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<br />. <br /> <br />w <br />l\.) <br />-..1 <br />W <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />the Commission from displacing the water rights system by water <br />quality regulation. <br />B. The Point Source Permit System is the <br />Primary Regulatol:y Method for Controlling <br />Pollution Under the State and Federal <br />Water Quality Acts; Water Diversion, <br />Conveyance and Storaie Systems are not <br />Point Sources of Pol ution. <br />As expressed in the legislative declaration to the <br />Colorado Qater Quality Control Act, water quality control is <br />for the protection of "the legitimate and 1eneficial uses of <br />such waters." C.R.S. 1973, 25-8-102(2). Beneficial uses <br />identified by the Act are "public water supplies," "propagation <br />of wildlife and aquatic life," and "domestic, agricultural, <br />industrial and recreational uses." Id. <br />The fact that the State Act contains broad language <br />concerning the control of pollution does not mean that the <br />Water Quality Commission and Division have license to choose <br />the means for achieving that end. 'The State Act, like the <br />Federal Water Pollution Control Act, 33 U.S.C. SS 1251 !!. <br />seq." is a discharge oriented Act focusing on control of <br />point sources of pollution. As stated by the United States <br />Supreme Court in Environmental Protection Agency v. California <br />State Water Resources Control Board, 426 U.S. 200, 203-205 (1976) <br />the pre-1972 Federal Water Quality Law was based upon "water <br />quality standards which were to serve both to guide performance <br />by polluters and to trigger legal action to abate pollution," <br />but this proved "ineffective" because ':he "character of the <br />standards themselves" was the problem, in that water quality <br />standards "focused on the tolerable effects rather than the <br />preventable causes of water pollution." The 1972 amendments <br />introduced two major changes in the methods to set and en- <br />force standards to abate and control water pollution~ <br /> <br />-5- <br /> <br />I <br />. J <br />