Tipton Statement on USFS Ski Area Water Rights Directive

Statement

Today, Congressman Scott Tipton (R-CO) issued this statement in response to the U.S. Forest Service's publication of the final directive for the Ski Area Water Clause in the federal record.

"The Forest Service's conditional use of permit for ski areas has been one of the Administration's most onerous attempts to hijack private water rights. While the latest version of the directive is improved from the original that sought to outright force the transfer of private water rights to the federal government, there still is room for improvement. The latest rendition of this ill-fated directive places unnecessary restrictions on private water rights holders, in an attempt to solve a problem that doesn't exist. By the Forest Service Chief's own admission, there has not been an instance of ski area water rights being sold off for other uses. Furthermore, there is still ongoing concern that while the Forest Service may not require the outright transfer of private water rights in this directive, it is still enforcing manuals that do.

"Western water users are right to be wary of any action on water rights by this Administration, which has been dead set on slowly expanding federal control over water in the Western U.S. We continue to work on getting legislative protections in place to codify state water law and defend private water rights users from federal taking and interference as our Water Rights Protection Act seeks to do."

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