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UP I Wyoming State T,ibun. es Cheyenne. Wyo. Cir.O 11.651 "\,.... liSo AUG 8 1983 UNIVERSAL P,essClipping Bureau --... .---.--- ...---- --- Wallop Measure Would P~o,t7,~t W.ofer Rights Sen. Malcolm Wallop threat It offers to wildlife In He said his proposed leg- said today he plans to Inlro- ' Nehraska. (Slatlon woul4 amend the r duce a bill designed to pro- U.S. District Judge John Clean Water Act which tect state water rigbts and L. Kane Jr. of Colorado re- formed the basb for the overturn a federal court de- cent!y held the Army Corps Corps of Engineers so- c!sion preventing the con- of ,Engineers was acting called Section (04 permit structlon 'of' a reservoir on within its legal rights In de- ruling and on which Judge' tlle South Platte River In nying a construction per- Kane based his decision. Coloradn . because of a mlt for the reoprVA'.' The federal gency said It planned on a ,tributary of would grant the 'D4 permit the South Platte In north- only If, tI;le Irrigalton dl5- eastern Colorado. trIct agreed to put back Into the river all or part of the water It plans to with- draw for the stream to fill the reservoir. It said the conditions were neces&Ory to prevent a reduced now of water In the' South PIa tte. But Riverside &old that such conditions were cont. rary to the Intent of Con- gress which hsd passed a Wallop-sponsored amend- ment to the Clean Water Act six years saying that nothing In tbe act "sball be construed to supersede or abrogate rights to quanti- tltes of water which have been established by any state." , The reservoir Is a project of the Public Service Com- pany of Colorado and the Riverside irrigation Dis- trict nf Colorado which plan to jointly construct and use its water 'or farm- ing and for suPPlJ'ing a coal-fired electric power genera ting plant near Brush. The Corp. of Engineers had held that building the reservoir would have ad- verse effects on wildlife In Nebrash, specifically the whooping crane migration nesting grounds along the PlaUe In centramebraska. "The dam and re3l>rrolr are ,upland; away from the river, and there are no alle- gations by any partu that " construction of the dam or reservoir will have any sig- nificant adverse effect on water' quality, wetlands, fish and wildlife or endan- gered species," Wallop said. "However, If this deci- sion Is aUowed to stand, It will do serious violence to the entire system of stat~ laws which has been estab- lished to allocate quantities of water," he said." Judge Kane held that the amendment was only an expreslon of congressional policy and did not take away a state's water right, but only told the irrigation district how It might exer- cise that right. C-"3Z "TbiJ Is the fatal naw In what Is otherwise a well. ressoned decision," Wallop uld today. "In fact, the only option that the irriga- tion district and the PSC have Is to put back Into the river a quantity of water equal to all or a portion of the quantity which they are eotitled to use under their state peremlL It is clear that such a requirement at- tempts to supersede a right to a quantity of water whlch has been established by the laws of the State of Colorado." ,