I
104TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3339
To designate certain lands in Rocky Mountain National Park as wilderness,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 25, 1996
Mr. SKAGGS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Resources
A BILL
To designate certain lands in Rocky Mountain National Park
as wilderness, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rocky Mountain Na-
tional Park Wilderness Act of 1996’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.
The Congress finds that—
(1) it is in the national interest to include cer-
tain lands in Rocky Mountain National Park within
the National Wilderness Preservation System so as
HR 3339 IH
to protect those lands’ enduring scenic and historic
wilderness character and unique wildlife and to pre-
serve the lands’ scientific, educational, recreational,
and inspirational resources and challenges;
(2) to fulfill the purposes of the wilderness des-
ignation of those lands, as expressed in this Act and
the Wilderness Act of 1964 (16 U.S.C. 1131 et
seq.), it is necessary for the United States to have
rights to water within Rocky Mountain National
Park; and
(3) the existing rights of the United States to
water within Rocky Mountain Park for national park
purposes, which are being adjudicated in the courts
of the State of Colorado, may be sufficient to fulfill
the purposes of the wilderness designation of those
lands.
SEC. 3. WILDERNESS DESIGNATION AND MAPS.
(a) DESIGNATION.—(1) In furtherance of the pur-
poses of the Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq.), cer-
tain lands in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado,
which comprise approximately 240,700 acres, as generally
depicted on a map entitled ‘‘Rocky Mountain National
Park Wilderness—Proposed’’ and dated April 1996, are
hereby designated as wilderness and, therefore, as compo-
nents of the National Wilderness Preservation System,
HR 3339 IH
and, together with the lands referred to in paragraph (2),
shall be known as the Rocky Mountain National Park Wil-
derness.
(2) Those lands within the Indian Peaks Wilderness
(as designated by Public Law 94–450 (92 Stat. 1099))
that were transferred to Rocky Mountain National Park
by section 111(a) of Public Law 96–580 (94 Stat. 3272),
which comprise approximately 2,917 acres, shall be in-
cluded in, and administered as part of, the Rocky Moun-
tain National Park Wilderness designated by paragraph
(1).
(b) MAP AND DESCRIPTION.—As soon as practicable
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of
the Interior shall file a map and a boundary description
of the area designated as wilderness by this section with
the Committee on Natural Resources of the United States
House of Representatives and with the Committee on En-
ergy and Natural Resources of the United States Senate.
That map and description shall have the same force and
effect as if included in this Act, except that the Secretary
is authorized to correct clerical and typographical errors
in such map and description. That map and boundary de-
scription shall be on file and available for public inspection
in the office of the Director of the National Park Service,
Department of the Interior.
HR 3339 IH
SEC. 4. ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to valid existing rights,
lands designated as wilderness by this Act shall be man-
aged by the Secretary of the Interior in accordance with
the Wilderness Act and this Act, except that, with respect
to the wilderness area designated by this Act, any ref-
erence in the Wilderness Act to the effective date of the
Wilderness Act shall be deemed to be a reference to the
date of enactment of this Act.
(b) RESERVED WATER RIGHTS.—(1) Within the area
designated as wilderness by section 3(a)(1), there is here-
by reserved a quantity of water sufficient to fulfill the pur-
poses of that wilderness designation.
(2) The priority date of the water rights reserved in
paragraph (1) shall be the date of enactment of this Act.
(3) The Secretary of the Interior and other appro-
priate officers of the United States shall take all steps nec-
essary to protect the rights reserved by paragraph (1), in-
cluding the filing by the Secretary of a claim for the quan-
tification of such right in any present or future appro-
priate stream adjudication in the courts of the State of
Colorado in which the United States has been or is here-
after properly joined in accordance with section 208 of the
Act of July 10, 1952 (43 U.S.C. 666), commonly referred
to as the ‘‘McCarran Amendment’’.
HR 3339 IH
(4) The water rights reserved by paragraph (1) shall
be in addition to any water rights which may have been
previously reserved or appropriated by the United States
in the State of Colorado before the date of enactment of
this Act.
(5) In the case of any lands designated as wilderness
by section 3(a)(1) for which the United States has re-
served rights for national park purposes to all the water
within those lands that was unappropriated at the time
those lands were included in Rocky Mountain National
Park, those existing rights shall be deemed sufficient to
fulfill the purposes of the wilderness designation of those
lands made by section 3(a)(1).
(c) COLORADO-BIG THOMPSON PROJECT.—(1) This
Act shall not be construed to prevent or impede activities
under the surface of lands designated as wilderness by this
Act to operate, maintain, repair, or replace the Alva B.
Adams Tunnel of the Colorado-Big Thompson project.
(2) Section 1 of the Act of January 26, 1915 (16
U.S.C. 191; 38 Stat. 798), is amended by striking the last
sentence.
Æ