Opinion ID: 2612687
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Instream Flow Rights

Text: The United States claims that it has a reserved instream flow water right in the Yampa River for recreational boating within Dinosaur National Monument. It argues that recreational boating is a purpose for which national monuments are established and that an implied water right exists in an amount necessary to fulfill the purpose. The water court concluded that the establishment of Dinosaur National Monument did not reserve water to the federal government for recreational boating. The water court also held that an instream flow water right may exist to preserve fish habitats of historic or scientific interest; that question, however, must await determination of the specific purposes for which Dinosaur National Monument was established. We affirm the water court's conclusions with modifications. National monuments may be created by presidential proclamation to preserve public lands of outstanding historic or scientific interest. 16 U.S.C. ง 431 (1976). In 1915, President Wilson established Dinosaur National Monument on an eighty acre tract of Utah land for the purpose of preserving an extraordinary deposit of Dinosaurian and other gigantic reptilian remains. Presidential Proclamation of Oct. 4, 1915, 39 Stat. 1752 (1915). In 1938, the Monument was expanded into Colorado to include canyon lands formed by the Yampa River. The 1938 proclamation noted the presence of objects of historic and scientific interest in its reservation of 200,000 Colorado acres. Moreover, the proclamation placed the Monument under the supervision, management, and control of the National Park Service. Presidential Proclamation of July 14, 1938, 53 Stat. 2454 (1938). In 1960, the Monument's boundaries were again slightly modified by Congress. To ascertain if there is an implied reservation of waters for recreational boating, we must determine whether Congress intended to establish a recreational purpose when it established the Monument. The issue is particularly important in this context because of the enormous potential economic impact of minimum stream flows on vested and conditional Colorado water rights. [44] We do not believe that Congress intended to reserve water for recreational purposes under the legislation allowing for the creation of national monuments. Dinosaur National Monument was originally established to preserve impressive prehistoric fossils. There is no question that the 1915 proclamation and the underlying legislation on which it is based, the American Antiquities Preservation Act of 1906, 16 U.S.C. งง 431 et seq. (1976), were primarily concerned with scientific and historic purposes, not recreational purposes. See, e.g., H.R.Rep. No. 11016, 59th Cong., 1st Sess. (1906) (national monuments have narrower purposes than national parks). The federal government argues, however, that the provisions in the 1938 proclamation, which place management of the Monument under the National Parks Service Act of 1916, [45] carries with it an implied reservation of water for purposes recognized under the 1916 Act. Purposes under the 1916 Act include the conservation and enjoyment of scenic, natural, and historic objects. The United States' argument places recreational purposes (including instream flows for river rafting) under the rubric of enjoyment of scenic, natural, and historic objects. We cannot accept the federal government's assertion that the National Park Service Act expands the purposes for which national monuments are granted reservations of water. Acceptance of this argument would mean that Congress has, sub silentio, eliminated all basic distinctions between national monuments and national parks. We are, in effect, asked to treat monuments as having the same recreational and aesthetic purposes as national parks. Our review of the statutory and legislative record convinces us that Congress intended national monuments to be more limited in scope and purpose than national parks. Nothing in the National Park Service Act or its legislative history indicates any intent to modify the purposes for which national monuments are established under the Antiquities Act or expand the reserved water rights claimed for them. National monuments were included in the National Park Service Act for administrative purposesโto provide for their management by the National Park Service within the Department of the Interior, rather than by the Forest Service within the Department of Agriculture. See H.R.Rep. No. 700, 64th Cong., 1st Sess. (1916). The Act itself acknowledges differences between the various components of the national park system. National parks and monuments are interrelated, though not identical; each monument or park is distinct in character. Although the areas are cumulative expressions of a single national heritage and are to be regulated consistently with the fundamental purposes expressed in the Act, the values and purposes for which these various areas have been established still control their administration. 16 U.S.C. งง 1a-1, 1c (1976). [46] Thus, we must look to the purposes for which the monument was established, not to the purposes for which national parks were established, in determining the necessity for reserved water rights. That conclusion is supported by United States Supreme Court precedent. In Cappaert v. United States, 426 U.S. 128, 96 S.Ct. 2062, 48 L.Ed.2d 523 (1976), the Court construed the availability of reserved water rights in a national monumentโDevil's Hole National Monument. The Monument, like Dinosaur National Monument, was established by presidential proclamation pursuant to the Antiquities Act of 1906, 16 U.S.C. ง 431 (1976), and is also under the control of the National Park Service. The Court found an implied water reservation necessary to protect a rare desert fish based on the 1952 proclamation establishing the monument: Here the purpose of reserving Devil's Hole Monument is preservation of the pool. Devil's Hole was reserved `for the preservation of the unusual features of scenic, scientific, and educational interest.' The Proclamation notes that the pool contains `a peculiar race of desert fish ... which is found nowhere else in the world' and that the `pool is of ... outstanding scientific importance....' The pool need only be preserved, consistent with the intention expressed in the Proclamation, to the extent necessary to preserve its scientific interest. The fish are one of the features of scientific interest. The preamble noting the scientific interest of the pool follows the preamble describing the fish as unique; the Proclamation must be read in its entirety. Thus, as the District Court has correctly determined, the level of the pool may be permitted to drop to the extent that the drop does not impair the scientific value of the pool as the natural habitat of the species sought to be preserved. The District Court thus tailored its injunction, very appropriately, to minimal need, curtailing pumping only to the extent necessary to preserve an adequate water level at Devil's Hole, thus implementing the stated objectives of the Proclamation. 426 U.S. at 141, 96 S.Ct. at 2070 (emphasis added). The Supreme Court analyzed the extent of reserved water rights based on the explicit purpose evidenced in the establishing proclamation and not based on the purposes found under the National Park Service Act. The same analysis must be used in determining reserved water rights for Dinosaur National Monument. In United States v. New Mexico, supra , the Supreme Court further directs us to examine carefully the purpose for which federal land is withdrawn. Congress has conferred substantial responsibility for water resource allocation upon the states. 438 U.S. at 701-02, 98 S.Ct. at 3015. It would defeat that long-standing policy of congressional deference to state water determinations to interpret loosely federal reservations of scientific and historic lands. Further, the Court emphasized that Congress impliedly reserves only that amount of water necessary to fulfill the purpose of the reservation, no more. Id. at 700, 98 S.Ct. at 3014, quoting United States v. Cappaert, 426 U.S. at 141, 96 S.Ct. at 2070. The excess water was left to public and private appropriators. We believe that Dinosaur National Monument was established for the purpose of preserving outstanding objects of historic and scientific interest. Recreational boating is not a purpose for which the 1938 acreage was implicitly or explicitly reserved. The federal government therefore is not entitled to a reserved water right for minimum stream flows in the Yampa River through Dinosaur National Monument for recreational purposes. The water court expressed a willingness to grant some stream flows for the purpose of preserving fish habitats of historic and scientific interest. It rested its conclusions on the language of 16 U.S.C. ง 1 which states that conservation of wildlife is a purpose for which national monuments will be administered. See supra note 45. As we have discussed above, the National Park Service Act should not be used as a basis for expanding the monument purposes which support a reservation of water. In our view, the relevant reservation document is the presidential proclamation of 1938, which enlarged Dinosaur National Monument to protect objects of historic and scientific interest. 53 Stat. 2454 (1938). However, the water court was correct in ordering the master-referee to determine whether the 1938 proclamation intended to reserve water for fish habitats of endangered species of historic and scientific interest, and if so, to quantify the minimal amount of water necessary to fulfill that purpose. We therefore remand to the water court for further proceedings on the issue of fish habitats.