The lawsuit that could revolutionize river access in Colorado
The lawsuit that could revolutionize river access in Colorado
Jun 29, 2022
Issue: Oil & Gas
Subject: Colorado
71-year-old Coloradan Roger Hill is at the heart of a lawsuit that could revolutionize river access in his state—where river beds belong to the owners of any land they run through, rather than the public. This has implications for folks like Hill, who like to fish. He brought the case against two landowners who harassed him while he stood fishing in a portion of the Arkansas River that runs through private property.
“We don’t have enough quality recreational opportunities to satisfy demand today,”Hill told High Country News. “There are waters I’ve wanted to fish for 50 years, and I’ve been denied the use of a state-owned resource.”
Colorado’s law regarding stream and river bed access is one of the most restrictive in the West, where most river beds are considered public property thanks to a federal law that says the beds of “navigable” rivers belong to states. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in 1912 that the state’s waterways were not navigable, due to their often steep, canyon-bound nature. But Hill’s lawsuit claims otherwise—at least for the Arkansas River, which he believes was once navigable based on dozens of references to industries employing the river to move goods in old newspapers.
If he wins, the case could affect other rivers in Colorado that can be proven to have been navigable in 1876, when Colorado became a state. Frequent Center for Western Priorities podcast guest Mark Squillace is representing Hill, pro-bono, in the case.
Oil and gas lease sales begin today
The Interior Department is holding a lease sale in Wyoming today, marking the first time the Biden administration has offered up public land to oil and gas companies. Sales in Montana, Utah, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Colorado will follow.
The sale in Wyoming is by far the largest, with just under 120,000 acres offered for lease, while the next largest comes in at just a few thousand acres. In total, the sales include roughly 140,000 acres, about 80 percent less than the oil and gas industry proposed for lease.
Quick hits
The Canada lynx makes a comeback in eastern Washington thanks to Colville Tribes
Eliminating new oil and gas leases wouldn’t meaningfully impact energy prices by 2030, which is a critical deadline for decreasing production to meet climate goals.”
—Kendall Dix, national policy director at the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, Washington Post
The colors and textures of @BryceCanyonNPS in Utah are magical. Water and ice have sculpted the world’s largest concentration of distinctive and mysterious rock formations known as hoodoos.
Photo by Gloria Enger
(featured image:The Arkansas River near Buena Vista, Colorado. Ken Lund, Flickr)
Each day, the Center for Western Priorities compiles the best of Western public lands and energy development news. Take a look at our recent newsletters, and sign up here.
The U.S Forest Service has approved a land swap deal that will permanently block hard-rock mining on thousands of acres above the town of Crested Butte, Colorado. Locals refer to the pink-hued Mount Emmons as the “Red Lady” and fought nearly fifty years against a proposed molybdenum mine in the peak’s watershed. Chad Stewart, the supervisor of the […]
Department of the Interior officials attended a community meeting Friday to gather feedback on the proposal to designate Chuckwalla National Monument, signaling that the administration is interested in moving forward with a monument designation. Attendees included BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning and Acting Deputy Interior Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis. An estimated 700 people attended the meeting, and […]
Kate and Aaron are joined by author Betsy Gaines Quammen to talk about public lands and extremism. Betsy has written two books about extremism in the West. Her first, American Zion, looks at the connection between Mormonism and extremism. Her second book, True West, which came out last year, digs into the myths that define […]
The President promised Tribal leaders he would protect this sacred Nevada landscape. What is he waiting for? It’s been 100 days since President Joe Biden promised he would protect a large swath of Mojave Desert in southern Nevada called Avi Kwa Ame that is sacred to multiple tribes, including the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe and the Hopi Tribe. […]
DENVER—The White House today announced it is re-nominating Laura Daniel-Davis to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management at the Interior Department. This marks the third time Daniel-Davis has been submitted to the Senate. In 2022, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer declined to place Daniel-Davis’s nomination on the Senate floor calendar, despite her having […]
