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, " ~) PARSHALL PROJECT. COLORADO right for the full enlarged capacity of the Williams Fork Reservoir. The 'protests are based primarily upon Denver's plan to use the reservoir partly as a source of replacement water for transbasin diversions from the Blue River. Previous litigation concerning water rights for the Blue River diversion project were resolved by a stipulation made October 5. 1955. Parties to the stipulation included the city and county of Denver. the United States of America. the Colorado River Water Conservation District. and other interests on both sides of the Continental Divide. The stipu- lation later became a part of the decree of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado in the consolidated cases of the United States of America v. ~rorthern Colorado Water Conservancy District. et al. Ci vil Nos. 2782. 5016. and 5017. The decree and the stipulation were in turn approved by Congress in sec. 11 of the Colorado River Storage Project Act of April 11. 1956 (70 Stat. 105). Section 4c of the stipUlation relates to replacement water for the transbasin diversions and the relationship of rep1.acement storage to the Parshall project. The section is quoted below with explanatory informa- tion added in parenthesis. "The City and County of Denver and the City of Colorado Springs will at all times bypass water in quantities sufficient to meet all legal calls of downstream '''ater rights on the Blue River. and within Colorado below the confluence of that stream with the main stream of the Colorado River. having priorities earlier than the respective priority dates of said cities. This obligation adequately to provide water for the priorities on the Blue River and the Colorado Ri vel' antedating the respective priority dates of said two cities. may be fulfilled by replace- ment storage by and on the Blue River or on the Willie~ River (Williams Fork River). SUbject nevertheless to the requirement that the parties provide that the plans for replacement stor- age will first have been approved by the Secretary of the Interior or his designated representative. Insofar as any proposed replacement storage on Williams River will adversely affect the Parshall Unit of the Cliffs Divide project (Parshall project) dulY authorized representatives of the Petitioners in Civil Actions Nos. 5016 and 5017 (one of whom is the Colorado River Hater Conservation District), shall have the right to also approve the proposal or submit it to this court for adjUdication as to legal rights. The water to be exchanged shall be on hand and in storage when the exchange is proposed. Any exchange approved shall not relieve said cities from the obligation to deliver electrical energy :for the amount of water diverted :from the Blue River." ' Protests of the Parshall project sponsors against making absolute the entire remaining conditional right of Denver :for storage of 87.010 acre-feet in Williams Fork Reservoir are based on the fOllOWing contentions: 3