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<br />The Steamboat Pilot: Council debates water rights <br /> <br />Page 1 of2 <br /> <br />000227. <br /> <br />The Steamboat Pilot <br /> <br />ARCHIVED STORIES <br /> <br />Council debates water rights <br /> <br />Wednesday, August 20, 2003 <br /> <br />Before deciding if the city should file for recreational water rights, the City Council first wants to know how much <br />water they should ask for. <br /> <br />After hearing arguments for and against acquiring recreational water rights at the Tuesday night council meeting, the <br />council decided to put out a bid for an engineer. <br /> <br />The engineer could tell the city how much water it needs to sustain river activities from kayaking to tubing to fly- <br />fishing. Recreational water rights would preserve in-stream water flows through downtown Steamboat, but it would <br />not increase the levels. <br /> <br />The council has to decide if it should consider filing for water rights that would draw water from the Yampa River or <br />five nearby tributaries. <br /> <br />Attorney Tom Sharp, who also sits on the Upper Yampa Conservancy District and Colorado River Water Conservation <br />District, suggested filing water rights on five tributaries -- Fish Creek, Walton Creek, Spring Creek, Butcher Knife and <br />Soda Creek -- that flow into the Yampa. <br /> <br />Sharp said the Upper Yampa Conservancy District voted last week to support and even split the cost with the city if it <br />decided to file water rights on those tributaries. The district would not support the city filing water rights on the main <br />body of the Yampa. <br /> <br />Sharp also warned entities in the southern part of Routt County would have concerns with a city recreational water <br />right on the Yampa, which could dictate how much water could be extracted from the upper river as growth <br />continues. <br /> <br />"If you take up this claim, it is going to be threatened by South Routt entities and South Routt land owners, who look <br />to this (land) as some day seeing increased development and (needing) more water, and (they) don't like the notion <br />of the city of Steamboat being king of the river," Sharp said. <br /> <br />But attorney Glen Porzak said the five tributaries that Sharp proposes might not provide all the water the city would <br />need. <br /> <br />Porzak represented the towns of Golden, Vail and Breckenridge in front of the Colorado Supreme Court. In a 3-3 <br />decision, the state Supreme Court recognized recreational water rights for those towns. <br /> <br />Porzak told the council to prepare for a legal bill of between $50,000 to $100,000 and a fight with the state if it asked <br />for recreational water rights. <br /> <br />"The Colorado River Water Conservation Board is going to make it as expensive as possible for future municipalities. <br />That is the political reality," Porzak said. <br /> <br />In his previous cases, Porzak said they had to prove that those recreational water rights were instrumental to the <br />town's economy and that it was needed for their water parks to function. <br /> <br />Peter Van De Carr, owner of Steamboat's Back Door Sports Ltd., spoke of the need for recreational water rights. <br /> <br />"Our Yampa River is an integral piece of our resort industry. You need to take a stand right now to preserve that," he <br /> <br />http://www.steamboatpilot.com/section! archi ve/storypr/18 7 45 <br /> <br />4/23/2004 <br />