Utah’s public waters are at risk once again. The 2010 Utah State legislative session saw the passage of HB141, a bill that reversed a Utah Supreme Court decision that stated all water is owned by the public and is therefore public property. That meant people had the right to touch the stream beds, even if it was located on private property. That legislation sided with property owners, essentially banning fishermen, rafters, kayakers and other water-based recreationists from using public water rights-of-way, even if the river or stream was accessed from public property.
Now Utah’s Legislature is about to consider HB68, a bill that will further restrict the public’s right to stream access. According to the Utah Stream Access Coalition, HB68 will “authorize the state to do as it will with regard to public waters and the public’s right to use public waters in place – for example, to wholly privatize the use of a public water with little or no public benefit – so long as the state retained title to and control of the water and the public’s right to use it.” The bill will also, “seek to limit public court challenges to public trust decisions and likely would be interpreted by some as authorizing the legislature to do with regard to all trust resources what it did to stream access rights in HB141.”
To speak out against this bill, the Utah Stream Access Coalition is holding a rally at the Utah State Capitol to voice their opposition to HB68. The rally is on Friday, February 15th at 10 a.m. on the south steps of the capitol building. Anyone who likes to use Utah’s rivers and streams to fly fish, kayak, raft or even inner tube is encouraged to attend with paddles and fishing poles in hand.
For more information about the rally, this issue and other threats to recreational use of Utah’s waterways, visit the www.utahstreamaccess.org