WSPC12821

• File Number: 8200.700
• Description: Colorado River General
• State: CO
• Date: 11/1/1950
• Author: Clifford Stone, Director, CWCB
• Title: Clifford Stone's Response to Silmon Smith's "Analysis of Colorado's Share of Colorado River Water and It's Use, Consumptive, Present and Potential
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Closely related to this over-riding circumstance is the question of
any attempt on the plrt of Colorado at this time "to cut the final pattern"
for its future use of Colorado River water. There must be orderly develop-
ment in accordance with established State policy and Jaw and, to the extent
of Federal participation, in accordance with established Federal policies
relating to water development. It is generally conceded that the major task
of future water development in this day, because of the magnitude and cost
of projects required for final utilization of .colorado River water, must be
accomplished through Federal projects.

The effect of the conclusion reached by your analysis is to fix in
a large measure at this time, in the absence of necessary data from surveys
and investigations which are now underway, that final "water pattern". As
you know, the Colorado Water Conservation Board has taken every step possible
to expedite basin-wide surveys and investigations in the Western part of the
State for the purpose, among others, of determining the potentialities for
:.CJ.ture water utilization there.

I do not believe that it is in the interest of Colorado, nor that
of the Western pC'.rt of the State, to attempt to reach at this time final
decisions as to the total amount or lack of water which may be available
for exportation to Eastern Colorado while at the same time protecting VIest
Slope potentialities. Certainly the staff of the Colorado' ,-ater Conservation
Board is not nor... able to do so. The statement which was given to the members
of the Colorado Hater Conservation Board on this subject by Royce J. Tipton,
Consulting :::ngineer of the Board, did not r.la!ce such an attempt. His statement
contained'the follm1ing paragraph:

II It should be made plain that neither the summary nor the
detailed list intend to suggest in any way where or how the
water of the Colorado River will be used. They are merely the
results of the consideration o.l the best data that is available
at the present time. The pattern of development a,s it progresses
may be entirely different from that which appears in the tabula-
tion. II

It is presumed that when you refer in your letter to a presentation to
the Colorado Water Conservation Board at its December 1949 Ir.eeting, you h~d in
mind this Tipton statement. It should be clearly ur..derstood that the Board's
engineering staff, or any member thereof, has never released any study as to
final estimates of total western Slope potential uses of water; and, of course,
since the matter involves important questions of policy, any statement of that
character would require action by the Board. The Board is concerned with this
matter and must continue to study it, but befo re any final conclusions are
reached, much more data must be made available.

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