WSP06682

• File Number: 7630.625
• Description: Wild and Scenic - Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 10/7/1975
• Author: DOI-USDA
• Title: Delores Wild and Scenic River Study Fact Sheet - From File Titled Wild and Scenic Rivers-Miscellaneous
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Among special provisions of this amendment was one requiring that
the Dolores be studied in a single year - instead of the several
normally allowed for this kind of work, This limit was set for
two primary reasons:

1) To quickly identify and resolve conflicts that might exist.
between the Dolores Reclamation Project and possible wild. and.
scenic rivers designation of parts of the Dolores, and

2) To avoid further delay in the Dolores Project.

As a result, the team's actual field work was limited to 1975.
However, much additional data, gathered as far back as 1928, was
also reviewed - and team members observed portions of the river
throughout the year (on foot, on horseback, by motor vehicle,
and from the air), The team's May 1975 raft trip down the Dolores
from the Bradfield Ranch was only a more publicized and evident
portion of its work.

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2. WHAT'S NEXT? A number of people have been uncertain about the
purpose of the Dolores River Study. Several have asked what would
happen when it was complete,

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The basic purpose of the Dolores River Study is to examine the four
designated segments and make recommendations to the President and
the Congress regarding their possible inclusion in the National
Wild and Scenic Rivers System. This' work will be completed by
the end of this year.

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At that point, the Dolores River Study Team will cease to exist;
it will be Congress's job to decide if or how the river will
finally be classified, and there is no guarantee that the Senators
and Representatives will follow the team's recommendations. Two
points .are certain, however: 1) by law, Congress cannot act to
include any of the Dolores in the National System before the close
of the 1976 session of the Colorado State Legislature, and 2) there
will be several more opportunities for public input and comment.
See item l5'of this paper for a run-down of these opportunities,

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3. THE DOLORES RECLAMATION PROJECT. Well over 100 persons, most of
them residents of the Cortez-Dolores area, expressed fears or assumed
that any wild and scenic river designation would automatically
doom the Dolores Project, This was focused in a July 10, 1975
headline in the Montezuma Valley JOURNAL which read, "Wild Rivers
Talks Can Be Fata1."

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