Senate Bill 13-041 Summary

• Amends Colorado water law to allow conditional water storage rights to become absolute once water is captured and stored in a decreed storage facility, avoiding additional diligence proceedings.

• Expands the definition of "beneficial use" to explicitly include water storage for any lawful purpose, firefighting, and recreational purposes.

• Prohibits declaring water storage rights abandoned solely because water is carried over in storage from year to year for drought protection or to meet demonstrated future demands.

• Eliminates the requirement that applicants demonstrate all existing absolute water rights in a multi-feature project have been fully utilized before making a conditional storage right absolute for a separate feature.

• Takes effect August 7, 2013, or upon voter approval in November 2014 if subject to a referendum petition, and applies to applications pending on or after the effective date.