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le Pueblo Chieftain Online Page 1 of 2 <br /> Published: Saturday September 17, 2005 <br /> Rec water flows not fun for state <br /> By CHRIS WOODKA <br /> THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN <br /> The Colorado Water Conservation Board continues to grapple with making rules to <br /> deal with a new kind of water right for recreation, the state's chief of natural <br /> resources said Thursday. <br /> Russ George, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, <br /> spoke about recreational in- channel diversions Thursday at the meeting of the <br /> Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District. <br /> Earlier this week, the CWCB held a hearing on rules, but won't reach a decision <br /> until later this year or early next year, depending on the shape of new legislation <br /> regarding the rules. An attempt to clarify RICDs failed in the Legislature earlier <br /> this year. <br /> "On Monday, the CWCB slogged through RICD rules," George said. "This is one of <br /> the thorniest, toughest, most unmanageable legal issues we've ever had to deal <br /> with." <br /> Recreational water rights first were explored by Fort Collins in the early 1990s, <br /> George said. Now, there are more cases throughout the state. <br /> Earlier this year the Supreme Court struck down an RICD on the Gunnison River <br /> and said the CWCB was to rule on applications before them, rather than adjusting <br /> the specific numbers of those applications. The CWCB acts as a referee through <br /> RICD hearings, and then must become an objector in water court on RICD <br /> applications. <br /> Two RICD cases are pending in Southern Colorado. Pueblo is seeking an RICD for <br /> its Downtown kayak course, and Chaffee County is attempting to gain an RICD on <br /> two reaches of the Arkansas River at Buena Vista and Salida. <br /> RICD requirements are not clearly defined, George said, creating problems for <br /> other water users trying to fit recreational rights into the existing body of water <br /> law. <br /> "It's hard for the Legislature to solve problems that we can't solve for ourselves," <br /> George said. "SB216 (which created RICDs) couldn't resolve the problem and <br /> lawmakers handed it to the CWCB. Now we're wrestling with it." <br /> George stressed he is not against recreational flows, but said the law has to make <br /> sense. <br /> http: / /www. chieftain. com /print.php ?article= /metro /1127019600/11 /sea 2/14/2007 <br />