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<br />Department, we had prepared in advance a brief <br />of OUr pOSition urging that the justice Depart- <br />ment take certain steps in answer to the law- <br />suit. There was a very good meeting held with <br />the Justice Department. Department of the <br />Interior people were there also. <br /> <br />After the preliminary motions are disposed <br />of, if they are favorable towards what the <br />Justice Department has requested then the matter <br />is ended. If not, the matter will go to trial. <br />The point we are debating now is whether or <br />not, assuming that the case goes to trial, we <br />should intervene, the Upper Basin states, as <br />interested and necessary parties, which we <br />are. If the Secretary is ordered to cease <br />further storage in Glen Canyon, then the states <br />should institute suit in the united States <br />Supreme Court to compel compliance with the <br />Colorado River Compact, the Colorado River <br />Storage Project Act and the colorado River <br />Project Act. The United States has given its <br />consent that any state could bring suit against <br />the United States in the Supreme Court to com- <br />pel compliance with the terms of the two acts. <br />This is one of the unique cases where the <br />United States gave its consent in advance to <br />be sued by any interested state. If we are <br />not parties to the pending suit in the District <br />of Columbia, we are not bound by the decision. <br /> <br />1 <br /> <br />In any event, it is a complicated legal <br />problem upon which a lot of factual information <br />will have to be developed. The non-filling of <br />Lake Powell would destroy our agreement with <br />the Lower Basin, because in the Colorado River <br />Project Act of 1968 there is a provision in <br />which Congress directed that after filling <br />Lake Powell to whatever was needed to protect <br />the Upper Basin against the 75 MAF delivery <br />every ten years, that thereafter Hoover Dam <br />or Lake Mead and Lake Powell would be oper- <br />ated in parity; that is, storage would be <br />equalized. Obviously, this provision becomes <br />impossible if we can't put any more water in <br /> <br />1 <br />