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Or, - . B ' ~ U I., 0_ Senate sends wilderness bill to House 8y John Brinkley Ntu'stt/as,lu'lfgtOllB14rto.U WASHINGTON - The Senate yesterda}' passed the Colorado wil. derness bill introduced by Sens. Tim Wirth and Hank BrO\l,il. :-.Jaw comes the hard part: pas. sage by the House. The Senate passed the bill quickly - by voice vote and with. out debate - as one of a few loose ends it tied up before leaving for its August recess. I The House also recessed yes- terday, so it won't start working , on its version of the bill, intro- I duced by Rep. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, O-Colo., until it recon- venes in mid-September. "There are sharp differences of opinion in the House," Wirth said. "The remaining issue is of course the contentious water language." The legislation is the first wil- derness bill e\.er that fails to re- serve a water right for new v.--ilder- ness areas. Two powerful House members who chair panels that will vote on the bill ha\'e expressed concern about the water language and are expected to demand that it be changed. They are Rep. Bruce Vento, D- ~tinn., chairman of the parks and public lands subcommittee, and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., Inte- rior Committee chairman. "We are .....orking right now, be- gmning to get information out to them as to why this compromise is important." Wirth said. Wirth .....arned that any substan- tive changes to the .....ater language would kill the entire bill. Tina Arapkiles of the Sierra Club in Denver said: "We are ex- tremely disappointed but it's a good thing that both bodies of Congress have to pass legislation. We're really going to put our focus on the House." The legislation .....ould set aside about 6~2,OOO acres as federally protected wilderness, nearly all of it high-country, headwater terrain. :~y ~nta," NeV~iS Sat., Aul'!. 3~ 1991 -~~~"~~'!-~~)'.A!i! ...... \- J WILDERNESS BILL Key prOYlslons of Brown-Wlrth- wUdemeublJ1: . Nurnbtttof pt'OpOMd new..... demeq "au: 23 ' . Totaf KNaIe: 642,700 I" -lara;Mit:SangredeCltsto ,;_0 207,300 acres . ...,.. . Number o. e.dnlnc wildel'- ~ ness .reas In c.ntdo: 30 I.. . EJllstJnl actNCr. 2.6 rnuno:;"'''' acres ~ . Larcest: Wemlnucne 459.800 acres ' I . Wat., rf&bts.OI new.ana.: The ~I does not speedy any waternghttorthe newly desJg., nated areas. It alSO fOfbkis the ~tructiOnOf any waterdiver.- slCn Of storage projects in them.