BOARD02241

• Board Meeting Date: 12/9/1954
• Description: Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

468 ~

as remarks of counsel although I would
not have accepted employment had I felt
there was conflict of interest between that
particular group and the interest of the
State at large. I feel that getting relief
from the situation they have been in for
some years is a matter of. sound State policy
and is the type of matter this Board can
properly take an interest in.

I

"In the limited time that we can devote
to anyone particular matter on this Board
that is crowded with other matters, it
would be~inappropriate to go into all the
details. I would like to outline a brief
history of its development.

"Following the first appropriat~onfof
water in the,Laramie River Valley, there
was considerable diversion of water from
the Laramie River through the Skyline
CaBal which takes the water across the
Divide at the upper part of the Laramie
Basin in Colorado and carries that water
into the drainage of the Cache La Poudre
River where it is used for irrigation in
Colorado. According to the factual
determinations made by the Supreme Court
of the United States, the next general
group of appropriations was made by
farmers in Wyoming, particularly in the
Wheatland District, who built a long canal
and diverted water from the Laramie River
to supply a fertile area of farm land.

"The next and what turned out to be fhe
final appropriation because it was large
enough to take all the water that remained
available in the upper part of the river was
the Laramie-Poudre Tunnel which carried water
through the ,tunnel into the Cache La Poudre
Basin.

I

"When large diversions through the
Laramie-Poudre Tunnel became imminent, the
State of Wyoming in 1911 commenced action
against the State of Colorado and joined as
parties defendant the Laramie-Poudre tunnel