LEG00230

• Bill Number: HJR04-1074
• Year: 2004
• Title: Concerning ditch bill water rights easement
• Legislation - Doc Type: Other CWCB Related Bills - Killed

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42

WHEREAS, Congress mandated that agricultural easements under
the Ditch Bill were a nondiscretionary recognition by the USFS of
preexisting permanent easement rights; and

WHEREAS, The USFS ignored clear direction contained in the
Ditch Bill by requiring agricultural ditch easement owners to apply for
30-year renewable easements subject to annual concurrence for operation
and maintenance plans, including the requirement of bypass flows in
order to commandeer water outside the prior appropriation doctrine; and

WHEREAS, As recently as 2003, the USFS demanded a 3.0 cubic
feet-per-second bypass flow for a ditch in the San Juan National Forest
on which a permit for restoration work for ditch safety was required, in
yiolation of Congressional mandate; and

WHEREAS, The state, through the Colorado water conservation
board (nCWCBn) and the Colorado attorney general's office, along with
water users throughout the state, requested that the USFS comply With the
Ditch Bill; and

WHEREAS, New USFS policy is to be issued in the near future
concerning Ditch Bill easements; and

WHEREAS, More than 1,200 applications for easement
confirmation under the Ditch Bill haye been submitted, but only 300
applications haye been processed; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Sixty-fourth
General Assembly of the State of Colorado, the Senate concurring
herein:

(1) That the General Assembly requests the USFS to adopt Ditch
Bill easement policies in compliance with long-standing federal law; and

(2) That the USFS ac~wift1y_tQProcess existing~ppJi.<:.aJi.ons_for
recognition of agricultural ditches without burdensome requirements, as
enyisioned by Congress when it passed the Ditch Bill; and

(3) That the USFS immediately cease any demand for bypass
flows as a condition of recognizing the yalidity of long-held agricultural
easements on USFS land; and

(4) That the federal department of agriculture should report to the
General Assembly the time line for eliminating the backlog of Ditch Bill
applications and the cessation of the unlawful demands attached to Ditch
Bill applications by the USFS.

Be It Further Resolved, That copies of this Joint Resolution be
proyided to the United States secretary of agriculture, Ann Veneman; the
United States undersecretary of agriculture, Mark Rey; the USFS Rocky
Mountain regional forester, Rick Cables; the director ofthe CWCB, Rod
Kuharich; the Colorado attorney general, Ken Salazar; and the executiye
director of the Colorado department of agriculture, Don Ament.j
-2-

HJR04-1074