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Rafters' rights bill clears panel
Landowners question old English law as basis for measure
Herald Denver Bureau
For a bill that attempts to clarify the law, it couldn't have picked a more nebulous concept.
- John Hill, lawyer representing property owner
At least that was a question lawyers raised Monday night when debating a bill that would help river-rafting companies.
House Bill 1188 would allow people on trips with licensed rafting companies to touch the riverbanks and stream bed and portage around obstacles when the river flows through private property. The House Judiciary Committee debated the bill Monday in a lengthy hearing - finally giving its approval 7-3 late Monday night.
Right now, Colorado law allows people to pass through private property on a river as long as they don't touch the bottom or the banks.
“Anybody who boats in this state knows that you can't boat anywhere without touching something," said the sponsor of HB 1188, Rep. Kathleen Curry, I-Gunnison.
Curry's bill draws on the right of navigation in English common law, a body of law that lawyers imported to America during colonial times.
Curry wrote the bill after rafting companies on the Taylor River near Gunnison complained that a developer bought the property along two miles of the river and was threatening a lawsuit if the rafting companies used the river.
Rafting company employees brought their boats and oars into the Capitol's lobby Monday for a news conference before the hearing.
“It's not an issue that's particular to just the Taylor River," said Mark Schumacher, a Gunnison outfitter. “It's a statewide issue."
On the Animas River - one of the state's four busiest for rafting - property owners usually don't try to get in the way of rafting, said Bob Hamel, chairman of the Colorado River Outfitters Association. But outfitters on the less-traveled San Juan and Piedra rivers potentially could have trouble, Hamel said.
Opponents argued that the bill would take away their property rights.
“It's a piece of legislation that strikes at the very core of property ownership," said Terry Fankhauser of the Colorado Cattlemen's Association.
Colorado has no “navigable" rivers under English common law, said John Hill, a lawyer for the Gunnison property owner who banned rafting companies on the Taylor River. The right of navigation was intended for commercial shipping, he said.
“For a bill that attempts to clarify the law, it couldn't have picked a more nebulous concept," Hill said.
The bill would add rights only for licensed commercial outfitters. It says nothing about private boaters, tubers and kayakers. They still could be found guilty of trespassing even if the bill passes. The bill also applies only to stretches of river that commercial outfitters have used in the last two years.
Curry said she wanted to keep it as narrow as possible.
The bill now goes to the full House for further consideration.
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