HB 20-1037 Summary

• Authorizes the Colorado Water Conservation Board to file water court applications for plans of augmentation to augment stream flows using water rights previously decreed for augmentation use without requiring an additional change of water rights.

• Requires the board to file applications jointly with or obtain consent from the owner of the water right decreed for augmentation use, and limits augmentation use to water rights with quantified historical consumptive use that have been judicially approved for augmentation.

• Imposes strict conditions on stream flow augmentation plans including preventing injury to vested water rights, prohibiting diversions that reduce augmentation water within the stream reach, and requiring operator consent and cost-sharing for modifications to existing diversion structures.

• Protects undecreed water exchanges that were administratively approved before the application filing date and preserves junior appropriators' rights to stream conditions existing at the time of their appropriation.

• Takes effect 90 days after final adjournment of the 2020 general assembly (August 5, 2020), subject to voter approval if a referendum petition is filed by November 2020.