Federal legislation could provide sweeping protections to the Crystal River, according to a report from a group of local stakeholders summarizing two years of work. But questions remain about to what degree local control would need to be relinquished.
The Crystal River Wild and Scenic Feasibility Steering Committee released the report on Tuesday, exploring the feasibility and worth of Congress designating the Crystal River as a “Wild and Scenic” river. The group and its subcommittees include stakeholders from Pitkin and Gunnison counties, as well as water and environmental groups, who first got together in 2022 to find the best ways to protect the river.
The roughly 40-mile-long Crystal River is celebrated as one of Colorado’s last free-flowing rivers, free of dams, reservoirs, reroutes and transmission lines. Forming north of Marble, the river helps carve a canyon now cut by State Highway 133, passing through Gunnison and Pitkin before joining the Roaring Fork River near Carbondale.
The Wild and Scenic designation would provide the highest level of federal protection available for rivers, banning development in the river and mandating that federal agencies preserve the river’s scenic and wildlife qualities. Congress created the designation in 1968.
The steering committee’s report was not intended to officially recommend or discourage pursuing the federal designation, rather to study the possibility of it.
Still, environmental advocacy groups view its findings as a step towards permanent protection of the river. Carbondale-based Wilderness Workshop, which has staff on the subcommittee, said in a press release that the report’s information “makes clear” that the designation is the best method for the river’s preservation.
“This report shows that Wild and Scenic designation is the strongest action we can take to make sure that the river continues to sustain us, through a plan shaped by the people who know the river best,” said Michael Gorman, Wilderness Workshop campaign director and subcommittee member.
The Wild and Scenic designation is one of three prongs of protection the steering committee has explored. The committee has also looked at the possibility of state-held instream flow rights, as well as an intergovernmental agreement between government agencies to oppose development projects on the river.
In June, five local governments and water districts agreed to the latter, committing to oppose dams or transbasin diversions.
Grassroots efforts have for decades fought off development projects on the river, including two large-scale dams that in the latter half of the 1900s threatened to put communities including Redstone underwater. Those decades-long proposals were officially abandoned in 2013.
A majority of residents along the Crystal River valley still want some sort of protection of the river, although there’s disagreement on the best way to go about it. While proponents of the Wild and Scenic designation argue that it provides the strongest possible protections for the river, some residents are wary of federal regulation on their properties.
Tuesday’s report found that the Wild and Scenic designation does not affect local zoning control over private land. It also found that, because over 50% of the river flows through already-public land, the U.S. government would not be able to condemn more private land into its ownership for preservation purposes.
However, legal precedent would bar a local advisory board from encroaching on federal authority over the river, the report notes. Any local stewardship structure would need careful designing “so that it supports local input and trust without promising authority that federal law does not allow.”
Typically, Wild and Scenic designated rivers see the federal government reserving water rights to preserve the protected river. The report acknowledges that, in Colorado, federal-reserved water rights “create significant concern for many water users,” and stakeholders explore the possibility of establishing a state-held water right instead.
If Congress were to grant the designation, a government-designated administering agency — likely the U.S. Forest Service — would need to create a comprehensive plan that would define long-term management of the river. During the creation of that plan, the government would take public input.
The Forest Service already deems the river eligible for the Wild and Scenic designation. That eligibility doesn’t equate to full protection, but it does mandate that the agency avoid actions that could tamper with the eligibility.
The subcommittee also found that the designation is “durable but not immutable.” The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act is subject to amendments from Congress, and such amendments could change the river’s protections.
“While Wild and Scenic designation may create durable federal protection framework, the terms of that framework would need to be carefully designed if a Crystal River-specific proposal were to be developed,” the report reads.
The subcommittee will continue to meet and consult with Forest Service officials to discuss what pursuit of a designation could look like, should the steering committee decide to move forward. Central to its decision will be the committee’s guiding principles, which spell out that it wants Crystal River protections to be locally led and prevent private property condemnation, among other values.
“The next question is whether a Crystal River-specific proposal could be designed with enough certainty, local involvement, legal clarity and practical capacity to meet the steering committee’s criteria,” the report reads.
If pursued, the measure would first need a Colorado representative to introduce the legislation in Congress.
