A Senate committee on Thursday approved HB117, which would allow fishing groups to temporarily lease water rights for the benefit of three native trout species.

The Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment sent the bill along to the full senate for for consideration. Dubbed the Instream Flow to Protect Trout Habitat bill and sponsored by Rep. Stephen E. Sandstrom, R-Orem, the bill was approved by the House without a dissenting vote a week earlier.

Speaking before the committee, Sanderson said the bill is "very beneficial ... both to sportsmen and agricultural water users." It's modeled after a successful program in Montana, he said. Under the bill people with water rights can lease to nonprofit fishing organizations water that would be left in the stream to protect the trout. Species named in the bill are the Colorado cutthroat, the Bonneville cutthroat and the Yellowstone cutthroat trout.

"All water left in a stream in the instream flow is available to the call of the river for downstream users," Sandstrom said, "so it could actually benefit downstream users as well, for keeping the water in the stream."

Last year an earlier version passed the Senate but narrowly failed in the house. Sandstrom said two objections had been voiced to it: rural hydropower generating companies were concern it could restrict water they need, and others feared that if an endangered species showed up in the stream stretch, the lessors might lose a water right to protect the fish.

Both questions were answered by changes to the bill, he said.

The first change was a provision saying that the measure can't impede hydropower generation. "That satisfied Garkane (power cooperative serving parts of southern Utah) and some of the rural hydroelectric power generators," he said.

As far as losing water rights to protect endangered species, Sandstrom said, "We worked directly with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to come up with a solution ... Anybody who enters into this agreement will now be granted an ESA (endangered species act) safe harbor, so this ensures that no one risks losing their water for participation in this program."

Such a leasing probably would give water right owners more shelter from the act than before, "because they get safe harbor from the Endangered Species Act."

Sen. Allen M. Christensen, R-North Ogden, pressed concerning the understanding with the federal wildlife agency, "We do have the agreement with them, so we're not just passing one (law) and they can say we didn't really agree with that?"

Sandstrom assured him that the agreement was in place.

Robin Thomas, legislative liaison for the Utah Division of Wildlife resources, said the division supports the bill as a way to safeguard the state's wildlife. Any lease of a water right under the bill would have to be approved by the director of the division and the state engineer.

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