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~::. guidelines to address when there is insufficient mainstream water as contemplated by (3) (referred to as shortage criteria). While Colorado and its sister Upper Division states were not a party to the Arizona v. California decision (except for New Mexico and Utah's Lower Basin tributaries), the Upper Basin has been impacted in a significant manner by the decision. In his 1986 paper, John Carlson put it this way: "by excluding the tributaries from the allocation, the court instantaneously vaporized most, if not all, of the "surplus" water above the Article III (a) 7.5 m.af apportionment" and "despite express disclaimers of any intent to affect issues between the Upper and Lower Basins, the decision's disregard of Arizona's and Nevada's tributaries in determining how to divide the waters of the "Colorado River System" has aggravated, if not generated the current controversy over the Upper Basin's Mexican Treaty." Carlson also believed that the decision "expanded Federal controlover interstate water rights at the expense of state authority and diminished the potency of interstate compacts. 123 My own personal views are that the Supreme Court and Special Master Ritkind may have decided that this was a situation where a little bit of judicial activism and creative interpretation of the 1928 Act offset the potential for a great deal more uncertainty and chaos had the Court decided to take head on the unresolved 1922 Compact issues related to the tributaries. It is even possible that after the dust would have settled from an all out legal fight over the 1922 Compact, Delph Carpenter's objectives oflong term certainty for the Upper Basin states-of-origin would have been impacted or even defeated. Upper Basin Development During the 1950s and 1960s Within Colorado, the City of Denver further expanded its system into the West Slope. Williams Fork Reservoir was enlarged in 1957 and construction of its Dillon Reservoir and Roberts Tunnel System was completed in 1964. Dillon Reservoir is Denver's largest reservoir and largest source of yield to its system It is located on the Blue River, a tributary to the Colorado River just west of the Continental Divide. Dillon Reservoir is connected to the South Platte River by the 26 mile Roberts Tunnel. Because Dillon Reservoir is located upstream of Green Mountain Reservoir, a component ofthe Colorado-Big Thompson Project (C-BT), and because Dillon has a priority junior to Green Mountain, Denver Water had to reach an agreement with the United States and the East and West Slope beneficiaries of the C-BT Project before the Dillon Project was considered feasifile. Subject to certain conditions, Denver can divert to the East Slope, water that would have been called by the Green Mountain Power Plant. The compromise is adjudicated in what is referred to as the Blue River Decree. Congress approved the Blue River Decree in the 1956 CRSP A. In August 1962, Congress approved the construction of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. ]24 123 Carlson and Boles, page 12-13. 124 76 Stat. 389. (1962). The Fryingpan-Arkansas Project is not a participating project under CRSP A. Page -42-