Just as Colorado’s ski areas are getting ready for the winter season, one of Colorado’s Congressional representatives wants to make sure the ability of ski areas to use their water rights doesn’t come under attack.

U.S. Congressman Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, was among 20 Congressional signatories to a letter sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture this week, urging the federal government to implement policy changes that recognize state authority over water rights.

The issue in Colorado dates back about six years, when the U.S. Forest Service, a division within the Department of Agriculture, demanded that Colorado ski areas and other holders of permits on federal lands turn over their water rights as a condition for renewing those permits.

The permits allow ski areas to use federal lands for ski activities. The water on that land is used for multiple purposes like snowmaking or as a water source for nearby water providers off-season. The issue also had impacted ranchers, who use federal lands under the control of the federal Bureau of Land Management for livestock grazing.

The 2012 Forest Service ruling promoted a lawsuit from the National Ski Areas Association to block the requirement. A judge ruled in favor of the ski association on procedural grounds, but that didn’t end the legal fight. After years of legal fights, the Forest Service backed off on the requirement in December 2015.

But the issue continues to be a sore spot in Colorado, one Tipton says is not resolved.

In 2016, the Colorado General Assembly passed a bill blocking the state engineer, who oversees water rights in Colorado, and the Division of Water Resources from enforcing any federal requirements by the Forest Services that demanded the transfer of water rights to the federal government. The bill, which Gov. John Hickenlooper signed into law, also requires the federal government to go through the same process to obtain Colorado water rights as any Colorado citizen or other entity, which means going to water court.

In Colorado, water is regarded as a property right and is under the control of the state’s water court.

Last April, President Trump issued an executive order creating a task force on rural economic development. The executive order included water rights, asking the task force to “ensure water users’ private property rights are not encumbered when they attempt to secure permits to operate on public lands.”

In his letter to Perdue, co-authored with Wyoming Sen. John Barasso, Tipton wrote, “We urge you to consider policy changes that ‘ensure water users’ private property rights are not encumbered when they attempt to secure permits to operate on public lands.’ We were encouraged that these policy provisions were proposed in the President’s Executive Order.”

Tipton is the House sponsor of the “Water Rights Protection Act,” which he introduced in 2013 in response to the Forest Service’s demands for Colorado water rights. Tipton has introduced that measure in every session of Congress since then, and in a statement Wednesday said he still believes the act should be passed as a final resolution of the issue.