Water Rights Protection Act
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| Full title | To prohibit the conditioning of any permit, lease, or other use agreement on the transfer, relinquishment, or other impairment of any water right to the United States by the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture. |
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| Introduced in | 113th United States Congress |
| Introduced on | September 26, 2013 |
| Sponsored by | Rep. Scott R. Tipton (R, CO-3) |
| Number of co-sponsors | 4 |
| Agencies affected | United States Department of Agriculture, United States Department of the Interior |
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The Water Rights Protection Act (H.R. 3189) is a bill that would prevent federal agencies from requiring certain entities to relinquish their water rights to the United States in order to use public lands.
The bill was introduced into the United States House of Representatives during the 113th United States Congress.
In 2012, a court ruled "in favor of the ski companies... that seizing the privately held water rights usurped state water law." However, the United States Forest Service decided to pursue a "new regulation to demand that water rights be transferred to the federal government as a condition for obtaining permits needed to operate 121 ski resorts that cross over federal lands."
This summary is based largely on the summary provided by the Congressional Research Service, a public domain source.
The Water Rights Protection Act would prohibit the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) from: (1) conditioning the issuance, renewal, amendment, or extension of any permit, approval, license, lease, allotment, easement, right-of-way, or other land use or occupancy agreement on the transfer of any water right directly to the United States, or any impairment in title, in whole or in part, granted or recognized under state law, by federal or state adjudication, decree, or other judgment, or pursuant to any interstate water compact; and (2) requiring any water user to apply for a water right in the name of the United States under state law as a condition of such a land use or occupancy agreement.
The bill would state that nothing in this Act limits or expands any existing authority of the Secretaries to condition any permit, approval, license, lease, allotment, easement, right-of-way, or other land use or occupancy agreement on federal lands subject to their respective jurisdictions.
This summary is based largely on the summary provided by the Congressional Budget Office, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources on November 14, 2013. This is a public domain source.
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