BOARD00158

• Board Meeting Date: 12/12/1973
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

Mr. Kroeqer: I would hope that the board would. I think it is
rather timely because we have a resolution regarding the Rainbow
Bridge case, which is before you. The Southwest Water Board passed
this hoping that the State Water Board would take some positive action
on it. It relates to our situation with the other states intervening. I
I think what Larry said really makes us feel all alone as far as
Rainbow Bridge is concerned. I don't see how this country can afford
the luxury of even messing with a lawsuit on that. I referred to
it as being as stupid as India's sacred cows the other day and got
away with it in an environmental group meeting. I was closer to
home, perhaps I couldn't do that any place. But I would hope that
this board urges the Governor and the Upper Basin Commission, and so
on, to ask our sister states to not join in fighting us on this
situation. I was as astounded as Larry is when I saw Washington,
Idaho and Texas and these states that are reclamation states come
into this thing. So that is the thrust of the resolution. I would
hope that our Water Board would accept this and maybe take whatever
action they deem necessary to do something about it.

Mr. Stapleton: What do you suggest?

Mr. Goslin: Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Stapleton: Yes sir, Ival.

Mr. Goslin: May I say something about that? I have looked at the
resolution. I would like to see the Water Board endorse the reso-
lution. I noticed in there it requests that the Upper Colorado River
Commission, the Colorado Water Conservation Board and others do what
they can to alleviate this situation with our sister states. I want
to assure you and the board that we weren't asleep when we first
heard about this issue. We had done considerable to try to get the
matter straightened out with some of our sister states.

I first heard about it before the brief was filed with the Supreme
Court from a friend of mine who works for the Arkansas Gazette in
Little Rock, Arkansas. He called me and told me he had just come
from the Attorney General's office and that this brief was being
prepared and was going to be filed. He asked for some information I
to try to get it headed off and we furnished it to him. There have
been sixteen states that have filed on two separate briefs, ten states
on one brief, six on another, as Larry mentioned. And among those
sixteen states, four of them are reclamation states. I think Larry
mentioned those four were Washington, Texas, South Dakota and Idaho.
We went to Governor Rampton of Utah. Governor Rampton has written to
the governors of all of these sixteen states. As of the present

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