Ritter signs bill to keep rivers full

Gov. Bill Ritter today signed into law a significant revision to Colorado’s water law to allow water rights holders to leave some of their water in the river without penalty.

Currently, water law is based largely on a use-it-or-lose-it premise known as consumptive use. If water rights users don’t use the water they’re allowed, their rights can be weakened.

The bill signed today – House Bill 1280– lets water rights holders lease a portion of their rights to the Colorado Water Conservation Board without fear of losing those rights.

“This is a good way to avoid the use or lose proposition of consumptive use,” Ritter said. “At the end of the day, it really does make a difference.”

The conservation board is the only group in the state that can hold an “in-stream flow” right. But until now, the board had to get those rights through short-term leases and acquisition of junior water rights.

The bill will allow the state to enter into long-term leases for senior water rights, meaning leaving water in the river can now be a greater priority.

“The in-stream flow program is one of the most important environment programs for the state of Colorado,” said Harris Sherman, the director of the state Division of Natural Resources.

Environmental and sportsmen groups say fuller rivers promote greater ecosystem health and also pump millions more into the state’s economy because of more robust rafting and fishing tourism.

Kirk Klancke, who manages the Winter Park West Water and Sanitation District, said until now water law has encouraged everybody to take out as much as they’re allowed. Communities often hold enough water rights to cover them for when they are fully built out, even if they aren’t close to that mark now, Klancke said.

As a result, his water district takes out of the Fraser River far more water than it needs just to hold onto its rights for future needs. That water, he said, goes to irrigate land that produces mostly second homes and little agriculture.

“It’s irrigating land that trophy homes sit on,” Klancke said.

Klancke said he hopes the new law will restore the bone-chilling rivers he remembers from his youth.

Klancke said the Fraser River has been drained so much that the remaining water is now warmer, which not only imperils the trout in the river but also means his grandkids are content to splash around in the water for hours, while he could barely stand to dip a toe in when he was a kid.

“By leaving this cold, clean headwater in the river, we’re going to drop the temperature and create a healthy aquatic environment,” he said.

“Maybe my grandson will see a little bit more of the rivers I experienced. … If he can enjoy the same streams I had, that’s a huge victory.”

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