Recreational Change to Colorado Water Access Coming in 2010

Can a boater finally float down a Colorado river without having to worry about being arrested – Maybe!

A bill proposed for the 2010 Colorado Legislature that would allow boaters to float all Colorado Rivers. Currently, if you float the river if you do not touch the bottom or the bank. Although even this is in dispute by several landowners who say if they own both sides of the river, they can stop anyone from traveling on the river.


You probably will not be able to put in and take out on the land, only float through the land if the bill passes.


As many Colorado boaters know, this has led to dozens of fights over the years, including several landowners ordering boaters off rivers at gunpoint. (What prompts someone to believe that floating across their river is such a threat, they need a gun?)


The original issue started in 1979 with a Colorado Supreme Court Decision, The People of the State of Colorado v. Emmert, 198 Colo. 137; 597 P.2d 1025; 1979 Colo. LEXIS 814; 6 A.L.R.4th 1016, that stated you could float across the water in the state of Colorado as long as you did not touch the river bottom or the sides. The water owners own the water in Colorado. (Yes, for all of you in the east, people own the water in the rivers of the west not the state.) However, the landowner who could say someone who touched his land was trespassing owns the bank and river bottom. In most states, someone floating river could access the bank to the high water mark or something similar to that.


This has promoted all sorts of wars. Landowners, mainly fishing clubs and texas landowners would then dam or fence their rivers so that boaters could not float through without touching the land and have boaters arrested for trespassing. (Although in several cases, damming the river without EPA approval is a crime.) Eventually many district attorneys quit making those arrests because they were a nuisance. Front Range attorneys would line up to fight the $50 criminal charges inundating the small rural DA offices. (I have been in that line several times, arguing various defenses to the charges.)


Now that fight is coming to a head, hopefully, with the bill proposed by representative Kathleen Curry of Gunnison and backed by the Colorado River Outfitters Association (CROA). According to CROA rafting is a $142 million dollar business in Colorado employing hundreds (probably thousands) of people.


This is going to be an interesting fight. And it will be a fight. The landowners have been involved in litigation for years over these issues and will not go quietly. If you are a boater in Colorado, you need to be involved. You should do the following:

• Make sure the bill covers all boaters, not just rafters.
  
• Determine who your representative and senator are and tell them you support Representative Curry’s bill and want them to co-sponsor the bill. (Do not go online to determine this. The Colorado Legislature website does not tell you.) Go here to find your districts.
  
• Contact CROA and tell them you support their efforts and want to be contacted about the bill.
  
• Be prepared to phone your legislators when needed to get the bill out of a committee or before a vote.
  

If you are from out of state and boat in Colorado or just want to be involved.

• Contact CROA and let them know you want to help.
  
• Contact the President of the Senate Brandon C. Shaffer, 303-866-5291, brandon@brandonshaffer.com let him know you support the bill; and,
  
• Contact the Speaker of the House Terrance D Carroll, 303-866-2346, terrance.carroll.house@state.co.us
  
• When the bill has been proposed, contact the sponsors of the bill and thank them for sponsoring the bill and for their support.
  

This can pass the legislature, but it will require a lot of work and effort. Basically, it is going to be money (landowners) versus voices (boaters). Voices can win if they are heard.


To see an article about the bill see: River River River rights to come before Colo. lawmakers