The Montezuma County commissioners on Tuesday defended their support for creating a national conservation area on the Dolores River.
During public comments, county resident Allen Maez spoke against the legislation that would establish the Dolores River NCA in portions of San Miguel, Dolores, and Montezuma counties. The legislation has been introduced in Congress and is supported by Colorado’s two senators.
On Tuesday, Maez mistakenly said the proposal included a federal reserved water right. In response, Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer explained that the NCA proposal does not include a federal reserved water right but is designed to remove the possibility of one being put on the river.
Koppenhafer served on a working group that met for more than a decade, beginning in 2008, and recommended the NCA. [Note: This reporter took notes at some of the working group’s meetings.]
He said their concern was that the river already has been designated by the Bureau of Land Management as “suitable” to become a wild and scenic river and if that ever happens it would indeed have a federal water right put on it.
The NCA legislation would remove the “wild and scenic” suitability designation from the river as well as the possibility of the federal water right.
Koppenhafer noted that Maez had expressed concern at an earlier commission meeting about management of the NCA. Koppenhafer explained that, under the legislation, the NCA would be managed by a board that would include representatives of counties and local water entities.
Commission Chairman Jim Candelaria agreed. “Right now we have no say, we have no control,” he said. “If they want to let that water go tomorrow, they can do it.”
The NCA is an alternative to a presidential designation of a national monument some time in the future, he said.
“We don’t want what happened to CANM [Canyons of the Ancients National Monument],” he said.
If the NCA is created, there will be a three-year period during which its management rules will be written, Candelaria said.
He said the commissioners are taking “a lot of heat and a lot of bashing” for their position, but, “Not everybody has all the information that has transpired in the last 15 years.”
“We do support the NCA,” he said, “we signed letters of support, it’s not new and we’re doing it for the protection of the water.”
