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<br />J,.";tvV <br /> <br />a replacement reservoir in western Colo- <br />rado with an active capacity of not less <br />than 100,000 acre feet. That reservoir <br />would be some ten or twelve miles above <br />the town of Basalt on the Fryingpan River. <br /> <br />The thorny problem has been the working 'I,. <br />out of the water rights. At the present <br />time, as you know, there is a water adjudi- <br />cation proceedings pending in the District <br />Court of Garfield County. The trial date <br />for this decree, that is the Fryingpan- <br />Arkansas decree, has been set for May 25th. <br />Numerous extensions have been granted and <br />we feel that no further extensions will be <br />granted by the court. Therefore, if this <br />matter is to be resolved amicably, it must <br />be resolved prior to that date. <br /> <br />The essential distribution of water <br />for the project - now we are considering the <br />Basalt and Fryingpan as a single project - <br />is that the Fryingp~n would divert at its <br />collection system, 2,352,800 acre feet in <br />any period of 34 consecutive years. That <br />is an annual average diversion of 69.2, <br />that is, 69,200 acre feet. The Bureau of <br />Reclamation has indicated that as the mini- <br />mum amount of water which must be delivered <br />to the project in order to pay its cost. <br />The cost of that project is somewhere in the <br />neighborhood of $170,000,000 and you can <br />give or take ten or fifteen million either <br />way. There is a further limitation that <br />the ten year moving average cannot exceed <br />900,000 acre feet. That is subject to some <br />debate, the figure does not satisfy everyone <br />concerned. The real limitation is the 34 <br />year limitation and I think one of our Board <br />members received a letter stating that 900,000 <br />acre feet was in excess of the 69.2. Well, <br />that's admittedly so, but the overall limita- <br />tion is the 34 year limitation which is 69.2. <br />In other words, that's all the project can 1 <br />divert unless there is no need for the water <br />in western Colorado. The determination of, <br />that need is to be made, we might say, <br />exclusively, by the Western Slope Conservancy <br />Districts, the Southwestern and the Colorado <br />River. <br />