A provision in the Senate-passed version of the farm bill is heating up a dispute between Western states and the federal government over who controls the water that flows through Forest Service land.
The measure would keep the Forest Service from "stealing" water that crosses federal land on its way to such cities as Denver, Boulder, Lakewood, Fort Collins and Greeley in his state of Colorado, said Republican Sen. Hank Brown.The Agriculture Department, the service's parent agency, and conservation groups say the amendment would strip the government of its ability to control water flows in streams that nourish trout and other wildlife on 191 million acres of public land. And they say it could harm farmers and environmental projects far downstream in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.
About 50 percent of all Western water flows through federal forest lands. Nearly 7,000 dams, reservoirs, pipeline systems and other structures on federal land would be affected by the measure, USDA says.
At issue is a Forest Service requirement that a certain amount of water be kept flowing in streams rather than bottled up in reservoirs or completely siphoned off for irrigation and other uses.
House and Senate negotiators are trying to work out differences in their versions of the farm bill - wide-reaching legislation that covers crop programs, conservation, trade, research and rural development. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman wants Brown's amendment killed and the issue debated elsewhere.
"It goes beyond just the rights of cities that might need it for drinking water," Glickman said recently. "This is a big, complicated issue and it should not be dealt with in the quiet of an amendment offered on an unrelated piece of legislation."
But Brown said the measure was needed because of conditions the Forest Service began putting on renewing permits for reservoirs and pipelines on federal land five years ago. In one case, officials wanted 35 percent of Boulder's drinking water diverted into streams.
Many of the rights-of-way predate the Forest Service, the Colorado senator said. He said his amendment covers only existing water supplies to cities and does not block the Forest Service from putting conditions on attempts to enlarge or expand pipelines and reservoirs.