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<br />t <br /> <br />8 <br /> <br />Furthermore, it is important to note that many of the decreed condi- <br />tional rights have gone for long periods of time without being put to <br />beneficial use as required by Colorado law. It may very well be that <br />these rights have, in fact, been abandoned by failure of their <br />claimants to secure a court finding of reasonable diligence in their <br />development. Failure to obtain the required quadrennial finding of <br />reasonable diligence results in abandonment of the right by operation <br />of state law. Likewise, the amounts of water claimed under the <br />decreed conditional rights do not provide a reliable indication of the <br />amount of water that might be, or even could be, put to beneficial <br />use. These amounts represent merely the claims of their proponents <br />and do not necessarily reflect the scope of any eventual development <br />or the amount of water that may be available for use. <br /> <br />Based upon this examination, we confirm our earlier determination that <br />none of these existing decreed absolute and conditional rights are <br />being exercised in a manner which adversely affects preservation of <br />wilderness water resource as intended by the Congress. <br /> <br />b. Analysis of Non-Federal Land Ownership Within and Above Wilderness <br /> <br />In addition to analyzing the existing decreed absolute and conditional <br />water rights within or above the wilderness areas, the Forest Service <br />identified and reviewed the location of all non-Federal lands within <br />or upstream of the wilderness areas to determine whether there is a <br />potential for future water developments on these lands that would <br />diminish the wilderness characteristics of the wilderness areas. <br /> <br />Non-Federal lands within wilderness. Four of the wilderness areas do <br />not have any non-Federal lands within their boundaries, and three <br />wilderness area have less than 100 acres of non-Federal land within <br />each of them. Indeed, for most of the wilderness areas, the non- <br />Federal inholdings are relatively small. The largest contiguous <br />parcel of non-Federal land within the wilderness areas in Colorado is <br />the Durango Reservoir Grant of March 1, 1907, ch. 2288, 34 Stat. 1053. <br />in the Weminuche Wilderness in the San Juan National Forest. The land <br />parcel contains 2,830 acres and was given by Congress to the City of <br />Durango for the purpose of watershed protection and water storage. <br />The Act of March 1, 1907, expressly provides that the City of Durango <br />". . . shall forever have the right in its discretion to control and <br />use any and all parts of the said premises herein granted and conveyed <br />in the construction of reservoirs, conduits, flumes, and in 'the laying <br />of pipes and mains and in making such improvements as may be necessary <br />to store, utilize, protect from pollution, and enjoy the waters. . ." <br />of the watershed. <br />