Statement: HECHO Applauds Colorado Water Bills & Urges Continued Action Across U.S. Southwest on Water Resiliency
One of HECHO’s principal campaigns focuses on water resiliency along the Colorado River Basin. The Colorado River provides all or part of the water for 5 million acres of irrigated farmland in nine states. The Colorado River also provides drinking water to over 36 million people, including one-third of the U.S. Hispanic population, and supports a $26 billion water-based recreation economy and sustains 30 endemic fish species. Over the course of the 20th–century, water resources along the basin were overallocated which set bad management foundations. 21st-century flows are 20% below the already inadequate 20th-century average, with a substantial portion of that reduction attributed to climate change and with continued declines predicted.
As we work to incorporate more Hispanic voices in conversations around water management and the equity issues pertaining to the worsening water crisis across the U.S. Southwest, HECHO recognizes the great steps forward those states such as Colorado are taking to address this situation.
Last month, the Colorado state legislature passed four significant water bills that will provide the resources to enact groundwater compact compliance and sustainability, state water plan projects, wildfire mitigation and watershed restoration, and urban turf replacement.
Senate Bill 28 creates a Groundwater Compact Compliance and Sustainability Fund to help pay for the purchase and retirement of wells and irrigated acreage in the Republican and Rio Grande basins in northeast and south-central Colorado. The bill seeks to reduce groundwater pumping connected to surface water flows in the Republican River to comply with a compact among Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska. It will also help meet aquifer sustainability standards required by state statute and rules in the Rio Grande Basin, home to the San Luis Valley.
House Bill 1316 appropriates $8.2 million from the fund for grants to help implement the state water plan. The bill also appropriates $2 million to CWCB from its Construction Fund to help the Republican River Water Conservation District retire irrigated acreage.
House Bill 1379 takes advantage of ARPA revenue by appropriating $20 million from the Economic Recovery and Relief Cash Fund for projects to restore, mitigate and protect watersheds from damage caused by wildfire-induced erosion and flooding.
House Bill 1151 elevates urban turf replacement in importance. The bill requires CWCB to develop a statewide program to provide financial incentives for residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial property owners to voluntarily replace non-native grasses with water-wise landscaping. It appropriates $2 million in general funds to a newly created Turf Replacement Fund and authorizes local governments, nonprofits and other entities to apply to CWCB for grants to help finance their programs. Landscape contractors, to whom individuals can apply for money to replace their lawns, are also eligible.
HECHO applauds Colorado’s successful water bills, and urges all states along the Colorado River Basin to continue swift action on water resiliency as we face worsening drought conditions.