Local leaders say yes to looser restrictions, no to DOE oversight

By RYAN LANCASTER

Staff Reporter

Airway Heights Mayor Patrick Rushing said a set of house bills aiming to ease water rights restrictions would benefit local water users while encouraging conservation.

HB1297 in particular would give agricultural users and municipal water systems a more reasonable timeframe for estimating their average water usage before having rights adjusted, Rushing said.

“This means that those who are in fear of losing their water rights and therefore are running water just to show that they are using it will have longer to adjust the actual usage,” he said in an e-mail.

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