April 29, 2008--Water bill better late than never (Denver Post)
HB 1280, sponsored by Rep. Randy Fischer, D-Fort Collins, and Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, stands as perhaps the most important piece of environmental legislation of the past decade, maybe longer. It corrects a nonsensical arrangement in place for the better part of a century and a half, whereby water rights holders were forced to remove precious water from streams whether they wanted to or not. Under this use-it-or-lose-it mandate, streams sometimes were de-watered, with predictable loss of fish and other aquatic creatures. Now, with the new law and a shuffling of priorities by the Colorado Water Conservation Board, farmers and ranchers can authorize leases or donations that keep their water in the river. This should end, or at least sharply reduce, the conditions that caused fish kills on certain rivers, either from a total lack of water or dangerously elevated temperature from low flows.
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