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West Slope I OKs Denver I water deal I i $43 million plan would i provide new supplies By Bill Scanlon 'f 1. 3. '1'- News Environmeotal Writer 1C M N The key piece feU into place Tuesday for construction of a darn near Kremmling that will deliver water to 50,000 newcomers to metro Denver. Water watchers on both sides of the Continental Divide hailed it as the biggest news since the veto of Two Forks Dam and said it her- alded a new age of intennountain cooperation. "We're going to get wet water for the Western Slope. and Denver is going to pay for the whole enchi- lada," said Raleigh Fischer, a lead- ing voice on the Colorado River District, which approved the t>lan Tuesday. Officials from 13 Western Slope counties voted 11-2 Tuesday to accept the plan. which ca1Is for the Denver Water Department to pay $43 million to lease 12,000 acre- feet a year for 25 years. After that, Denver will be assured of an average of 12,000 acre-feet year- ly. But officials in Grand, Junction and Clifton say it will mean greater salinity in their water, and envi- ronmentalists worry whether a side-door plan to increase flows on the Colorado River for endangered fish really will work. For Denver, completion of the deal hinges on final negotations over water transfers that could spur new condos in Winter Park and other resort towns. Summit County is close to completing a deal to buy water rights on Clinton Reservoir from the AMAX mining company and then working a water transfer with Denver. If the deals go through, ski areas I in Summit County get a penna- !I nent water supply, as does the Fraser basin near Winter Park, and so does Denver. A IS-mile stretch of the Colora- do River between Palisade and its confluence with the Gunnison Riv- I er will get increased water flows ,I, to help four species of endangered fish to survive.