BOARD01178

• Board Meeting Date: 2/4/1955
• Description: Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

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MR. CRAWFORD:

503

completed in his office. We have not had
time to review the figures with the owners
of the Skyline Canal and Laramie-Poudre
Tunnel water rights who live in the Fort
Collins area. I think that we should
certainly review the figures with them before
asking this Board to reach any decision on these
matters. I might say that my own immediate
impressions are that this study confirms the
facts upon which the Supreme Court acted in
1922. When we see that for the years con-
sidered the figures are about 99.1.% of the
value of the figures that the Court had
before:it for consideration, it looks to me
as if the Court had the best available figures
and that its figures were realistic figures.
The behavior of the Laramie River in the last
twenty years of dropping substantially under
that level is a thing the Court could not have
possibly foreseen twelve or fifteen years
prior to the time it took place. Whether that
fact of later decline would furnish any basis
for reconsideration of the parts of that decree
affecting Wyoming is a matter which should be
carefully considered, before action is taken.
My own view is that any reopening of this
decree by the Supreme Court of the United States
could not possible arrive at a revised decision v
which would be worse for the water right users
in Colorado than is the present modus of
distribution of the water of that river; and
that any revisions would have a fair chance .of
being substantially better for the Colorado
water right users. These figures confirm,_
rather than otherwise, my feeling that the
decree should be reopened, if possible, and
a decree fairer to the interests of Colorado
obtained; but before urging that action, I'
would certainly like to consult with the other
parties who would be affected by a reopening
in the light of the facts that are now avail-
able."

"Does the Attorney General's Department have
anything to report now?"