Agenda Item 8

• Board Meeting Date: 3/18/2008
• Description: CWCB Legislative Update - HB08-1346 - HB08-1280 - SB08-168
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

• require the CWCB, as part of its evaluation
of a proposed agreement for a lease or loan
of water under section 37-92-102(3), to
obtain confirmation from the Division
Engineer that the proposal can be
administered and is capable of meeting all
applicable statutory requirements;
• require that all agreements entered into by
the CWCB for leases or loans of water under
that section shall require the CWCB to:
• maintain records of how much water the
CWCB uses under the agreement each
year it is in effect; and
• install any measuring device(s) deemed
necessary by the Division Engineer to
administer the agreement and to measure
and record how much water flows out of
said reach after use by the CWCB under
the agreement, unless a measuring device
already exists on the stream that meets
the Division Engineer's requirements.
require the CWCB to file a water court
application to obtain a decreed right to use
water for instream flow purposes under a
contract or agreement for a lease or loan of
water; and
require all agreements entered into by the
CWCB for acquisitions of water to provide
that, pursuant to the water court decree
implementing the agreement, either the lessor
/ lender /donor of the water or the CWCB
may bring about the beneficial use of the
historical consumptive use of the leased /
loaned /donated water right downstream of
the instream flow reach as fully consumable
reusable water.
• Amends section 37-92-102(4)(c) to require the
water court, in decreeing a change of water right
implementing an agreement for a lease or loan of
water to the CWCB for ISF use, to
quantify the historical consumptive use of the
leased or loaned water right and determine
the method by which the historical
consumptive use should be quantified and
credited during the term of the agreement for
the lease or loan of the water right. The
method shall recognize the actual amount of
consumptive use available under the leased
or loaned water right and shall not result
in a reduction of the historical consumptive
use of that water right during the term of the
lease or loan, except to the extent such
reduction is based upon the actual amount of
water available under the water right.
Amends section 37-92-103(2)(b) to designate
participation in a contract or agreement with the
CWCB that allows the CWCB to use all or part
of a water right for instream flow use under
section 37-92-102(3) as a circumstance under
which no intent to abandon the loaned water right
shall be found.
Amends section 37-92-305(3) (b) to provide that
decrees for changes of water rights that
implement agreements for leases, loans or
donations of water to the CWCB for instream
flow use under section 37-92-102(3)(b) shall
provide that either the lessor /lender /donor of
the water or the CWCB may bring about the
beneficial use of the historical consumptive use
of the leased /loaned /donated water right
downstream of the instream flow reach as fully
consumable reusable water.
These statutory changes will:
Assure water rights owners interested in leasing
or otherwise providing water to the CWCB for
instream flow use under section 37-92-102(3)
that such an arrangement will not result in a
reduction of the historic consumptive use
credited to the subject water right in any future
water court proceeding to change that water right.
• Assure water rights owners interested in leasing
or otherwise providing water to the CWCB for
instream flow use under section 37-92-102(3)
that the owner's nonuse of a water right during
the period of the CWCB's instream flow use
shall not give rise to a presumption of
abandonment of that water right.
• Address concerns raised by water users regarding
the potential for inflated historical consumptive
use claims in the context of leases or loans of
water to the CWCB for instream flow use.
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For more information, contact
Linda Bassi at the CWCB at [phone].
1313 Sherman Street, Room 72 (, Denver, CO, 80203
Phone: [phone] FAX: [phone] Internet: w-ww.cwch.state.co.us