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<br />}EGes: Federal plan <br /> <br />)fi}f Gmmison fiawed <br /> <br />WATER from Page 1B <br /> <br />for Gunnison water rights owners, <br />promising that the park would not <br />take water already being used by <br />ranchers, farmers, hydropower <br />generators and residents - or W:!- <br />ter set aside for future develop- <br />ment. <br />. Environmental groups agree <br />t.hose concessions are reasonable, <br />biit they worry that the Justice De- <br />partment's proposal will let Front <br />Range water developers pump up <br />to 240,000 acre-feet of water <br />ocross the Continental Divide. <br />:Interior Department attorney <br />Bob Comer said the environmental- <br />ists' .fear is "completely unjustified." <br />But Leshy said the settlement of- <br />t~r gave the Park Service no lever- <br />age to require any spring floods. <br />:Environmentalists also worry <br />that Interior Secretary Gale <br />Norton will support the state's posi- <br />tiun because she opposed federal <br />water rights as Colorado's attor- <br />ney general in the 1990s. I <br />. A spokeswoman for Greg Wal- I <br />cher, director of the Colorado Natu- <br />f.!.if Resources Department, said <br />Wednesday that it was "prema- <br />hire" to comment on the settle- <br />ment offer. But last week, Walcher <br />dilled the Park Service's 2001 wa- <br />t~r claim a "huge threat to Colo- <br />rado's water." , <br /> <br />001794 <br />