Landowners get a victory in fight over water access

The battle has been won by landowners, but the war is far from over. Count on it.

Under HB141, landowners will now be able to block streams and rivers that were temporarily open to recreation under a unanimous decision by the Utah Supreme Court in 2008.

Disturbing to me is how the bill, passed and signed into law, was written in secrecy, is the product of backroom deals and was placed on the fast track to passage. Within a three-hour period, it was released for review and passed. Sound familiar? Try health care.

Typically, on issues as important as water rights, such bills are circulated through the water community, then go through an interim study for a year or two, and then legislation is carefully written to include compromises.

You can count on this bill being challenged in court at great expense to taxpayers. But it could have been avoided.

This bill, sponsored by Kay McIff, R-Richfield, simply addresses landowner rights. It does not address a second long-standing tradition — water rights. And therein rests the problem and the very reason it will most certainly be challenged in court.

The Supreme Court ruled, and rightly so, that the river/stream beds belong to the property owners, but the water belongs to the public, and in order to exercise recreational rights, landowners must yield access.

For the second year in a row now, a bill favoring only landowners was secretly drafted and released late in the Legislative session in order to bypass public review. Last year, HB187, sponsored by Ben Ferry, R-Corinne, failed.

There was a bill, HB80, sponsored by Lorie Fowlke, R-Orem, that did include compromises. It was well written, had undergone multiple changes and had been well reviewed by the public.

The point of contention proved to be a matter of a few feet. The Utah Farm Bureau wanted access rights to be "wet boot," which would mean those accessing moving waters would have to stay in the water. Her bill stated that the accepted legal standard is the ordinary high-water mark, which was not agreed upon.

Somehow her bill was stalled in rules committee for three weeks while McIff was working on his bill.

There were numerous attempts by recreationists to meet with the Farm Bureau to discuss a compromise. None were given.

Surprisingly, McIff placed all the blame on fishermen.