved hazardous waste facility or in the person's own domestic solid waste in compliance with other applicable state laws.

The bill authorizes local governments, private entities, private parties and public-private partnerships to establish take back programs and to receive funding from the new state program. The bill would provide immunity from liability for such programs and participants. Funding for the program is to come from grants, gifts and donations. The bill sets forth duties of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment for administering the program and for the local programs concerning disposal of accepted drugs and medications.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has not review this bill yet

Scientific Review of Nutrient Standards

Summary and comments: This bill is in response to the pending regulatory imposition of nutrient standards for streams. The bill would establish a board, the members of which would be appointed by the leadership of the General Assembly, to review the proposed numeric water quality nutrient standards for phosphorous and nitrogen to determine how Colorado should comply with the requirements. The review would include stakeholder participation and cost-benefit analyses. Among the objectives of the review is the avoidance of unnecessary regulations and the minimization of fiscal impact to state agencies and local governments. The board is to have completed its work and made its report to the General Assembly and the Water Quality Control Commission not later than Feb. 1, 2013. The WQCC would be prohibited from adopting rules concerning the targeted nutrients until the rule is approved by the General Assembly.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has not reviewed this bill yet

Severed Mineral Estates

Summary and comments: This bill would require that listing contracts, contracts of sale, and sellers' property disclosures for real estate must include a notice regarding whether the mineral estate has been severed from the surface estate and a surface owner's right of first refusal to purchase the mineral estate when the taxes on the mineral estate have not been paid. The seller must provide to the buyer a copy of each instrument that severed the mineral estate, the name and contact information of the owner of the mineral estate, and the name and contact information of any known current lessees of the mineral estate, if that information is available.

The seller must also indicate whether mineral exploration or development on the real property is or will be using water that would otherwise be available to the buyer as an incident of ownership of the real property.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has not reviewed this bill yet

Hydraulic Fracturing - Limit on Open Pit

Summary and comments: This bill requires that on or after July 1, 2014, an oil and gas operator may not use, store, or dispose of hydraulic fracturing fluids or flow-back from a hydraulic fracturing treatment in an open pit and must use a closed-loop system for hydraulic fracturing treatments.

The bill further provides that the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission may approve the use of open pits where the Commission determines there is no risk to occupied structures or water sources, and operators can use open pits if the fluids are clean enough to discharge directly into state waters without a permit.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has not reviewed this bill yet

Summary and comments: This bill would enhance the authority of the Oil and Gas Commission to increase setbacks from wells that would be treated with hydraulic fracturing and requires that setbacks of at least 1,000 feet must be set for proximity to a residence or school. A surface owner of land that is not located in an urban area may request a lesser setback.

The bill would amend the definition of "land upon which oil and gas operations are conducted" to include land that overlies a portion of a geologic formation within which horizontal fracturing is to be conducted.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has not reviewed this bill yet

Use of Credit Information by Employers

Summary and comments: This bill sets forth the purposes for which an employer or potential employer can use an employee's consumer credit information. The bill would prohibit such use unless the information is related to the job. The bill would require an employer to disclose when the employer uses the employee's consumer credit information to take an adverse action. The bill would authorize the employee to seek remedies for violations of the allowed uses.

Denver Basin Wells

Summary and comments: This bill was recommended by the Water Resources Interim Committee. This bill would extend current law that will expire on July 1, 2012 to July 1, 2015 and thus continue the statutory requirement for wells that pump from the Dawson aquifer to replace actual stream depletions to the extent necessary to prevent any injurious effects to other water rights based on actual aquifer conditions and replacement after pumping ceases for all Denver Basin aquifers only if necessary to compensate for injurious depletions. The bill was requested by the State Engineer to reflect the fact that there are currently no acceptable computer modeling tools to accurately calculate depletions in relation to actual aquifer conditions.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has taken a position of support

Summary and comments: This bill was recommended by the Water Resources Interim Committee. The bill is basically an accounting and bookkeeping technical bill that would consolidate the various cash funds administered by the Division of Water Resources into one fund that could be managed more efficiently. The bill is sponsored by the Chairman of the Joint Budget Committee.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has taken a position of support

Summary and comments: This bill would prohibit the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission from adopting regulatory criteria concerning nitrogen or phosphorous.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has reviewed the bill but has not taken a position yet

Summary and comments: The bill seeks to divert funds from the severance tax revenues to support rural higher education. The effect of such a commitment would be to reduce severance tax funding for water projects and the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has reviewed the bill but has not yet voted to take a position on it

Summary and comments: This bill has been requested by the City of Thornton. Under current law, all changes of water rights, including changes in the point of diversion, must be adjudicated. The bill would create a simplified procedure for the adjudication of a simple change in a surface point of diversion, which would be defined as a change in the point of diversion from a decreed surface diversion point that is not combined with and does not include any other type of change of water right and for which there is no intervening surface diversion point or inflow from a surface stream or other surface discharge between the new point of diversion and the diversion point from which a change is being made. The new procedure applies to a change of point of diversion that has already been physically accomplished or with respect to a requested future change of point of diversion.

The bill would establish a rebuttable presumption that a simple change in a surface point of diversion will not cause an enlargement of the historical use associated with the water rights being changed. The resulting decree must not requantify the water rights for which the point of diversion is being changed.

The bill would establish that the applicant is not required to prove:

*That the water diverted at the new point of diversion can and will be diverted and put to use within a reasonable period of time;

*Compliance with the anti-speculation doctrine; or

*Future need for the water or other similar requirements imposed by case law or statute.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress heard a brief summary of the bill prior to text being available and has not taken a position on the bill yet

Summary and comments: The bill would create and enact the "Water Rights Protection Act", under which the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission would be required to promulgate rules for:

*Hydraulic fracturing near radioactive materials and sites listed on the national priority list pursuant to the federal "superfund" law; and

*The shut-down of hydraulic fracturing operations when monitoring equipment detects a pressure drop.

Oil and gas operators would be required to submit water quantity reports showing projected and actual sources and amounts of water needed for hydraulically fracturing a well. Operators would be required to also submit pre- and post-fracturing water quality reports for all active water wells located within 1/2 mile of oil and gas wells that will be or have been hydraulically fractured. This information will be posted on the Commission's web site.

Operators would be prohibited from injecting into the ground any chemical compound that would cause cancer.

In addition to existing financial assurances, each operator that engages in a high-risk hydraulic fracturing treatment would be required to take out an environmental bond that would be forfeited if the operator's operations cause any damage to water rights.

Subject to listed affirmative defenses, an operator is presumed to be responsible for the pollution of a water supply that is within 1/2 mile of a line between the well head and the surface projection of the bottom hole location of the well, if the pollution occurred within 6 months after the completion of the hydraulic fracturing of the well.

Hydraulic fracturing would be prohibited within 1/2 mile of any surface water, including a pond, reservoir, or other natural or artificial impoundment or stream, ditch, or other artificial waterway, unless the operator uses a closed-loop system.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Summary and comments: The bill authorizes the state engineer to reduce, temporarily, augmentation requirements in areas where groundwater levels are at or near historic high levels of groundwater saturation through the creation of 3 pilot projects.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Summary and comments: This resolution originated in the Water Resources Interim Committee. The resolution states the adverse effects that diversion of severance tax revenues to support the general fund has had on water projects and calls on the General Assembly to cease such diversions. Because this is a resolution and not a bill, it does not get assigned to a committee of reference and is placed on the Senate floor calendar upon its introduction.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has taken a position of support

Summary and comments: This resolution is the authorization vehicle for the funding for the next fiscal year's projects to be financed by the Water and Power Development Authority

Among the projects selected for modifications is Cherokee's source water protection and green infrastructure and an addition for Triview wastewater system improvements. Also included in the resolution are project modifications for Fountain Sanitation and Forest Lakes.

PPRWA Board Position: Pending

Colorado Water Congress has not taken a position on the resolution yet

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