Press Release- Mar 12, 2007
OFFICE OF GOV. BILL RITTER, JR.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
MONDAY, MAR. 12, 2007
Contact:
Evan Dreyer, 720.350.8370
Laura Chapin, 303.866.6386
GOV. RITTER SIGNS LANDMARK WATER QUALITY BILL IN PUEBLO
PUEBLO - Gov. Bill Ritter signed a landmark bill in Pueblo this morning to protect Colorado water quality. House Bill 1132 will, for the first time, allow water court judges to consider environmental impacts and water quality along with water quantity as part of the determination on large permanent transfers.
"The Lower Arkansas Valley is an example of our need to pay attention to water quality whenever we talk about water transfers," Gov. Ritter said to a standing-room only crowd at the El Pueblo History Museum. "This will make a difference statewide."
"We as a state need to do all we can to protect this precious resource," the governor added. "Water quality and quantity should be viewed together."
HB 1132 allows water judges to reject applications to remove 1,000 acre-feet or more from a river if such a transfer is environmentally harmful to the river. In more technical language, it allows a water judge, in a water court case involving a permanent change of a water right from an irrigation use to another type of use which involves more than 1,000 acre-feet of consumptive use per year, to impose terms and conditions in the final water court decree that addresses any decreases in water quality standards as a result of the change.
Ritter praised state Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, for co-sponsoring HB 1132 along with Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village. Similar versions of the bill have failed in previous years, but HB 1132 passed both the Colorado House and Senate with broad bipartisan support.
"This bill has gone through a lot of trials and tribulations," McFadyen said. "This bill is not just good for southern Colorado. It's something the whole state can learn from, although we have seen the affects of water degradation in the Lower Arkansas Valley."
Also attending the signing ceremony were Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservation District officials, as well as Pueblo County and other local officials, including Pueblo Chieftain publisher Bob Rawlings.