Colorado town gets free reservoir but must pay to fix dam forever.
S. 2754 — Crystal Reservoir Conveyance Act · Filed by Michael Bennet (D-CO) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 10, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
The bill gives Crystal Reservoir to the City of Ouray for free. The reservoir is 45 acres and includes a dam, lake, and water pipes. Ouray must keep the land open for public recreation. Ouray must pay for all dam repairs and upkeep. The federal government can take the land back if Ouray breaks the rules.
Who it affects
Ouray residents gain a public place to visit for free. Colorado water users also gain access. The City of Ouray must pay all costs to run and fix the dam forever.
One thing to notice
Ouray gets valuable land at no cost but must pay for dam repairs forever. The federal government can reclaim the land if the city breaks its promise.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Sep 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 10, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
- Feb 12, 2026 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining. Hearings held”
- Jul 16, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a…”
- Sep 30, 2026 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 2 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $570,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 8 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Michael Bennet, who sponsored the bill, received $21,000 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Arkema Inc. and Its Affiliates (fka Arkema Inc.) — $570,000 in 2 reports
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- reservoir — A lake made by a dam that holds water for people to use.
- public recreation — Activities like hiking or fishing that people do outdoors for fun.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (7,783 characters) on Jul 19, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Colorado town gets free reservoir but must pay to fix dam forever.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s2754/simple Report an error
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