BOARD00469

• Board Meeting Date: 5/12/1976
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Resolution
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

established by the Water Court. So the courts have now granted a
storage right to John Martin Reservoir by the moving of an old right
from Muddy Creek down to the reservoir site..

Based upon that court decision, we .requested the State of Kansas to
agree to operating principles that would permit the establishment of
the permanent pool in John Martin Reservoir, the cost of which would be
borne by the State of Colorado. Kansas has been dragging its feet for
some years on this matter. The truth is that we have not had the water
rights prior to this with which we could establish a permanent pool.

.
A special meeting of the Compact Administration was called at the
request of the State of Colorado last week at Garden City, Kansas. In
the meantime, a special engineering committee of the two states was
established to work out the operating procedures for the permanent pool.
That engineering committee did agree to a method of operation and
reduced that to operating principles.

The State of Kansas requested that we come down a day early in order
that they could show us all the dry reservoirs and ditches in Kansas.
They were conditioning us to the fact that they were't going to approve
any operating principles for John Martin Reservoir at that meeting. It
is true that practically every ditch in Kansas below the state line is
dry, and the major reservoir down there has been dry now for a period
of three years. As far as .that part of the state is concerned, they
are experiencing an unusually dry cycle. The McKinney Reservoir, I
believe it's called, was built in 1908 and this is one of the very few
times in history that it has beeri dry for some period of time.

Kansas would not approve the operating principles for the reservoir at
that meeting at Garden City, but did suggest some changes in the
operating principles. They said if they'were made, in all probability,
they would approve in principle a permanent pool in John Martin Reser-
voir.

I

We sent the matter back to the engineering committee to rework the
operating principles, and Colorado has requested another special meeting
of the Compact Administration. This time we will meet in Colorado,
probably some place like Aspen to get away from the dry country down
there (laughter). We hope that by this coming August we will have an
agreement with the State of Kansas concerning the establishment of the
permanent pool.

I think most of the Board members are aware of the fact that each state
has three compact commissioners. From Colorado there is Harry Bates I
from the lower end of the Valley; Bob Temple from Lamar, a county
commissioner from prowers County; and myself. Kansas likewise has three
commissioners - two of whom are farmers or irrigators and one of whom
is the State Engineer. The recently appointed federal commissioner is
Mr. Frank Cooley from Meeker whom most of the Board members are
acquainted with. Don't ask me how Frank got appointed, because I don't
know. Anyway, we have been without a United States Commissioner for
some two years. Hopefully now with Frank there, the Commission will be
able to function fully.

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