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<br />find ways to use produced water for agriculture. If passed, it would require the <br />Department of Interior to carry out a study and provide $5 million in funding. A <br />companion bill, "More Water, More Energy, Less Waste Act of 2007," is sponsored by <br />U.s. Sen. Ken Salazar. <br /> <br />Produced water comes up with natural gas from deep underground and contains <br />hydrocarbons - crude petroleum - and dissolved solids including salts that in most <br />instances could not be used for irrigation. Across the state, water produced by oil and <br />gas drilling is either recycled or injected into deep wells. <br /> <br />Energy trade groups in Colorado support the Salazar and Udall bills. The Colorado Oil <br /> <br />and Cas Association has endorsed the bills. <br /> <br />All involved recognize the legal hurdles that must be overcome. <br /> <br />"If you treat produced water as waste and dispose of it, you're outside the water right <br />system," Ken Wonstolen, a COCA attorney said. "There's a disincentive to do anything <br />but treat it as waste" because putting it to beneficial use would create legal and financial <br />hurdles. <br /> <br />Produced water would not be subject to state water law because it is not tributary to <br />surface waters, said Dave Merritt, chief engineer of the Colorado River Districts. <br />"Essentially, it would be administered outside the priority system," he said. <br /> <br />But gas operators would have to prove that in water court, said Division 5 engineer <br />Alan Martellaro. Once that water is turned to a beneficial use, such as irrigating a <br />farmer's crop, it would be subject to state water law. Martellaro said buying treated <br />produced water could prove too costly for farmers and ranchers. "Under current laws <br />(gas developers) would need a well permit" that is established in state water court. The <br />attendant legal and engineering fees would add to the selling price of the water. <br /> <br />In the long run, water produced from oil and gas drilling won't make much of a dent in <br />the state's need to meet its compact obligations to downstream states along the <br />Colorado River, he said. "We're talking about" thousands of acre feet (of produced <br />water) as opposed to a need for tens of millions of acre feet to meet the state's <br />downstream obligations. <br /> <br />Sen. Allard Announces Water Funding: On June 26 U.s. Sen. Wayne Allard <br />issued a press release announcing he has secured $78.921 million in funding for <br /> <br />10 <br />