Water leasing proposed to aid trout

Giving private entities the ability to temporarily lease water rights to protect native trout would be a "win-win situation for agriculture and sportsmen," a lawyer for a conservation group told legislators.

But others waved cautionary flags this past week during the meeting of the Legislature's Water Issues Task Force.

Timothy Hawkes, lawyer for Trout Unlimited, outlined a bill the organization is proposing. It differs from one the task force discussed two weeks ago, which would let sewage treatment plants purchase rights to guarantee in-stream flows.

The Trout Unlimited measure is meant to be a temporary pilot project and would apply to private entities interested in leasing water rights for 10 years or less at a time. The change in rights would have to be approved by the director of the Division of Wildlife Resources and the state engineer.

All private water rights now authorized must be for use, not for the purpose of leaving water in the stream, according to state law.

Such new private leases could be used only to protect or restore habitat for three native trout species, all of them types of cutthroat trout, said Hawkes. The bill would expire in 10 years, and could be reauthorized by the Legislature then.

Presently, the only organizations that can acquire water rights for in-stream flows are state divisions: Wildlife Resources, which can do it to protect wildlife, and Parks and Recreation, whose interest is in water recreation such as boating.

Private acquisition of water rights for trout would be strictly voluntary on the part of the right's owner and could not harm other water rights, said Hawkes.

While the waters of the state are owned by the public, the right to use them is a form of private property, he said. The bill Trout Unlimited proposes "promotes principles of limited governance, free enterprise and private property rights," he said.

Rep. David Ure, R-Kamas, the task force co-chairman, wondered what would happen if a landowner leased water rights to Trout Unlimited, but 10 years later, when the lease expired, sold the rights to a developer for a lot of money. By then Trout Unlimited could have spent a great deal on habitat improvements.

"Is it not in vain?" Ure asked. "I see people playing games with this, I mean really playing games."

Hawkes said before it entered into a 10-year lease, Trout Unlimited would make sure that the deal was worthwhile. "If we make a bad deal, that's on us," he said.

Hawkes added that it was tough to see how this could be used as a water banking tool.