A battle is shaping up in Congress over federal efforts to claim western water, and a Colorado lawmaker wants to make it clear who owns it. Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton says legislation recognizing the water laws of Colorado and other western states could discourage federal efforts to claim water the states need for their own use. "The West is under assault at this time," Tipton said Saturday at the fall meeting of Club 20, a Western Slope advocacy organization. The most recent battleground over water is a demand that ski areas surrender water rights to the U.S. Forest Service as a condition of obtaining their permits to operate on lands administered by the Forest Service, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported Monday. Forest Service officials said the requirement is necessary to assure the continued use of the water for skiing. Many ski areas use their water rights to make snow. Ski areas and other water users sued the Forest Service and gained a temporary victory when a federal judge ruled that the agency failed to follow federal procedures when it applied the directive in 2011 to the new owners of Powderhorn Mountain Resort near Grand Junction. The new owners were required to agree to the new rules before they could open the mountain in 2011. The National Ski Areas Association said the demand amounted to a federal taking of private property. Tipton previously said Forest Service policies could cost ski resorts a lot of money for maintenance and development because water is so valuable.
AP
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