Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Water Access topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Senate passes bill defining limited public right to 'float' and fish on public waters, delays new quiet-title actions by one year
Summary
The Senate approved a second substitute for House Bill 141 clarifying a limited public right to float and fish on public waters flowing across private property, with a one-year delay before new quiet-title rights take effect; debate focused on property rights, timing and public notice.
The Utah Senate on March 9 passed the second substitute of House Bill 141, a measure that affirms a limited public right to float and to fish while floating on certain public waters that cross privately owned riverbeds. The bill includes specific constraints — floating must be continuous with the current, stopping on private banks is restricted, and access areas are narrowly defined — and postpones for one year the sections that would create new quiet-title actions based on 10 years of adverse use.
Sponsor Sen. Stoll said the measure was intended to reduce confrontations between property owners and recreationalists and to return to a pre-2008 balance between landowners and floaters. He explained that two sections (describing a 10-year adverse-use prescriptive right and the associated quiet-title action) will not take effect until May 10, 2011, giving stakeholders a year to study options and seek consensual solutions.
Sen. Romero and others objected to the speed of floor debate: several senators said the second substitute had been available only a few hours before being called, and they worried the public had insufficient time to review the changes. Other questions on the floor probed technical details: "public access area" was defined to include areas up to 3 feet from water or the most direct/least invasive portage route; "floating" was clarified to mean passage while remaining in or upon the vessel and moving with the stream, and the bill expressly allows fishing while floating but prohibits anchoring or stopping on private land except for safety.
Several senators said the bill will require further study and a legislative inventory of affected rivers over the ensuing interim. The Senate passed the second substitute on a 19–10 roll-call vote.
What’s next: The sections delaying quiet-title relief will not take effect until May 10, 2011, per the bill text; members said they expect interim study and potential statutory refinements before that date.
