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WSP11470
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Last modified
1/26/2010 3:17:35 PM
Creation date
10/12/2006 4:59:53 AM
Metadata
Fields
Template:
Water Supply Protection
File Number
8062
Description
Federal Water Rights
State
CO
Basin
Statewide
Date
10/25/1979
Author
WSWC
Title
Response to the Solicitors Opinion on Federal Water Rights of June 25 1979
Water Supply Pro - Doc Type
Report/Study
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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />such purposes are enunerated in the legislation or the legislative <br />history of the statutes authorizing the witJrlrawals. Further, no court <br />has sanctioned such broad purposes for these reserves. But even assuming <br />the validity of the Solicitor's opinion in this area, reserved rights <br />exist only in the amount necessary to acccrnplish those purposes, and no <br />Il'Ore. A blanket claim to the entire yield of these water sources is <br />without rrerit. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />(2) National Parks Service <br /> <br />(a) National Parks <br /> <br />The Solicitor claims reserved water rights for national park areas <br />for a wide variety of uses for the purposes of (1) scenic, natural arrl <br />historic conservation, (2) wildlife conservation, (3) sustained public <br />enjoyment, arrl (4) national parks service personnel. 65/ The Solicitor <br />bases his conclusions as to park purposes primarily onthe National Park <br />Services Organic Act of 1916. 66/ Ho.vever, the Solicitor claims that <br />the priority date for such claims is the pre-1916 date of each national <br />park area's enabling legislation. 67/ <br /> <br />The Suprene Court in the New Mexico case also cited the language of <br />the National Parks Services Act in order to canpare its broader language <br />with the relatively =ro.v purposes for which national forests were to <br />be reserved. For this purpose the Court also referred to legislation <br />establishing Yosemite National Park arrl an act passed in 1897 authorizing <br />the establishment within individual national forests of fish and genre <br />sanctuaries. 68/ Referring to this discussion by the Court, the Solicitor <br />concludes that"the Court intimated in dictum that the early park legis- <br />lation's expressed concern for the natural curiosities and biotic elements <br />would allow the assertion of reserved water rights required to fulfill <br />such purposes." 69/ That this is not a fair reading of the Co.lrt's <br />discussion is rrade clear by a footnote accompanying the text of the <br />Court's opinion. Footnote 19 reads as follONs: "In canparing the 1897 <br />Organic Act with enabling legislation for national parks arrl particular <br />national forests, arrl with the Act of March 10, 1934, we of course <br />do not intimate any views as to what, if any, water Congress reserved <br />urder the latter statutes." [ernphil.3is added.] 70/ <br /> <br />The assertion in the Solicitor's opinion that the purposes set <br />forth in the 1916 Organic Act relate back to pre-1916 national parks is <br />also contrary to the Suprerre Court's Il'Ost recent decision concerning the <br />reservation doctrine in the New Mexico case. Similar to the argunent <br />advanced by the Solicitor, the government in the New Mexico case argued <br />that the Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act of 1960 rrerely confinred the <br />purposes for which national forests had always been administered so that <br />reserved rights for recreational, aesthetic, and wildlife preservation <br />uses were justified \,ith an 1897 priority date, the date of the enabling <br />legislation. The SUprene Court rejected the notion of any retroactive <br />effect of the Multiple Use-SUstained Yield Act. The Court concluded <br />that Congress intended the Act to broaden the purposes for which national <br />forests are to be administered. Thus, as the Court pointed out,' even <br />assuming that the 1960 Act expanded the reserved water rights of the <br />United States, such rights VoGuld be subordinate to any appropriation of <br />water under state law dating to l:efore 1960. 71/ <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />-10- <br /> <br />90. <br />
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