BOARD02112

• Board Meeting Date: 1/9/1978
• Description: Agenda, Minutes, Resolution
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

not going to pay any attention to them."? Those projects still
represent the law of the United States. .Until Congress acts affirma-
tively to repeal those laws, I don't think we can agree with the
Secretary or with the President: that: those projects are dead. So
much for that. That's a battle .we will have to approach at the March
meeting.

1

The Secretary did. not state what the status of the Narrows project
might be. We anticipate, however, that there will be no funds in the
budget for it either.

There are other ongoing projects that are either under definite: plan
study, such as the West Divide, Animas-La Plata and San Miguel, for
which we must examine the requests for funding and also at the ongoing
constructi.on program. As we understand" it, the President will continue
.to support the construction of Dallas Creek and Dolores projects,. for
which we are very grateful. But we don' t thin~ that is enough.

That will be the principal thrust of the March meeting. Mr. Sherman
has sent a memo to all of the ex-officio members of this board, like.
me, Dave and Clarence Kuiper, reminding us that he considers the
March 15 meeting to be a critical ~ne. It is a question of how far we
will cooperate or disagree with the President.

The last matter I have to report on is the proposed contract between
the Department of the Interior and the El Paso Natural Gas Company for
15,000 acre-feet of water out of Navajo Reservoir. That proposal has
been submitted to the governors of the four estates of the Upper Colo- :
rado River Commission for recommendations. This is a rather complex
matter involving several pieces of legislation and at least two inter-
state compacts. The Upper Colorado River Commission's legal and
engineering committees.will convene here in Denver next Monday to
prepare recommendations for the Commission. The Commission will meet "
in Denver at a special meeting on February 6 to consider its comments
on the proposal. Generally, the four governors are awaiting action by
the Commission. in the hope that the four states can take.a unified
approach to the problem--and it is a very difficult problem.

The contract, itself, is thorny :enough,. but does not present nearly I.
the problem as the water.supply study which was sent.to.the four
governors. That water supply study clearly shows a release by the
Upper Basin states of one-half of the.Mexican Treaty, apparently in
perpetuity. Although the Department of the Interior says it is not
interpreting the:compact, it:neverthelessis. If you release one-half
of the Mexican Treaty and charge.it against the Upper Basin, no matter
how you word it or slice it, that is a "compact interpretation. So
what the department is saying and what it is doing are two different "

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