Section 1 of the bill makes legislative findings and declarations. Section 2 allows a board of county commissioners (board) to apply to the state engineer for the designation of a pond as a fire suppression pond. The director of the division of fire prevention and control (director) in the department of public safety is required to promulgate rules to establish criteria for boards, in consultation with fire protection districts, to use to identify and evaluate potential fire suppression ponds. For each pond that is identified and under consideration as a potential fire suppression pond,
a board must provide notice of such fact to the state engineer and to interested parties included in the substitute water supply plan notification list established for the water division in which the pond is located. Section 2 also prohibits the state engineer from draining any pond: •
While the pond is under consideration for designation as a fire suppression pond;
•
If the state engineer has designated the pond as a fire suppression pond; or
•
On and after the effective date of the bill, and until the date upon which the director promulgates rules, with exceptions. Section 2 also states that a fire suppression pond and the water
associated with it:
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Are not considered a water right;
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Do not have a priority for the purpose of determining water rights; and
•
May not be adjudicated as a water right. Section 3 requires the state engineer to review applications
received from boards and, at the state engineer's discretion, designate ponds as fire suppression ponds. An application is presumed to be approved if the state engineer does not respond to the application within 63 days after the application is received by the state engineer. The state engineer may not designate any pond as a fire suppression pond unless the pond existed as of January 1, 1975. Section 3 also allows the state engineer to impose reasonable
requirements on a board as a condition of designating a pond as a fire suppression pond and requires a board and a fire protection district to inspect a fire suppression pond at least annually.
The designation of a pond as a fire suppression pond expires 20
years after the date of the designation. Before the expiration, the board and the fire protection district must perform a needs assessment of the pond. If the needs assessment demonstrates that the pond is in compliance with criteria established in the director's rules, the board and fire protection district shall notify the state engineer of such fact, and the state engineer shall redesignate the pond as a fire suppression pond. If the needs assessment demonstrates that the pond is not in compliance with the criteria, the board and fire protection district may either:
•
Notify the state engineer that the designation of the pond as a fire suppression pond should be rescinded or allowed to expire; or
•
Provide to the state engineer a plan and a timeline for bringing the pond back into compliance with such criteria. Section 4 states that the designation of fire suppression ponds by
the state engineer does not cause material injury to vested water rights. 1
