TITLE 42

IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE — WATER RIGHTS AND RECLAMATION

CHAPTER 17

DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES — WATER RESOURCE BOARD

42-1734F.  Rights not affected. (1) No provision of this chapter, or any rules or regulations promulgated pursuant to this chapter, shall in any way limit, restrict, or conflict with approved applications for the appropriation of water or with vested property rights existing on the date a waterway is designated for protected river status or interim protected river status. For the purpose of this chapter, nonvested rights shall include, but not be limited to, pending applications for state mining permits or mineral leases, and pending applications for the appropriation of water.

(2)  No provision of this chapter, or any rules or regulations promulgated pursuant to this chapter shall bar a water user or his agent from cleaning, maintaining or replacing a water diversion structure existing on or before the date a river is designated as protected. A water user or his agent may remove any obstructions from the stream channel, if such obstruction interferes with the delivery of, or use of, water under any existing water right. The provisions of this section do not relieve a person from complying with any other applicable laws.

(3)  Nothing in this act shall prevent or restrict the relicensing of existing hydropower projects that have been previously licensed by the federal energy regulatory commission and which have generated electricity. Any designation of waterways as interim protected rivers or protected rivers shall not affect the operation or relicensing, including but not limited to the expansion of capacity which does not enlarge existing boundaries or project impoundments of any hydropower project existing and that has been previously licensed by the federal energy regulatory commission and which have generated electricity as of the date of the designation.

History:

[42-1734F, added 1988, ch. 370, sec. 5, p. 1100.]