DENVER Bipartisanship stops at the bathroom door for legislators on a special water committee.
The panel shot down two bills Tuesday that sought water savings from toilets. Republicans expressed concerns over increased regulations and the effects on rural communities that depend on generous flushing from Front Range cities to fill Eastern Colorado rivers.
The vote was a setback for the Interbasin Compact Committee, a group the Legislature created in 2005 to find a peaceful solution to the states West vs. East water wars.
The IBCC last year endorsed strict statewide plumbing standards for a variety of appliances. The bill that failed Tuesday focused only on toilets, setting a 1.28 gallons-per-flush standard for toilets, tighter than the national standard of 1.6 gallons.
IBCC member Taylor Hawes urged legislators to vote yes to send the IBCC a message that its work matters, especially because the panel is proposing other options that are even more politically unpalatable.
This is the easy path. We have much, much harder choices in front of us, Hawes said.
Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, said she could not vote yes despite her support for water conservation.
Arent people already motivated to move to these kind of toilets without a state law? Roberts said. This is a time when people are not appreciating or at least my constituents arent appreciating excessive mandates and regulation.
The bill failed on a 5-5, party-line vote Tuesday in the Water Resources Review Committee, with only Democrats supporting it. Had the bill succeeded, it would have received a powerful endorsement from the committee in January, when the Legislature begins its 2012 session.
But the bill is not dead, and individual legislators can still sponsor it even without the water committees blessing.
Sen. Gail Schwartz, who backed the bill, said the water that flows through toilets belongs to the people of the state.
I dont like seeing water diverted from my side of the hill over to the Front Range for more use, said Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village.
The 1.28-gallon standard would apply only to new toilets sold in stores. People would not have to replace old ones.
We dont see a lot of impact to consumers on the cost side. It saves a huge amount of water, said Greg Fisher of Denver Water.
Fisher estimated the change would save 20,000 acre-feet of water across the state by 2050, enough for around 40,000 suburban families.
The committee also turned down a bill to allow people to use graywater domestic water that already has been used once in the house for toilet flushing.
Roberts sided with Democrats and voted for the bill, but the 6-4 tally was short of the supermajority the bill needed to get the water committees endorsement.
Reach Joe Hanel at joeh@cortezjournal.com.