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Statement of Kent Holsinger <br /> Assistant Director <br /> Colorado Department of Natural Resources <br /> BYPASS FLOWS ON NATIONAL FOREST LANDS <br /> United States House of Representatives <br /> Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health <br /> Subcommittee on Water and Power <br /> May 22,2001 <br /> Introduction <br /> We greatly appreciate Chairman McInnis' interest and work on this issue. We thank <br /> Chairmen McInnis and Calvert for holding this hearing on such an important matter. We <br /> also thank Congressman Schaffer and Senator Allard for circulating and sending letters to <br /> Secretary Veneman and Attorney General Ashcroft respectively. <br /> Everyone's heard the old adage, "Whiskey's for drinkin' and water's for fightin'." With <br /> all due respect to Mark Twain, at least in this case, we beg to differ. The State of <br /> Colorado envisions a new era of cooperation: one of comity with the federal government <br /> that results in real environmental benefits. <br /> For this to happen, the U.S. Forest Service must abandon the ill-founded, and we believe, <br /> illegal,practice of imposing bypass flows on water providers. Instead, it must work <br /> collectively with the states and water providers to protect resource values. Specifically, <br /> the Forest Service must work within the bounds of state water laws and pursue any <br /> federal claims to water in state adjudications. <br /> Federal claims for water have always been contentious and have rarely been successful. <br /> With Congress' enactment of the McCarran Amendment in 1952, the United States <br /> waived its sovereign immunity and consented to the jurisdiction of state water <br /> adjudications. In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court, in U.S. v. Idaho, affirmed that the <br /> McCarran Amendment subjected federal claims to water rights to state adjudications and <br /> clarified that federal claims were subject to state laws. <br /> The Forest Service must attain the secondary purposes of the National Forests by <br /> obtaining and exercising water rights in accordance with state and federal laws. Bypass <br /> flow claims contravene one of the primary purposes for which the forest lands were <br /> reserved—to secure favorable water flows for water providers. Moreover,bypass flows <br /> simply don't work. They fail to provide environmental protection and instead create an <br /> atmosphere of hostility, litigation and distrust. Opposition to bypass flows is a bipartisan <br /> issue in Colorado. Attorney General Ken Salazar also believes the policy of imposing <br /> bypass flows is illegal and ill founded. He asks that you include the following article <br /> about alternative strategies to protect instream flows in the record for this hearing. <br />