Wilderness Can’t Count on Water: Hodel
WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel, proclaiming a major victory for water users in the West, said today that the Reagan Administration has taken the position that wilderness areas have no implied rights to water.
Hodel told a news conference that Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III has concurred with the department solicitor’s legal opinion that Congress must specifically award water when it creates a wilderness area.
Hodel noted that there are conflicting U.S. District Court opinions taking opposite sides of a major question in the arid West: Without a specific statement by Congress, is a wilderness area guaranteed the water it needs for proper management?
Hodel said the Administration was coming down on the side of a recent ruling in New Mexico that there are no water guarantees unless Congress writes them into wilderness legislation.
Congress has been skirting the issue in wilderness bills, remaining silent on water rights and leaving the question up to the Interior.
He said that under the policy, the Administration would not go to court to argue that wilderness areas have implied water rights.
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