GJ Sentinel Article on River District and Northern

Home Browse Search

.wi Subj: GJ Sentinel Article on River District and Northern Date: 04/18/2002 8:25:36 AM Mountain Daylight Time From: AColosimo(_cflcsu.org To: hmiskel @aol.com, mpifher @troutlaw.co, PSaletta @csu.org 04.18.02 River district OKs legal action By MIKE McKIBBIN The Daily Sentinel GLENWOOD SPRINGS ? The Colorado River Water Conservation District board of directors voted Wednesday to authorize legal action, if needed, to stop the Bureau of Reclamation's alleged illegal operations of the Colorado -Big Thompson Project. The 14 -1 vote, with Tom Sharp of Routt County opposed, gave river district staffers the option to pursue litigation after more than three years of unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issue outside of the courts. However, river district spokesman Peter Roessmann said the district - remains committed to pursuing "other more amicable means of resolution" with the two parties who operate the project, the bureau and the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. "This is not something we want to do," Roessmann said, "but we realized the bureau and the Northern District weren't likely to take any action unless we pull out the big stick of litigation." The Colorado -Big Thompson diverts supplemental water from Granby Reservoir under the Continental Divide to augment water supplies in northeast Colorado. The Northern District contracts with the bureau, which built and operates the project, to supply water to its members. After engineering and legal investigation, the river district concluded that the project failed to use available native East Slope water and had instead diverted water from the headwaters of the Colorado River. Brian Person, the bureau's eastern Colorado area manager, said the Thursday, April 18, 2002 America Online HMIskal Page: 1