[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 55 (Thursday, April 25, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E654-E655]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK WILDERNESS

                                 ______


                          HON. DAVID E. SKAGGS

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 25, 1996

  Mr. SKAGGS. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing the Rocky Mountain 
National Park Wilderness Act of 1996.
  This bill, essentially identical to one that I introduced in the 103d 
Congress, is intended to provide important protection, and management 
direction for some truly remarkable country, adding some 240,700 acres 
in the park to the National Wilderness Preservation Systems.
  Covering 91 percent of the park, the new wilderness will include 
Longs Peaks and other major mountains, glacial cirques and snow fields, 
broad expanses of alpine tundra and wet meadows, old-growth forests, 
and hundreds of lakes and streams. Indeed, the proposed wilderness will 
include examples of all the natural ecosystems present in the park.
  The features of these lands and waters that make Rocky Mountain a 
true gem in our National Parks System also make it an outstanding 
wilderness candidate.
  The wilderness boundaries for these areas are carefully located to 
assure continued access for use of existing roadways, buildings, and 
developed areas, privately owned land, and water supply facilities and 
conveyances--including the Grand River Ditch, Long Draw Reservoir, and 
the portals of the Adams Tunnel. All of these are left out of 
wilderness.
  The bill is based on National Park Service recommendations. Since 
these recommendations were originally made in 1974, the north and south 
boundaries of Rocky Mountain National Park have been adjusted, bringing 
into the park additional land that qualifies as wilderness. My bill 
will include those areas as well. Also, some changes in ownership and 
management of several areas, including the removal of three high 
mountain reservoirs make possible designation of some areas that the 
Park Service had found inherently suitable for wilderness.
  In 1993, we in the Colorado delegation finally were able to 
successfully complete over a decade's effort to designate additional 
wilderness in our State's national forests. I anticipate that in the 
near future, the potentially more complex question of wilderness 
designations on Federal Bureau of Land Management lands will capture 
our attention.
  Meanwhile, I think we should not further postpone resolution of the 
status of the lands

[[Page E655]]

within Rocky Mountain National Park that have been recommended for 
wilderness designation. Also, because of the unique nature of its 
resources, its current restrictive management policies, and its water 
rights, Rocky Mountain National Park should be considered separately 
from those other Federal lands.

  We all know that water rights was the primary point of contention in 
the congressional debate over designating national forest wilderness 
areas in Colorado. The question of water rights for Rocky Mountain 
National Park wilderness is entirely different, and is far simpler.
  To begin with, it has long been recognized under the law of the 
United States and Colorado, including in a decision of the Colorado 
Supreme Court, that Rocky Mountain National Park already has extensive 
Federal reserved water rights arising from the creation of the national 
park itself.
  Division One of the Colorado Water Court, which has jurisdiction over 
the portion of the park that is east of the continental divide, has 
already decided how extensive the water rights are in its portion of 
the park: the court has ruled that the park has reserved rights to all 
water within the park that was unappropriated at the time the park was 
created. As a result of this decision, in the eastern half of the park 
there literally is no more water for either the park or anybody else to 
get a right to.
  This is not, so far as I have been able to find out, a controversial 
decision, because there is a widespread consensus that there should be 
no new water projects developed within Rocky Mountain National Park. 
And, since the park sits astride the continental divide, there's no 
higher land around from which streams flow into the park, so there is 
no possibility of any upstream diversions.
  On the western side of the park, the water court has not yet ruled on 
the extent of the park's existing water rights there. However, as a 
practical matter, the Colorado-Big Thompson project has extensive, 
senior water rights that give it a perpetual call on all the water 
flowing out of the park to the west and into the Colorado River and its 
tributaries. As a practical matter under Colorado water law, therefore, 
nobody can get new consumptive water rights to take water out of the 
streams within the western side of the park.
  And it's important to emphasize that any wilderness water rights 
amount only to guarantees that water will continue to flow through and 
out of the park as it always has. This preserves the natural 
environment of the park. But it doesn't affect downstream water use. 
Once water leaves the park, it will continue to be available for 
diversion and use under Colorado law.
  Against this backdrop, my bill deals with wilderness water rights in 
the following way.

  First, it explicitly creates a Federal reserved water right to the 
amount of water necessary to fulfill the purposes of the wilderness 
designation. This is the basic statement of the reserved water rights 
doctrine, and is the language that Congress has used in designating the 
Olympic National Park Wilderness, in Washington, in 1988.
  Second, the bill provides that in any area of the park where the 
United States, under existing reserved water rights, already has the 
right to all unappropriated water, then those rights shall be deemed 
sufficient to serve as the wilderness water rights, too. This means 
that there will be no need for any costly litigation to legally 
establish new water rights that have no real meaning. Right now, this 
provision would apply in the eastern half of the park. If the water 
court with jurisdiction over the western half of the court makes the 
same ruling about the park's original water rights that the eastern 
water court did, then this provision would apply to the entire park.
  The bill also specifically affirms the authority of Colorado water 
law and its courts under the McCarran amendment. And the bill makes it 
clear that it will not interfere with the Adams Tunnel of the Colorado-
Big Thompson Project, which is an underground tunnel that goes under 
Rocky Mountain National Park. Why should we designate wilderness in a 
national park? Isn't park protection the same as wilderness, or at 
least as good?
  The wilderness designation will give an important additional level of 
protection to most of the national park. Our national park system was 
created, in part, to recognize and preserve prime examples of 
outstanding landscape. At Rocky Mountain National Park in particular, 
good Park Service management over the past 79 years has kept most of 
the park in a natural condition. And all the lands that are covered by 
this bill are currently being managed, in essence, to protect their 
wilderness character. Formal wilderness designation will no longer 
leave this question to the discretion of the Park Service, but will 
make it clear that within the designated areas there will never be 
roads, visitor facilities, or other manmade features that interfere 
with the spectacular natural beauty and wildness of the mountains.
  This kind of protection is especially important for a park like Rocky 
Mountain, which is relatively small by western standards. As 
surrounding land development and alteration has accelerated in recent 
years, the pristine nature of the park's backcountry becomes an 
increasingly rare feature of Colorado's landscape.
  Further, Rocky Mountain National Park's popularity demands definitive 
and permanent protection for wild areas against possible pressures for 
development within the park. While only about one tenth the size of 
Yellowstone National Park, Rocky Mountain sees nearly the same number 
of visitors each year.
  This bill will protect some of our nation's finest wild lands. It 
will protect existing rights. It will not limit any existing 
opportunity for new water development. And it will affirm our 
commitment in Colorado to preserving the very features that make our 
State such a remarkable place to live.