{"id":105131,"date":"2016-05-13T17:40:47","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T23:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rain-barrels-cleared-to-catch-roof-runoff\/"},"modified":"2016-05-13T17:40:47","modified_gmt":"2016-05-13T23:40:47","slug":"rain-barrels-cleared-to-catch-roof-runoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rain-barrels-cleared-to-catch-roof-runoff\/","title":{"rendered":"Rain barrels cleared to catch roof runoff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Gov.
Gov. John Hickenlooper autographs a rain barrel Thursday at the Governor\u2019s Residence at Boettcher Mansion in Denver after signing legislation that will allow Coloradans on Aug. 10 to begin collecting water that falls off their roofs.<\/span>Peter Marcus\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 After two years and a downpour of controversy, Coloradans soon will be allowed to use barrels to collect rain that falls from their roofs.<\/p>\n

Gov. John Hickenlooper signed legislation Thursday that allows Colorado to join every other state in permitting the use of rain barrels to collect water for plants and gardens.<\/p>\n

Starting Aug. 10, Coloradans will be allowed to use up to two 55-gallon barrels, which cost about $100 on average.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey promote education \u2013 pay attention to water and how it\u2019s used \u2013 and they also promote stewardship,\u201d Hickenlooper said of the barrels, signing the legislation in the backyard of the Governor\u2019s Residence at Boettcher Mansion in Denver.<\/p>\n

While the legislation seemed obvious to many observers, it struggled through the Legislature, failing last year, before picking up steam this year.<\/p>\n

What held it back was fears that rain barrels would erode the state\u2019s prior appropriations system, which grants water rights to the first person to take water from an aquifer or river, despite residential proximity.<\/p>\n

Several amendments this year helped garner support from factions that ardently fight for water rights, including the Colorado Farm Bureau.<\/p>\n

The law allows water officials to curtail use of barrels if injury to water rights is found. The law also states that using a rain barrel is not a water right, and requires the state engineer to evaluate if the use of rain barrels impacts water rights across the state.<\/p>\n

Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, helped push the measure along over the past two years by garnering support in the Republican-controlled Senate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to impact anyone\u2019s water rights. We just want to make sure that we aren\u2019t the only state in the union where this was illegal,\u201d said Rep. Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo, a co-sponsor of the bill.<\/p>\n

Sen. Mike Merrifield, D-Colorado Springs, added: \u201cIt gives urbanites a more personal and intimate connection with the complicated water system in Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge, pointed out that it was remarkable to pass a controversial piece of legislation during a contentious legislative session.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep hearing that there\u2019s this gridlock and that we\u2019re not able to get anything done in a hyper-partisan time,\u201d Danielson said. \u201cThis bill is an example of working across the aisle.\u201d<\/p>\n

pmarcus@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governor signs bill bringing two-year effort to a close<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[94,13,481,528,294],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-105131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-gov-john-hickenlooper","tag-state-sen-ellen-roberts","tag-water-supply"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105131"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=105131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}