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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />by a source, to be controlled by the permit system when pollution <br />first enters the waterways. <br />The operation of diversion facilities, impoundments, <br />and the release and nonrelease of water, for the exercise of <br />water rights, does not constitute a point source of pollution <br />within the meaning of the Federal Clean Water Act or the <br />Colorado Water Quality Control Act. <br />The Colorado Legislature enacted the Colorado Wate~ <br />Quality Control Act against an extensive ba;kground of trans- <br />basin and transmountain diversions, conveyance systems and im- <br />poundments. The sources that must be controlled are those <br />which generate and cause the introduction of the pollutant, <br />not those which intake or bypass a pollutant. A diversion <br />facility or conveyance of itself merely takes and transports, <br />and in the case of a dam, impounds, what has already been <br />placed in the waterways. The withdrawal of water from the <br />natural stream bed does not by reason of any concentrating <br />effect upon other pollutant discharges constitute the <br />"addition of a pollutant" to navigable waters within the <br />meaning of Federal or State water quality Acts. The trans- <br />port of that water also is not the addition of a pollutant <br />within the meaning of either Act. The pollutant has not been <br />generated by the diverter and is only being transported be- <br />cause of the taking of water pursuant to exercise of a vested <br />water right under the laws and constitution of the State of <br />Colorado. <br /> <br />In State of Missouri v. Union Electric company, <br />559 S~W.2d 216 (Mo. Ct. of App. 1977) the Court held that the <br />Missouri Clean Water Law was not intended to regulate oxygen <br />depletion caused by a dam. The Missouri law contains much <br />the same language as the Colorado Water Quality Control Act: <br />, <br />+ the State of Missouri, relying on the broad definition of <br />. <br /> <br />-7- <br />