2026 Water Projects Bill

Plain English Breakdown

The official summary lists the loans as authorized amounts but does not confirm if they have been fully disbursed yet.

2026 Water Projects Bill

This law moves money from state water funds to pay for monitoring, planning, and construction projects across Colorado.

What This Bill Does

• Appropriates millions of dollars for weather tracking, flood maps, and watershed restoration projects.
• Transfers up to $6 million to a fund used for legal cases involving the Water Conservation Board by July 1, 2026.
• Moves $2 million from water funds back into the fish and wildlife resources fund.
• Authorizes two large loans totaling over $170 million for new reservoirs in Fort Collins and Lower Latham.
• Sets aside nearly $38 million to give grants that help carry out the state water plan.
• Raises the limit on how much money the board can lend without asking lawmakers first from $10 million to $30 million.

Who It Names or Affects

• The Colorado Water Conservation Board and its construction fund
• The Division of Water Resources in the Department of Natural Resources
• The City of Fort Collins for a water supply project
• Lower Latham Reservoir Company for reservoir construction

Terms To Know

Appropriates

Sets aside money from the government budget to pay for specific things.

Severance tax perpetual base fund

A state savings account funded by taxes on mining and drilling that is used for long-term projects like water loans.

CWCB construction fund

The main pool of money the Colorado Water Conservation Board uses to build or fix water systems.

Limits and Unknowns

• This law only covers spending for the state fiscal year that runs from July 2026 through June 2027.
• The text does not list specific dates when each project must finish, other than a deadline of June 30, 2028, for one fund transfer.

Official Summary Text

The act appropriates the following amounts for the 2026-27 state fiscal year from the Colorado water conservation board (CWCB) construction fund to the CWCB or the division of water resources in the department of natural resources for the following projects:
Continuation of the satellite monitoring system, $380,000 (section 1 of the act);
Continuation of the floodplain map modernization program, $500,000 (section 2);
Continuation of the weather modification permitting program, $500,000 (section 3);
Continuation of the Colorado Mesonet project, $200,000 (section 5);
Continuation of the water forecasting partnership project, $2,500,000 (section 6);
Continuation of Colorado decision support system operation and maintenance, $750,000 (section 7);
Support for water plan agency actions, $1,350,000 (section 9);
Continuation of the Colorado watershed restoration and flood mitigation projects, $5,000,000 (section 10); and
Continuation of the upper Colorado river commission planning, $750,000 (section 11).
Section 4 directs the state treasurer to transfer up to $6,000,000 from the CWCB construction fund to the CWCB litigation fund on or before July 1, 2026.
Section 8 restores the fish and wildlife resources fund balance by transferring $2,000,000 from the CWCB construction fund to the fish and wildlife resources fund.
Section 12 authorizes the CWCB to make a loan in an amount of $151,500,000 from the severance tax perpetual base fund to the city of Fort Collins to support the Halligan water supply project.
Section 13 authorizes the CWCB to make a loan in an amount of $20,166,670 from the severance tax perpetual base fund to the Lower Latham Reservoir Company for the Jurgens reservoir construction project.
Section 14 appropriates $37,700,000 from the water plan implementation cash fund to the CWCB to award grants that will help implement the state water plan.
Section 15 clarifies that the money that is currently in the turf replacement fund is appropriated for designated purposes to the CWCB until June 30, 2028. Any money remaining in the turf replacement fund on July 1, 2028, is transferred to the CWCB construction fund.
Section 16 makes technical corrections so that money appropriated in 2025 is available to the department of natural resources executive director's office for the purpose of paying for a study by the Colorado water center at Colorado state university.
Under current law, the CWCB may authorize loans up to $10 million from the CWCB construction fund or severance tax perpetual base fund without legislative authorization. The act increases that amount to $30 million (section 17).
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)