text: SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
  
      This Act may be cited as the ``Rocky Mountain Nation Park 
  Wilderness Act of 1997''.
  
  SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.
  
      The Congress finds that--
              (1) it is in the national interest to include certain lands 
          in Rocky Mountain National Park within the National Wilderness 
          Preservation System so as to protect those lands' enduring 
          scenic and historic wilderness character and unique wildlife 
          and to preserve the lands' scientific, educational, 
          recreational, and inspirational resources and challenges;
              (2) to fulfill the purposes of the wilderness designation 
          of those lands, as expressed in this Act and the Wilderness Act 
          of 1964 (16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq.), it is necessary for the 
          United States to have rights to water within Rocky Mountain 
          National Park; and
              (3) the existing rights of the United States to water 
          within Rocky Mountain Park for national park purposes, which 
          are being adjudicated in the courts of the State of Colorado, 
          may be sufficient to fulfill the purposes of the wilderness 
          designation of those lands.
  
  SEC. 3. WILDERNESS DESIGNATION AND MAPS.
  
      (a) Designation.--(1) In furtherance of the purposes of the 
  Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq.), certain lands in Rocky 
  Mountain National Park, Colorado, which comprise approximately 240,700 
  acres, as generally depicted on a man entitled ``Rocky Mountain 
  National Park Wilderness--Proposed'' and dated April 1996, are hereby 
  designated as wilderness and, therefore, as components of the National 
  Wilderness Preservation System, and, together with the lands referred 
  to in paragraph (2), shall be known as the Rocky Mountain National Park 
  Wilderness.
      (2) Those lands within the Indian Peaks Wilderness (as designated 
  by Public Law 94-450 (92 Stat. 1099)) that were transferred to Rocky 
  Mountain National Park by section 111(a) of Public Law 96-580 (94 Stat. 
  3272), which comprise approximately 2,917 acres, shall be included in, 
  and administered as part of, the Rocky Mountain National Park 
  Wilderness designated by paragraph (1).
      (b) Map and Description.--As soon as practicable after the date of 
  enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Interior shall file a map 
  and a boundary description of the area designated as wilderness by this 
  section with the Committee on Natural Resources of the United States 
  House of Representatives and with the Committee on Energy and Natural 
  Resources of the United States Senate. That map and description shall 
  have the same force and effect and if included in this Act, except that 
  the Secretary is authorized to correct clerical and typographical 
  errors in such map and description. That map and boundary description 
  shall be on file and available for public inspection in the office of 
  the Director of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.
  
  SEC. 4. ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS.
  
      (a) In General.--Subject to valid existing rights, lands designated 
  as wilderness by this Act shall be managed by the Secretary of the 
  Interior in accordance with the Wilderness Act and this Act, except 
  that, with respect to the wilderness area designated by this Act, any 
  reference in the Wilderness Act to the effective date of the Wilderness 
  Act shall be deemed to be a reference to the date of enactment of this 
  Act.
      (b) Reserved Water Rights.--(1) Within the area designated as 
  wilderness by section 3(a)(1), there is hereby reserved a quantity of 
  water sufficient to fulfill the purposes of that wilderness 
  designation.
      (2) The priority date of the water rights reserved in paragraph (1) 
  shall be the date of enactment of this Act.
      (3) The Secretary of the Interior and other appropriate officers of 
  the United States shall take all steps necessary to protect the rights 
  reserved by paragraph (1), including the filing by the Secretary of a 
  claim for the quantification of such right in any present or future 
  appropriate stream adjudication in the courts of the State of Colorado 
  in which the United States has been or is hereafter properly joined in 
  accordance with section 208 of the Act of July 10, 1952 (43 U.S.C. 
  666), commonly referred to as the ``McCarran Amendment''.
      (4) The water rights reserved by paragraph (1) shall be in addition 
  to any water rights which may have been previously reserved or 
  appropriated by the United States in the State of Colorado before the 
  date of enactment of this Act.
      (5) In the case of any lands designated as wilderness by section 
  3(a)(1) for which the United States has reserved rights for national 
  park purposes to all the water within those lands that was 
  unappropriated at the time those lands were included in Rocky Mountain 
  National Park, those existing rights shall be deemed sufficient to 
  fulfill the purposes of the wilderness designation of those lands made 
  by section 3(a)(1).
      (c) Colorado-Big Thompson Project.--This Act shall not be construed 
  to prevent or impede activities under the surface of lands designated 
  as wilderness by this Act to operate, maintain, repair, or replace the 
  Alva B. Adams Tunnel of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project.
      (2) Section 1 of the Act of January 26, 1915 (16 U.S.C. 191; 38 
  Stat. 798), is amended by striking the last sentence
target: Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness Act of 1997 - Designates certain lands in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, as components of the National Wilderness Preservation System which, together with specified lands within the Indian Peaks Wilderness, shall be known as the Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness. 
  Reserves water rights in such area sufficient for purposes of the wilderness designation. 
  Provides that this Act shall not be construed to prevent or impede activities under the surface of lands designated as wilderness by this Act to operate, maintain, repair, or replace the Alva B. Adams Tunnel of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project. 
  Repeals provisions authorizing the Bureau of Reclamation to enter and utilize for flowage or other purposes areas within the Park which may be necessary for the development and maintenance of a Government reclamation project.
feat_title: Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness Act of 1997