The Colorado House of Representatives on Tuesday approved HB 10-1188, clarifying the rights of commercial rafters, by a vote of 40 to 25. The bill will now go on to the Colorado Senate for review, the Aspen Daily News reports. “Today’s vote shows that 1188 is a bipartisan solution,” said Ben Davis, spokesman for the Colorado River Outfitters Association, who noted that the House Minority Leader, Republican Mike May, voted for the bill. “Everyone wants to see Colorado’s rivers stay open for business.”

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The Pueblo Chieftain: A bill that allows rafters to go aground on private property passed the House on Tuesday and awaits the governor’s signature to become law. Sponsored by state Rep. Kathleen Curry, unaffiliated-Gunnison, HB1188 sparked debate over commercial rafters’ rights to travel public waterways and the rights of property owners.

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The Colorado House approved House Bill 10-1188 on a voice vote Friday to clarify that commercial rafting companies have the right to float down a historically run stretch of river, even if they have incidental contact with rocks and the river banks, and that they have the right to portage across private property to avoid hazardous obstacles in the river. Third and final reading of the bill is expected to take place on Monday.

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Colorado Statesman: Lawmakers took the first step in deciding whether commercial outfitters have the right to float through private property Monday when the House Judiciary Committee gave House Bill 1188 a favorable recommendation after nearly six hours of testimony from river outfitters, landowners, district attorneys and water law experts.

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As if Colorado water law weren’t complicated enough, the right to take a rafting trip down the Animas River might hinge on how far upstream boats could sail in England in the reign of King James I. At least that was a question lawyers raised Monday night when debating a bill that would help river-rafting companies, The Durango Herald reports.

From the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel: Rafting companies would be allowed to cross private land whether property owners like it or not under a bill that won approval in a House committee Monday. House Bill 1188, introduced by Rep. Kathleen Curry, U-Gunnison, stemmed from a recent announcement from a Texas developer, Lewis Shaw, that he no longer would allow two rafting companies to traverse two miles of his land along the Taylor River.

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State Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, R–Sterling, Friday was successful in securing the necessary votes to defeat a “basin of origin” water bill that he says would have hurt farmers along the South Platte, the Sterling Journal-Advocate reports. “If this bill passes, you just as well paint a big red target on the back of farmers in eastern Colorado,” Sonnenberg argued. Rep. Sal Pace (D-Pueblo) introduced HB 1159 which would have made mitigation a requirement when water was transferred from one division to another. The bill lost by a 40-21 vote.

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Western Slope legislators got a lesson in math Friday when the House voted down a bill on water transfers. House Bill 1159 would have required cities that want to import water from far away to negotiate with local water districts to minimize the impacts, The Durango Herald reports. The bill would have put Western Slope water districts in a stronger position when Front Range cities come looking for water in future years. “There are damages when water is moved,” said Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, the bill’s sponsor.

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Lawyers, rafts and money: Those are the debates in store for Colorado’s water community this year at the Legislature, The Durango Herald reports. A Pueblo Democrat wants to make sure that water imports from wet basins to dry ones don’t harm people in the original basin. And a Gunnison representative wants to make sure rafting guides can float the state’s rivers, no matter who owns the riverbank.

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