16 U.S.C. § 460zzz–4 — Management of Conservation Area and Wilderness

(a) Withdrawal. Except for valid existing rights, all federal land in the Conservation Area and Wilderness — and any land the United States later buys there — is off-limits to (1) claiming or getting rid of under public land laws, (2) staking mining claims or getting mining patents, and (3) mineral, mineral-materials, and geothermal leasing. (b) Grazing. (1) In the Conservation Area, the Secretary issues and manages grazing leases and permits the same way as on other Bureau of Land Management land. (2) In the Wilderness, grazing that already existed as of March 30, 2009 may keep going, (A) subject to reasonable rules the Secretary sets, and (B) following section 1133(d)(4) of this title and the guidelines in a specific 1989 House committee report (H. Rept. 101–405). (c) No buffer zones. (1) This law doesn't create any protective zone around the Conservation Area. (2) An activity outside the Conservation Area isn't blocked just because it can be seen or heard from inside it. (d) Acquisition of land. (1) The Secretary may only get non-federal land inside the Conservation Area or Wilderness through exchange, donation, or purchase from a willing seller. (2) Land acquired this way (A) becomes part of the Conservation Area, and the Wilderness if it applies, and (B) is managed under this subchapter and other applicable laws. (e) Fire, insects, and diseases. The Secretary may take steps to control fire, insects, and disease — (1) in the Wilderness, following section 1133(d)(1), and (2) elsewhere in the Conservation Area, following this subchapter and other laws — under whatever terms the Secretary decides are needed. (f) Access. The Secretary must keep giving private landowners inside the Conservation Area reasonable access to their land. (g) Invasive species and noxious weeds. Following other applicable laws, the Secretary may take steps to control non-native invasive plants and noxious weeds in the Conservation Area. (h) Water rights. (1) Effect. Nothing here (A) changes water or water-right use that existed on March 30, 2009; (B) affects any vested or conditional water right that existed then, including US-held rights; (C) affects any interstate water agreement in place then; (D) creates any new federal reserved water right; or (E) gives up or reduces any water right the United States already held in Colorado by then. (2) Wilderness water rights. (A) The Secretary must make sure water rights needed for the Wilderness's purposes are secured, following (B) through (G). (B) State law. Any water rights the Secretary seeks to establish for the Wilderness must be processed under Colorado's normal legal procedures and priority system. Except in one case, the water right's purpose and other features follow state law; the exception lets the Secretary seek water rights specifically to keep surface water and stream flows going through the Wilderness, to fulfill the Wilderness's purposes. (C) Deadline. The Secretary must promptly — but not before January 2009 — claim the water rights the Wilderness needs. (D) Required determination. The Secretary can't pursue any instream-flow water right claim without first making a finding under (E) or (F). (E) Cooperative enforcement. The Secretary won't pursue a federal instream-flow water right if the Colorado Water Conservation Board holds rights enough, in priority, amount, and timing, to meet the Wilderness's needs, and the Secretary has a lasting agreement with the Board to protect and enforce those state rights. If the Secretary decides those conditions aren't met, the Secretary must claim and use federal water rights as needed. (F) Insufficient state rights. If the Board later weakens its instream-flow rights so much that state rights can't meet the Wilderness's needs, the Secretary must claim and use federal rights instead. (G) Failure to comply. The Secretary must promptly enforce the water rights in (E) if the state isn't honoring its side of the deal or the agreement in (E) isn't being followed well enough. (3) Water resource facility. (A) Starting March 30, 2009, no federal official may fund, help, approve, or license any new irrigation, pumping, reservoir, water-conservation, canal, pipeline, well, hydropower, or similar water facility in the Wilderness. (B) Exception: the Secretary may still allow new livestock-watering facilities in the Wilderness, following section 1133(d)(4) and the same 1989 committee guidelines. (4) Conservation area water rights. Regarding water in the Conservation Area, nothing here (A) lets any federal agency claim a water right on the Gunnison River's main stem, or (B) stops Colorado from claiming an instream-flow right there, or requires it to. (5) Wilderness boundaries along Gunnison River. (A) Where the Gunnison River marks the Wilderness's boundary, that boundary sits at the river's edge and shifts as the river level changes. (B) No part of the Gunnison River itself, though, is ever inside the Wilderness, no matter its level. (i) Effect. Nothing here (1) reduces Colorado's authority over fish and wildlife in the state, or (2) imposes any federal water-quality standard upstream of the Conservation Area, or on the Gunnison River's main stem, stricter than would apply if the Conservation Area didn't exist. (j) Valid existing rights. Creating the Conservation Area and Wilderness doesn't affect any valid rights that existed on March 30, 2009.