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REVOLUTION, EVOLUTION, OR FLUKE? by Ed Marston <br />people —it was a significant water project Denver into its 1974 boundaries by pass- And so, a few years after passage <br />and it was about more 'than water. ing the Poundstone Amendment to the of the Pouldstone Amendment, Denver <br />In the early and raid 1980s, Colorado Colorado Constitution, barring Denver and 42 neighboring water providers _ <br />suffered a crushing economic setback from annexing land in adjacent counties. reached an agreement. The suburbs got <br />when the national energy bubble burst. The suburbanites who passed the the use of Denver's expertise and water <br />Denver emptied out as the companies amendment hoped to wall themselves rights to build Two Forks Dam. Denver <br />masterminding oil and gas drilling, and off from Denver's problems with school got a -metro partnership it hoped would <br />coal -wine, power -plant and synthetic fuel busing, poverty and ethnic diversity. But upgrade its cultural and sports facilities; <br />development fled. Part of the purpose of they had overlooked the power of water. settle the many fights over shopping ccn- <br />Two Forks was to provide an economic The Denver Water Department was ter locations and their sales tax dollars; <br />boost for this flattened metro area. already supplying water to about 80 sur- and lead to cooperative land use plan - <br />Two Forks was portrayed as an instru- rounding entities. And Denver had long ring and mass transit to reduce sprawl <br />tment of cooperation. At the time, the ago obtained conditional water rights in and congestion. <br />Denver metro area was as balkanized as Western Colorado that the outer ring of Any of these three arguments —water <br />the Balkans. For example, in an act of suburbs would need if they were to con- for growth, economic lift -off or metro <br />naked aggression, the suburbs had locked time to expand. cooperation — should have carried the <br />Denver <br />Two Forks Dam Site <br />The proposed location of Two Forks <br />dam (above). would have backed up the <br />South Platte River some 21 miles, as <br />Well as inundating some 9 miles of7he <br />'lVorth Fork. , <br />, V <br />r ' <br />CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL ERA I 5 <br />