Daily Press Writer
MONTROSE — The federal government reserved its right Monday to appeal a U.S. District Court ruling that set aside a settlement in a water rights dispute involving the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
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The 2003 agreement would have given the national park a priority date of 2003 and pegged its base flows at roughly 300 cubic feet per second through the park.
The High Country Citizens’ Alliance, Trout Unlimited and the Western Colorado Congress along with several other groups sued the federal government over the 2003 agreement.
Wyoming District Court Judge Clarence Brimmer ruled that the federal government had unlawfully delegated responsibility to the state in striking the agreement. He also held that the federal government had unlawfully disposed of federal property without Congressional authorization.
Bart Miller, an attorney representing the environmental groups in the case, hoped the federal government would forgo the appeal and come back to the bargaining table.
He said the groups had held discussions during the fall.
“We were suggesting and hoping that energies would be devoted to finding a solution,” he said.
The 2003 agreement would have winnowed down an origninal filing by the National Park Service in the closing days of the Clinton Administration to secure a 1933 right for peak flows as high as 10,000 cfs in heavy snow years.
Many ranchers and other water users worried that the original filing would have resulted in huge impacts on the operation of the Aspinall Unit - a series of three reservoirs with a 1957 priority date that include Blue Mesa - and Taylor Reservoir which holds a 1937 right.
John McClow, an attorney for the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District also hoped the groups would return to negotiations.
“They can always withdraw the notice of appeal,” he said of the federal government.
He hoped a negotiated settlement would also take up the question of an environmental impact statement for the operation of the Aspinall unit. That process has been on hold pending a resolution of the Black Canyon case.
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