Senate Bill 22-114: Fire Suppression Ponds

• Establishes a process for county commissioners to identify, designate, and preserve ponds as critical fire suppression resources in consultation with local fire protection districts.

• Requires counties to conduct needs assessments within one year of notifying the state engineer of potential fire suppression ponds, identifying the pond's refill mechanism and evaluating criteria established by the Division of Fire Prevention and Control.

• Authorizes the state engineer to designate ponds as fire suppression ponds, with designations lasting 15 years and renewable; limits designations to 30 total surface acres per county and 6 acres per individual pond.

• Prevents the state engineer from ordering ponds drained or backfilled during county consideration for designation or after state engineer designation, except for dam safety concerns.

• Designates fire suppression ponds and their water as non-water rights that cannot be adjudicated, and creates a presumption of no material injury to other water rights if statutory requirements are met; appropriates $19,428 for implementation.