BOARD02129

• Board Meeting Date: 10/31/1973
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

and Flat Tops - I think our board might very well vote one way, if
that were the only issue, but I am trying to get to focus in on the
whole state picture, and our whole momentum.

I can't imagine this board and Mr. Sparks going down to Washington
with any effectiveness at all in the future if we are just going to
layover and play dead in terms of our fight to keep the water I
resources of this state in a position where we can utilize them in
the future when we need them. Some of you have said, "Well, we can
get the President to take it out. of the wilderness area." It won't ,
be in my lifetime, I am sure. We are making a decision all the way
along the road that I don't think can be turned around with the
momentum that is going in the environmental area now. I appreciate
it and I am for it. But I think there has to be a balance. And
what I am saying is that I think the board by taking this step is
giving up substantial prerogatives to get into this matter to fight
for the water resources of the state. For that reason, I am expres~
sing myself for the record and for you. I think this is what I
understood the Colorado Water Congress as the citizen's arm of this
state on water matters and has been fighting for all along. I can't
expect the executive director who has been in two months to go out
on a limb and talk about this. But I have been appointed as a
member of the Rules Committee and that is my clear understanding on
what we are supposed to be doing. I just think let's look at at
other than Rocky Mountain Power and Flat Tops and take a look at it.

Mr. Fischer: I think this is a good and wise approach. .The Colorado
Water Congress must necessarily take the position that satisfies its
long spectrum of membership. I think Val Killin is well on the way
to doing that. In line with your comment, he might very well be
able to run for public office and get elected on that kind of a
saying.

The state board I urge should be aggressive in this matter.
also that it might be well to consider the vulgar realities
political situation.

I urge
of the

Mr. Stapleton: I don't consider them vulgar. They are just real-
ities.

Mr. Fischer: The board should take a strong position on the compati- I
bility of wilderness in Colorado and the use of Colorado's water
resources. Downstream from the Meadows Reservoir, downstream from
Patterson Creek specifically, our opportunities to put that water to
beneficial use is still preserved. At this point in time, I am not
sure if that development is going to be first in the Colorado River
basin side or the White River side. Until very recently, the chief
of nuclear fields consultants to the Joint Committee on Atomic

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