A Tale of Two Stream Access Bills

By Courtney Lowery, 3-16-10

Water is indeed for fighting in the West. But, the fight is no longer just about who gets to use the water, it’s also about who gets access to the water.

This week, the issue is playing out, in very different ways in the legislatures of Colorado and Utah. Montana is perhaps the most famous Western state when it comes to stream access—with one of the strongest stream access laws in the country (strong in that it protects the public’s right to access) but also some of the most high-profile battles over it. (See some of New West’s coverage of the issue here, here and here.)

But, Utah and Colorado might be working to replace Montana as the West’s steam access battle ground.

In Utah, the legislature recently passed a bill that would drastically restrict public access to waterways that run through private land. This comes after a 2008 Supreme Court ruling that opened those waterways to the public. As the Salt Lake Tribune reports, “HB141 allows anglers and others to wade in public waters crossing private lands only if there is an established 10-year pattern of public use there.”

Meanwhile, the debate seems to be going the other way in Colorado. As the Denver Post reports (and check out the photos when you read the story), a last-minute amendment to HB1188 opened access not only to commerical boaters, but to recreationists as well.

From the Post story:

Under the amended HB 1188, river users would not be able to touch the bottom or banks, except to free themselves from snags or to bypass bridges and other obstacles spanning the water.

And as amended, any stretch of river that was commercially rafted at least once between 2000 and 2009 would be affected.

The bill still passed out of committee, but will now face a big challenge in the House, where it may have lost some of its original appeal with Republicans.