BOARD00647

• Board Meeting Date: 8/15/1973
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

I should make note too that the Colorado River Water Conservation
District also top filed on us, so to speak, on Rocky Mountain's
application to the Federal Power Commission seeking a license to
study, not a license to construct which we had applied for and which
was denied, but a license to study. And there was granted by the
Federal Power Commission to the Colorado District a license to study I
the aspects of the probabilities of a power development by a reservoir
at the precise same site called the "Meadows" on the South Fork of
the White River which parallels in many respects, except as to the
use of the Sweetwater Creek, parallels the application of the Rocky
Mountain Power Company.

I would like to comment on just one or two other things. In my judg-
ment, a reservoir at the Meadows would not be a detractor from the
.area, but actually would lend a great deal of beauty. And it would
actually serve as a means for people having access to the area via
the reservoir which would be created.

This commission is interested in the use of water resources. And
therefore I submit that where apparent conflicts exist, there is no
real conflict here between the Wilderness use and the use of this
water for its power-producing purpose and that the commission should
at least be on the side of the water resource development. And I
also would like to say to your board that I don't think you have
any more interest or justification, if I may say, for helping either
one of the parties - I mean the Colorado River Water Conservation
District or Rocky Mountain Power Company - then it wouldn't have to
get into the litigation which has been going on since 1958 or 1959
between these two parties. It seems to me that if there was a public
interest in denying the use of these resources to the state of Colo-
rado, to the western slope, to the nation as a whole, that it is at
a very late date that we hear that from this commission, the Colo-
rado Water Conservation Board.

Now, let me also call your attention to two or three things that are
in the record. I am reading now from the report on the Flat Tops
Wilderness Area as prepared by the Forest Service. And it talks
about Area G-l which includes the Meadows area we are talking about.
And it says, "This area was included in the Forest Service preliminary I
proposal. The statements of the Governor of Colorado, the Bureau of
Reclamation, and a number of individuals and organizations, request
that it not be included because of the need to develop the area's
water resources. This water would be used for power, irrigation,
and to develop the potential oil shale industry in Piceance Creek
Basin to the east. Water rights have been adjudicated in the State
courts for the water."

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