A bill that ensures the future of El Paso County’s flood mitigation projects is on its way to Gov. John Hickenlooper’s desk Wednesday, after months of controversy and tweaks to appease water rights owners in southern Colorado.

Senate Bill 212 will allow crucial, and some say, life-saving flood mitigation systems in El Paso County to hold water without having to pay for downstream water rights. The bill’s controversial second half deals with stormwater detention ponds and allowing them to hold water for up to 72 hours. The bill states that detention ponds do not hurt downstream water rights.

The bill’s passage through the Legislature – and its expected approval from Hickenlooper – was greeted with relief from some farmers, stormwater managers and landscape rehabilitation groups, who could have faced a future without crucial flood mitigation or water quality projects. It means that groups like the Coalition for the Upper South Platte (CUSP), a Teller County nonprofit, can continue projects in the Waldo Canyon burn scar, where crews are working to stem the tide of sediment that washes out off the mountains since the 2012 wildfire. Had the bill not passed, it would have jeopardized one of the most important new tools that CUSP uses in its work, said executive director Carol Ekarius.

“This was a very important bill for us on the post-fire work, like the debris basins we did on the Waldo Canyon (scar),” she said. “That could have been a deal breaker for ever using these on a fire again.”

But the bill is more than just a triumph for burn scar projects – it also preserves stormwater quality systems that help farmers across the state, said Marc Arnusch, a northern Colorado farmer. Stormwater detention ponds upstream spared Arnusch’s farm northeast of Denver during the 2013 floods, he said. The basins held back water that otherwise could have destroyed his irrigation infrastructure.

“Even though this is not a perfect bill, it helps,” said Arnusch, who testified on behalf of the Colorado Farm Bureau in support of the bill. Two amendments in particular garnered Arnusch’s support, as they allow water rights owners to appeal projects, something that did not exist before, he said. “From a landowner and a water rights owner’s perspective that’s powerful because now I have a voice in that process.”

The bill’s long road started in late January, when Colorado Springs Utilities, El Paso County and CUSP received a letter from the state ordering them to pay for lost water rights or seek to change the state law to allow basins to retain water. The letter spurred movement in the Legislature and began months of wrangling between water managers and farmers in an attempt to craft a bill that covered the concerns of both.

“It balances that fine line between meeting the EPA requirements on water quality and protecting our prior appropriations system during those peak flows,” said Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, the bill’s main sponsor and a rancher who at times had concerns about the bill.

About a dozen farmers and ranchers from along the Lower Arkansas River made the trip to Denver twice to testify in committee against Senate Bill 212.

The farmers feared that if water was allowed to be retained, even temporarily, along urban tributaries of the Arkansas River it would diminish the river’s peak flow. Some farmers, known as junior rights holders, are only allowed to access water when it hits a certain peak flow.

“Obviously when you mess with water law … you’re concerned any time there may be somebody impacting you, and I subscribe to that,” Sonnenberg said. “I’m as paranoid as they are, quite frankly, when it comes to protecting our water rights.”

Sen. Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo, who heard the bill in the Senate Agricultural committee, agrees.

“I was moved by all the testimony we had from members who came from all over southeastern Colorado,” Garcia said. “At the end from the initial introduced version … we offered several amendments that exempted the Lower Ark, and I think three of them were integrated into the bill and put people’s minds at ease.”

Another amendment ensured the entity that retains water has a presumptive burden of proof in water court if issues arise.

The bill doesn’t resolve all the concerns initially expressed by the state, said Steve Witte, the division engineer with the Colorado Division of Water Resources, and issues likely remain.

FILE – Flood mitigation work being done in Williams Canyon will make a big difference in protecting Manitou Springs during a big storm. On Wednesday, July 9, 2014, a worker spreads the concrete that will be part of a wall in the project. (The Gazette/Jerilee Bennett)