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Tag: Water rights

Kansas forced Colorado to stop irrigating 25,000 acres of farmland. Was it too soon to put them in the same room?
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State, The Colorado Sun

Kansas forced Colorado to stop irrigating 25,000 acres of farmland. Was it too soon to put them in the same room?

By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun Agricultural producers, scientists and policymakers from Colorado and Kansas gathered near the Ogallala Aquifer in Burlington on Wednesday to air their concerns and share ideas for how to survive continued drought. But it was hard to escape the Republican River Basin-shaped elephant in the room.  The group convened at the behest of U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet, the Colorado Democrat who chairs the Conservation, Climate, Forestry, and Natural Resources subcommittee, and Roger Marshall, of Kansas, the ranking Republican member of the subcommittee.  The location was poignant because it’s in a region where farmers over recent years have had to shut down their wells and either switch to dryland farming or grazing or stop all agricultural activity...
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Walcher: The EPA’s end run around the Supreme Court
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Commentary, Greg Walcher

Walcher: The EPA’s end run around the Supreme Court

By GREG WALCHER | GregWalcher.com An “end run” was once a common football term, describing an offensive play in which the ball carrier runs around the end of the defensive line. But today it is more often used rhetorically to describe a strategic dodge, any maneuver to bypass, circumvent, or sidestep. It’s more common in politics than in football. Many Westerners celebrated earlier this year when the Supreme Court finally declared once and for all that “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) does not include every creek, pond, ditch, puddle, and parking lot drain in the country. EPA spent nearly a decade trying to use WOTUS as the regulatory tool for a vast expansion of federal jurisdiction, to include virtually all activity that touches any water, ignoring the plain language...
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Understanding the complexity of Colorado’s rainwater collection laws
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State, The Colorado Sun

Understanding the complexity of Colorado’s rainwater collection laws

By Justin George | The Colorado Sun Colorado allows rainwater collection on private property but limits who can collect it, how much they can collect and how it can be used, according to the Colorado Division of Water Resources. You cannot collect water if you live in an apartment or condominium building with more than four units. You can own up to two rain barrels to catch water, but cannot store more than 110 gallons at a time. Lids are required to prevent mosquitoes from breeding. Collected water can only be used for “outside” purposes such as lawn and garden maintenance, car washing, livestock watering and hot tub filling. It cannot be used indoors or as drinking water. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Ten bills passed in session, earning some bipartisan support, aimed to address variety of water issues
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State, The Colorado Sun

Ten bills passed in session, earning some bipartisan support, aimed to address variety of water issues

By Larry Morandi and Jerd Smith | The Colorado Sun Colorado lawmakers gave the thumbs-up to 10 water measures this year that will bring millions of dollars in new funding to help protect streams, bring oversight to construction activities in wetlands and rivers, make commercial rainwater harvesting easier and support efforts to restore the clarity of Grand Lake. Money for water conservation, planning and projects was a big winner, with some $50 million approved, including $20 million to purchase the Shoshone water rights on the Colorado River. Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, chair of the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, expressed gratitude for the legislature’s focus on water issues and for funding the Shoshone purchase. “This continues to show the state...
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Martinez: Court sends a reminder; tax hikes require voter consent
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Commentary, completecolorado.com, State

Martinez: Court sends a reminder; tax hikes require voter consent

By Tyler Martinez | Complete Colorado In a major victory for taxpayers, a unanimous panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals agreed with the National Taxpayers Union Foundation’s Taxpayer Defense Center (NTUF) that an overnight doubling of the property taxes in a few Northern Colorado counties violated the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). We represented James Aranci and his neighbors, who were shocked to learn in 2020 that their property taxes to the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District doubled from 2019 to 2020 (and the years thereafter). TABOR mandates a ratification vote of any proposed tax increase or new debt taken on by government entities–including water districts. But there was no vote from Aranci or anyone else. So we came...
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Colorado Wetlands: Lawmakers clash as they seek state protections
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coloradopolitics.com, State

Colorado Wetlands: Lawmakers clash as they seek state protections

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics How Colorado protects wetlands depends on two perspectives: Is it a water quality issue or a land management issue? Even assuming it's a little of both, either answer leads to different approaches, each to be overseen by a different agency. And either path offers implications for construction, permitting and management of habitats.  This month, lawmakers looked at the dueling approaches contained in two measures seeking to implement a way for the state to manage "dredge and fill discharge" permits tied to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that redefined how a body of water can be protected under the Environmental Protection Agency's "Waters of the United States" rule. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
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They’re just using a different tool to control water now
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Commentary, National

They’re just using a different tool to control water now

By GREG WALCHER | GregWalcher.com There are at least 25 different types of wrenches commonly found in toolboxes. There are box-end, open-end, combination, and crescent wrenches. For particular jobs, one might reach for a lug wrench, basin wrench, oil filter wrench, or an impact, flare-nut, strap, chain, or torque wrench. Like most people, I also have socket wrenches, Allen wrenches, and pipe wrenches.   My dad taught us that every job is easier with the right tools, but he also knew there were several ways to accomplish any task. If one wrench won’t work, you try a different wrench. That is exactly what environmental industry lawyers, and their government allies, are doing in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Sackett v. EPA. That is the case in which the Court finally decl...
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