April 2, 2008--Healthy rivers flowing along (Pagosa Daily Post)
Colorado legislators passed House Bill 1280 out of the Senate. The measure, sponsored by Senator Gail Schwartz (D-Snowmass) and Representative Randy Fischer (D-Ft. Collins), aims to protect water right holders when they chose to loan or lease water to the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) for instream flow purposes. "Our healthy rivers and streams are among our most important natural resources. If we can protect those resources while also protecting water rights, we have truly found a win-win solution,” said Jennifer Gimbel, Director of the CWCB. Current law provides the CWCB instream flow program with the authority to acquire existing water rights by loan or lease. Under the law, however, there is a risk that water rights that are loaned or leased to the CWCB for instream flow use will diminish or be lost altogether. HB 1280 aims to eliminate this barrier to loaning or leasing water rights to the instream flow program, in order to boost the popularity of the program amongst a range of water right holders.
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