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| 12/26/2008 6:00:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Isgar puts college merger, water issues on slate for Legislature
Joe Hanel
Journal Denver Bureau
DENVER - The merger of a local vocational school and community college will be the first thing Sen. Jim Isgar tackles next month.
San Juan Basin Technical College and Pueblo Community College have decided to merge their Southwest Colorado schools, but they need approval from the Legislature.
Isgar, D-Hesperus, will make it his first bill when the Legislature starts its yearly session on Jan. 7. Rep. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, will carry the bill in the House.
"This is all about providing every educational opportunity we can in Southwest Colorado in the most effective way possible," Isgar said.
San Juan Basin Technical College trains students for a variety of jobs, from paramedic to equipment operator. The new community college will continue granting the same technical certificates as SJBTC, but the students will have the option to apply their credits toward a two-year associates' degree.
"The problem we have right now is you might get a one-year certificate, and then if you decide you need a two-year associate's degree, you have to spend another two years getting it," Isgar said.
The merger also will make SJBTC eligible for funds set aside for college construction and maintenance. SJBTC is one of the state's four technical schools, which sometimes are afterthoughts in the Legislature's budget.
Isgar has served in the Senate since 2001. In addition to leading the Agriculture Committee, he sits on the Audit and Finance committees, and next summer he will lead a special water committee. He's also a member of the Legislative Council, which comprises senior members of the House and Senate.
Isgar is known as the go-to senator on water issues, and he plans to push two difficult water bills in 2009.
The first would allow "produced water" from coalbed methane wells to be put to a beneficial use. Currently, it's injected back into the ground because it has been too tricky to figure out who owns the water and whether its removal has harmed senior water rights owners.
The water would have to meet purity standards before it could be used.
"It should make it easier for water that's good to be put to good use," Isgar said.
His second water bill would make it legal for people in rural areas to use the rain and snow they collect on their roofs.
Coloradans keep such careful watch on their water that someone, somewhere has claimed just about every drop - even the rain that falls on a house. Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, tried to let residents collect rain from their roofs for domestic use, but his idea was defeated.
The rain that falls on one house might not amount to much, but in a city full of homes it does, and some water rights holders depend on urban runoff for their water plans.
"You can't give someone permission to catch something that's not theirs," Isgar said.
A bill to let city dwellers use rainwater will be back again this year, Isgar said, but he won't sponsor it.
However, he thinks it will be easier to let some rural residents use rooftop rain and snow. His bill would apply to anyone who owns an "exempt well," which is a well that is allowed to pump water without a senior water right because it is so small.
Since the rooftop water would come from a house that already has an exempt well, Isgar thinks the damage to neighboring water rights holders would be tiny.
Reach Joe Hanel at joeh@cortezjournal.com.
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