BOARD01143

• Board Meeting Date: 12/11/1953
• Description: Minutes and Resolution
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

314

I

The District was created by a statute of the State of Colo-
rado and is authorized to represent, at its level, the appro-
priators present and future of water used or to be used with-
in its boarders. It has a trust to perform in behalf of those
whom it represents. At this time the District is a party in
two proceedings in the courts in which the City and County of
Denver is likewise a party.

!/ Hill Report, Page 4.

~ Year Book State Planning Commission 1943-44, Page 33A.

One of said cases is now pending in the Supreme Court of the
State of Colorado, bearing Nos. 16881 - 16888, the City and
County of Denver, et al, are plaintiffs in error, and the
Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District and the Colorado
River Water Conservation District, et al., are the defendants
in error. This is a writ of error from the District Court of
Summit County. The City and County of Denver claims that she
should be awarded a priority right earlier than the one awarded
by the trail court. In said case, the Colorado River Water
Conservation District contends that the Court should have awarded
a decree for storage rights in the Green Mountain Reservoir
and also a direct flow right for the generation of electricity
at the Green Mountain Hydro-electric Plant. The right to the
use of water 1ihich is the subject matter of Denver's claims
before this Board is involved and is to be detennined in said
case.

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The other case is Ca~se No. 2782, now pending in the United
States District Court of the District of Colorado, wherein
the United States of America is Plaintiff, and the Northern
Colorado Water Conservancy District, the Colorado River Water
Conservation District and the City and County of Denver, et al.,
are defendants. In this case, the issues made by the pleadings
and which are to be decided by the Court raise tIE question
whether Denver or the United States of America is entitled to
the prior right. to the use of the waters of the Blue River
under general law, and, in accordance with Senate Document
No. 80 of the Seventy-fifth Congress, First Session. The use
of the same waters, which is the subject matter of the Denver
claims before this Board, are in litigation in the case in the
Federal court.

It should be recognized that the Colorado Water Board represents
the entire State of Colorado, and the interests of all its
citizens. At the very least, the .Vater Board should remain
neutral and impartial regarding matters in litigation between
citizens or organizations in different sections of the State.
The inclusion of Denver's claims for water from the Blue
River as a part of the storage program necessarily presupposes
a termination of that litigation in Denver's favor, and is not
a proper exercise of the Board's function.