PUB00155 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

The first transmountain diversions were gravity ditches like the Berthoud Pass Ditch and Grand River Ditch. Construction on the Grand River Ditch began in the 1890s. In 1929, the Denver Board of Water Commissioners entered into a contract with the Moffat Tunnel Improvement District to lease the pioneer or pilot bore tunnel of the Moffat Railroad Tunnel. Denver lined the tunnel and, in 1936, began using it to divert water from the Fraser River Basin, a tributary of the Colorado River, to the Front Range.91 Efforts to construct the Colorado-Big Thompson Project (C-BT Project) began in 1933 when Royce Tipton was hired to make a report on a transmountain diversion from Grand Lake. This effort would lead to the formation of the Northern Colorado Water Users Association (NCWUA) in 1934 and the West Slope Protective Association (WSPA) about the same time. In June 1934, the Upper Basin States got together with the Bureau of Reclamation in Denver, Colorado. The states agreed to the following statement:92 "We favor the negotiation of an Interstate Compact among the four upper states of the Colorado River Basin at the earliest possible date. In the meantime it is our belief that each state should go ahead with its development without objection by other states, as contemplated by the Colorado River Compact, unless the development, in addition to already existing water uses, would in the opinion of such other states or any of them, be considered as approaching too nearly the equitable share of water that under compact might eventually be apportioned to such state out of the waters involved." This policy agreement allowed development to proceed in the Upper Basin. The primary development was in Colorado and it involved additional transmountain diversions. In 1937 the NCWUA and WSPA would reach an agreement to allow for the Congressional authorization and construction of the C-BT Project.93 The NCW A would become the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District and the WSP A would become the Colorado River Water Conservation District. The East Slope/West Slope compromise is embodied in Senate Document 80 (SD-80), seventieth-fifth Congress, First Session. The SD-80 compromise was based on a set of principles adopted by the Water Subcommittee of the Colorado Planning Commission in 1936. 91 The Moffat Water Tunnel Project, An Achievement in Denver's Metropolitan Development Program, City of Denver, June 10, 1936. 92 Breitenstein, page 67. 93 The history ofthe C-BT Project is beyond the scope of this paper. The reader should refer to "The Last Water Hole in the West" by Daniel Tyler, University of Colorado Press, 1992. Page -31-