[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 302 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 302

   Entitled ``Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness Act of 1997''.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 7, 1997

Mr. Skaggs (for himself and Ms. DeGette) introduced the following bill; 
            which was referred to the Committee on Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   Entitled ``Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness Act of 1997''.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Rocky Mountain Nation Park 
Wilderness Act of 1997''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) it is in the national interest to include certain lands 
        in Rocky Mountain National Park within the National Wilderness 
        Preservation System so as to protect those lands' enduring 
        scenic and historic wilderness character and unique wildlife 
        and to preserve the lands' scientific, educational, 
        recreational, and inspirational resources and challenges;
            (2) to fulfill the purposes of the wilderness designation 
        of those lands, as expressed in this Act and the Wilderness Act 
        of 1964 (16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq.), it is necessary for the 
        United States to have rights to water within Rocky Mountain 
        National Park; and
            (3) the existing rights of the United States to water 
        within Rocky Mountain Park for national park purposes, which 
        are being adjudicated in the courts of the State of Colorado, 
        may be sufficient to fulfill the purposes of the wilderness 
        designation of those lands.

SEC. 3. WILDERNESS DESIGNATION AND MAPS.

    (a) Designation.--(1) In furtherance of the purposes of the 
Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq.), certain lands in Rocky 
Mountain National Park, Colorado, which comprise approximately 240,700 
acres, as generally depicted on a man entitled ``Rocky Mountain 
National Park Wilderness--Proposed'' and dated April 1996, are hereby 
designated as wilderness and, therefore, as components of the National 
Wilderness Preservation System, and, together with the lands referred 
to in paragraph (2), shall be known as the Rocky Mountain National Park 
Wilderness.
    (2) Those lands within the Indian Peaks Wilderness (as designated 
by Public Law 94-450 (92 Stat. 1099)) that were transferred to Rocky 
Mountain National Park by section 111(a) of Public Law 96-580 (94 Stat. 
3272), which comprise approximately 2,917 acres, shall be included in, 
and administered as part of, the Rocky Mountain National Park 
Wilderness designated by paragraph (1).
    (b) Map and Description.--As soon as practicable after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Interior shall file a map 
and a boundary description of the area designated as wilderness by this 
section with the Committee on Natural Resources of the United States 
House of Representatives and with the Committee on Energy and Natural 
Resources of the United States Senate. That map and description shall 
have the same force and effect and if included in this Act, except that 
the Secretary is authorized to correct clerical and typographical 
errors in such map and description. That map and boundary description 
shall be on file and available for public inspection in the office of 
the Director of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

SEC. 4. ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS.

    (a) In General.--Subject to valid existing rights, lands designated 
as wilderness by this Act shall be managed by the Secretary of the 
Interior in accordance with the Wilderness Act and this Act, except 
that, with respect to the wilderness area designated by this Act, any 
reference in the Wilderness Act to the effective date of the Wilderness 
Act shall be deemed to be a reference to the date of enactment of this 
Act.
    (b) Reserved Water Rights.--(1) Within the area designated as 
wilderness by section 3(a)(1), there is hereby reserved a quantity of 
water sufficient to fulfill the purposes of that wilderness 
designation.
    (2) The priority date of the water rights reserved in paragraph (1) 
shall be the date of enactment of this Act.
    (3) The Secretary of the Interior and other appropriate officers of 
the United States shall take all steps necessary to protect the rights 
reserved by paragraph (1), including the filing by the Secretary of a 
claim for the quantification of such right in any present or future 
appropriate stream adjudication in the courts of the State of Colorado 
in which the United States has been or is hereafter properly joined in 
accordance with section 208 of the Act of July 10, 1952 (43 U.S.C. 
666), commonly referred to as the ``McCarran Amendment''.
    (4) The water rights reserved by paragraph (1) shall be in addition 
to any water rights which may have been previously reserved or 
appropriated by the United States in the State of Colorado before the 
date of enactment of this Act.
    (5) In the case of any lands designated as wilderness by section 
3(a)(1) for which the United States has reserved rights for national 
park purposes to all the water within those lands that was 
unappropriated at the time those lands were included in Rocky Mountain 
National Park, those existing rights shall be deemed sufficient to 
fulfill the purposes of the wilderness designation of those lands made 
by section 3(a)(1).
    (c) Colorado-Big Thompson Project.--This Act shall not be construed 
to prevent or impede activities under the surface of lands designated 
as wilderness by this Act to operate, maintain, repair, or replace the 
Alva B. Adams Tunnel of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project.
    (2) Section 1 of the Act of January 26, 1915 (16 U.S.C. 191; 38 
Stat. 798), is amended by striking the last sentence
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