BOARD00683

• Board Meeting Date: 7/8/1980
• Description: Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

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In effect, what they are saying is that any further

consumptive use on the South Platte River would have an

adverse impact on the endangered species. I think it's

clear that Riverside has a decree under Colorado law which

entitles it to divert that water and that decree is senior

to some other rights on the South Platte River and it

would interfere with the priority system under Colorado law.

So I think there is a definite compact problem with

the way the Corps is interpreting its authority under the

404 Permit. In effect, Colorado would not be unable to make

any further use of its compact portion share under the

South Platte River compact.

I think if this is going to be the consistent interpre-

tation of the Corps of Engineers of its granting of 404

Permits, we can expect to see similar actions taken on stream

throughout the State and 404 Permits denied in other cases

on other rivers where there are impacts from the further

consumptive use of water on the habitat of some endangered

species.

The last questions Mr. Robbins raised was the possible

effect of Colorado intervening in the lawsuit. I think the

Board should be aware of the possibility that Nebraska

could potentially intervene in this lawsuit also. I.say

that's a possibility because Nebraska intervened in the

Gray Rocks litigation which raised a similar issue.