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Senate moves bill to allow permits for groundwater recharge and require listing of affected water rights
Summary
Senate Bill 20 would allow permits to place flood water into underground storage as a beneficial use and require the state engineer to provide lists of affected water rights and owner addresses when declaring groundwater management areas; the Senate advanced the bill by roll call.
Senator Stoll presented SB20 as a companion measure to other water bills addressing over‑appropriation. The bill would authorize obtaining permits to place flood water into underground storage (recharge) and treat that storage as a beneficial use for purposes of proving up water rights.
Stoll also said SB20 requires the state engineer, upon declaring a groundwater management area, to provide a list of water rights affected including names and addresses on file so county clerks and petition processes can identify affected owners for local district elections.
"What this bill does is it allows you to get a permit to put the water in the underground and that is a beneficial use then," Stoll said on the floor. He described the requirement that the state engineer publish affected water‑rights records as a practical step to facilitate petitions and elections connected with local districts.
The motion to read SB20 for a third time passed by roll call (recorded as 27 yea, 0 nay, 2 absent) and the bill was placed on the third‑reading calendar.
Next steps: SB20 will appear on a future third‑reading calendar for final action; the state engineer and county clerks are likely to be involved in any implementation steps if the bill becomes law.
