CORTEZ, Colo.—Republican Rep. Scott Tipton is asking questions about water rights for private entities on federal land.
The western Colorado Republican is taking issue with a requirement that private water holders sign their water rights over to the U.S. government as a permit condition, the Cortez Journal reports ().
Tipton argues the requirement oversteps the authority of the U.S. Forest Service. He recently wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture complaining about the requirement.
“Water rights established under state law are property rights for purposes of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Tipton wrote in the letter. “Congress has not delegated to the Forest Service the authority to require permittees to transfer ownership of water rights to the United States as a permit condition.”
Tipton said the change could hurt ski areas and grazing interests.
“Because of the significant percentage of water that originates on national forest system lands in the West, such a change in policy would pose a threat to the current system of state allocation and administration of water rights,” Tipton wrote.
The matter is scheduled to be discussed in Washington Tuesday by the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.
Steve Segin, a public information officer for the Forest Service, said the requirement is designed to keep the water resource tied to the intended area so it cannot be sold and piped off to other areas.
“It’s designed to protect the resource, not to take it away from anybody,” he told the newspaper.
Tipton said there is no precedent of private entities being poor stewards of water rights.
“Private-industry entities that had purchased those water rights could have equal concern that the federal government would not use those water rights for their intended purposes,” Tipton said.
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Information from: Cortez Journal,
