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<br />on this matter? <br /> <br />Mr. Smee: I will take it. <br /> <br />Mr. Stapleton: All right, Mr. Smee. <br /> <br />Mr. Smee: Gentlemen, my name is James C. Smee. I am executive I <br />secretary of the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District, but I <br />would like to emphasize that I am not appearing here today as a <br />representative of the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District. <br />I have not coordinated any of my remarks with anyone in the Central <br />Colorado Water Conservancy District. I would like to make my remarks <br />and emphasize points of a general nature that I feel are most impor- <br />tant in your deliberations today. <br /> <br />Given the world situation as I view it, we simply cannot foreclose <br />our available options for power, irrigation and municipal water by <br />endorsing the wilderness bill. We are simply not taking the long <br />view. We say we ~eed to clean up our air and we are considering <br />eliminating a hydroelectric site at the Meadows. I am aware that <br />the White River water is needed for oil shale development. As a <br />former professional soldier, I certainly want to see it saved for <br />that purpose. The Rocky Mountain Power Company can go to pUlllped <br />storage that is released downstream and use this water in that <br />manner for generating power. A portion of this power should be made <br />available to assist the oil shale industry, rather than bring power <br />to the area at a higher cost probably from a thermal plant with' <br />more pollution of our air. <br /> <br />Now let's look at the capability of our great state to produce food. <br />We simply are out of space here. Our most productive land is east <br />of the divide and our water is west. l: am acutely aware of the,'i;' <br />feeling about this transmountain diversions, but given the situation <br />where the farmers on the eastern slope need to have the water, will <br />we be willing to trade water to raise crops? We are not interested <br />in multiplying the salinity question by making any further trans- <br />mountain diversions. Gentlemen, somebody in this state is going to <br />have to answer this question, sooner or later, and I predict that <br />it will probably be in the lifetime of most of us here. Unfor- <br />tunately, the population seems to want to live in that strip of land <br />from Pueblo; to Fort Collins. I don't like this because I didn't I <br />move here from San Francisco to be crowded in by people.~, until <br />we get a dictator who throws out our constitution, people will live <br />where they jolly well please. We like to think of ourselves as a <br />clean, green and asphalt society. This takes municipal water avail- <br />able where and when it is needed. This is the dilemma we have to <br />face. <br /> <br />-8- <br />