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<br />0279 <br /> <br />.1 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Denver is now generating power, on a commercial basis, at the Williams <br />Fork Power Plant, although she has not been granted a license by the <br />Federal Power Commission so to do. <br /> <br />(b) Water stored in the Williams Fork Reservoir will then be <br />available for replacement for the diversions Denver plans to make from <br />the Eagle River and its tributaries, and from Piney Creek and other <br />tributaries of the Colorado River itself. <br /> <br />2. Acting through other entities, now existing or hereafter to <br />be formed, Denver will, by a system of gathering ditches and tunnels, <br />seek to establish rights to divert water from the tributaries of the <br />Eagle and Colorado Rivers into Ten-Mile Creek, and thence through <br />the Dillon Reservoir and Roberts Tunnel for irrigation and industrial <br />uses in the South Platte Basin downstream from Denver's metropolitan <br />areas. <br /> <br />To the accomplishment of this scheme, Western Colorado will <br />never willingly consent. We shall vigorously oppose such a project <br />in the courts, before the Secretary, in Congress, or wherever such <br />opposition appears to be necessary. <br /> <br />Denver's demand for replacement releases from Green Mountain <br />Reservoir are, we arc convir.ced, based upon a strained construction <br />and interpretation of the provisions of Senate Document No. 80 of <br />the 75th Congress, 2nd Session, and of the Blue Rwer Stipulation. It <br />is our position, from which we will not retreat, that that part of the <br />provisions of Sena~e Document No. 80 denominated" .Manner of opera- <br />tion of project Facilities and Auxiliary Features", was intended to be <br />for H:e protection of Western Colorado alone; and that no benefit there- <br />of can be clnimed by Denver. It is our position, from which we will <br />not willingly recede, that the letter and intendments of the Blue River <br />Stipulation negative the validity of Denver's claim. <br /> <br />Vie do not propose, here or now, to enter into a legal argument <br />having to do with our interpretation of either the Document or the <br />Stipulation. We believe it to be unfair to the Secretary that Denver <br />ask that he usurp the proper functions of the judiciary in determining <br />these legal questions. He is, we submit, sufficiently burdened with <br />factual determinations which he must make, and the formulation of <br />policies based on those facts. He is entitled to have the Document <br />and the Stipulation interpreted by the courts. In our view, matters of <br />policy only should be considered here, not questions which must event- <br />ually be determined by the judicial branch of the Government. <br /> <br />5- <br />