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<br />appearance, if necessary, in the Rio Grande Water Conservation <br />District's application.for water rights in Water Division 3 for the <br />wells necessary to construct the Closed Basin project. I believe it is <br />appropriate at this time for the board and other state agencies which <br />are interested to appear in that case. I am in the process of doing <br />that. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />Yesterday, Judge Flannery of the United States: District Court in <br />Washington, D. C., admitted the state of Colorado and the other six <br />Colorado River Basin States as full parties in the 'salinity lawsuit <br />brought by the Environmental Defense Fund. against EPA. Judge Flannery' <br />has not.ruled on many of: the other non-state parties who haye requested <br />to intervene, but he has indicated he will. do so in theverf! near future. <br /> <br />I be lieve. that. we met before. judge Flannery ruled in favor of EDF. We <br />had asked the Court to change the venue of that lawsuit from Washington <br />to Denver, and all seven Basin States had agreed that was appropriate. <br />The Justice Department made a lousy. argument, in my opinion; There is <br />a lot of speculation as to why it was a lousy argument. I prefer to <br />think that the Justice Department attorney and the EPA attorney <br />involved did not want to come out.here and try the: case: any more than <br />EDF wanted to bring it out, and so for personal reasons didn't make the <br />necessary legal arguments. But for:whatever reason, Judge Flannery <br />denied the motion to change the venue. We were not parties. at that <br />~time.and we were not allowed to speak on that question. <br /> <br />On the Narrows case, the parties are presently trying to work out a <br />stipulation that will either hold that case in abeyance or dismiss it <br />entirely until the question of funding has; been resolved. :At the <br />present time, although not unanimous, there is some thought that we <br />should not spend money and/or legal and~engineering time. necessary to <br />try the case when the funding' question is ~p. in' the air.: <br /> <br />Next week, the Western. States Water Council will meet. At the same <br />time, a group of State Attorneys General from the Western States will <br />also meet. We have been meeting about every six months, talking <br />generally about the federal reserve rights question and trying to <br />coordinate the various state positions. We are particularly concerned <br />at the present time' about a. bill introduced by Representative Meeds I <br />from. the State of Washington that deals with the question of Indian <br />reserved rights in a very. simplistic and in a very harsh manner. There <br />are some other bills in the hopper which seem to be a little more <br />moderate but which also address this very fundamental question. of when <br />and how the federal reserve rights issue is going to be resolved. I <br />think it is becoming clear to many that the forum of the courts is not <br />going to be satisfactory. It will take too many years to wade through <br />it. <br /> <br />-- 54- <br />