Colorado legislature: Lawmakers pass bill to restore wetlands protections for half of state’s waters
The Colorado Home and Senate convened for the penultimate day of the 2024 session Tuesday as they rushed to wrap up laws on property taxes, gun rules, housing, land-use coverage, transportation and different priorities. That features a property tax reduction invoice that was unveiled Monday.
This story shall be up to date all through the day.
Up to date at 10:22 a.m.: Lawmakers on Monday night finalized a invoice that will backfill protections of wetlands that had been erased by a U.S. Supreme Courtroom determination final 12 months.
The Senate accredited Home Invoice 1379 earlier within the day and, after the Home concurred with Senate amendments within the early night, it was able to be despatched to the governor’s desk. The invoice, as soon as signed, would create a program within the Colorado Division of Public Well being and Setting to control how and when wetlands and seasonal streams could be disrupted by building exercise.
The U.S. Supreme Courtroom final 12 months dominated that many wetlands and seasonal streams weren’t protected below the federal Clear Water Act. The choice left these waters with little safety within the overwhelming majority of states, together with Colorado.
The laws handed Monday was certainly one of two payments launched to fill the hole in protections. The sponsors of the opposite invoice, Senate Invoice 127, negotiated modifications to the Home invoice and agreed to let their invoice die as a part of a compromise.
“It’s essential that we do that proper,” Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, who sponsored the Senate invoice and later joined the Home invoice, stated in a information launch Saturday. “And I consider this invoice helps lay the muse to make sure that we do that proper.”