BOARD01412

• Board Meeting Date: 2/16/1953
• Description: Minutes and Resolution
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

104

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the Fryingpan-Arkansac Project and a resolution adopted by the Board
at that time outlining the policy of the Board. He c aIled attention
to a letter, dated February 27, 1951, from Judge Stone to Mr. Batson,
outlining the contents of the above-mentioned publication, and to the
resolution contained therein which provides that no further federally
financed transmountain projects should be built .until such time as
the surveys on t he Western Slope are completed. "It is our position",
he stated, "that a fair decision was made and that everyone party to
this agreement should abide by it unless there are some very good
reasons to show why that policy should be rescinded at the present
time." la. Delaney said that Denver does not need water but just
wants to earmark it for future use. He referred to adjudication
proceedin~s in which Denver was involved. fIn one case;-he said~.
-Deriver ~obta:i.ned an-appropriation for all of the Blue River and asked
for a priority date ahead of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, but
got a date of June 24, 1946; and in another case pending in the
Supreme Court as to whether Denver gets the water under Senate
Document 80 or the Western Slope gets it.

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Mr. Delaney read excerpts from Resolution No.1 of the
Committee of Seventeen, appointed by Governor Johnson in 1935 under
the auspices of the State Planning Commission ("Delaney Resolution").

w~. Delaney stated that after close attention to this
matter that Denver now presents, he had come to the follovfing
conclusions:

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"According to one eminent hydrologist,
Denver now has a firm supply of either 183,500 or
187,500 acre-feet of water in the driest ten-year
period from the South Platte and Ifestern Slope
facilities. Denver has published in a pamphlet the
amount of water.ured and that publication shows the
per capita annual use of water in the City of Denver
is .236 acre-foot. In other words, according to that,
it is computed that 23,600 acre-feet is sufficient for
100,000 population which means that Denver has sufficient
water for a population of 750,000 to 800,000, or enough
to last until 1979. Now, Denver is asking for 177,000
acre-feet, which is sufficient for a population of
1,500,000, and is claiming that this is an emergency
proposi ti on."

In conclusion, Mr. Delaney stated that it would certainly
be inviting trouble in all stages of development, including the
Fryinfpan-Arkansas Project, to inject this Denver proposal into the
bill to authorize the Colorado River Storage Project. He added that
the "estern Slope might lose some water but would like to say to
posterity that it tried to save the water which may be needed for oil
shale development.