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All users of water ,`_rom the Colorado P.iver s��stem are subject to var.i,ous coMOacts, treaties and legislation which are termed collecti✓ely "The�Law of the River". The only portion of_ this body of. law which bears directly on the �amcolo ??roject is the question as to water availability under the terms oF the Uooer Colorado River Compact which allocates portions of the yield of the basin to the various states. Taken by itself the Yamcolo Reservoir, with a relatively junior decree date, could at some time be subject to a"conpact call". However, within the Colorado Basin as a whole there exist great nu*_nbers of conditional decrees, many of which overlap, and the oppor- tunity for exchange or substitution is almost limitless. In particular, the pr000sed Juniper Reservoir on the main stem of the Yampa below Craig with a prioritp date of 1954 can serve as protection against a compact call either by actual construc- tion and provision of a storage reserve or by trans.fer of a portion of the storage right. The Juniper Reservoir site whose decrees are owned by the Colorado River T,�7ater Conservation District has a ootential storage caoaci_t�� of_ over one million acre feet. T]?e prioritv date for this reservoir. is 1954. This reservoir coupled with a re-regulating reservoir, Cross :aountain Canyon, has a poten•- tial for generation o` peakinq electrical energy which r.iay be sufficiently valuable on toda_y's marl:et to allow its construction purely on the basis of the pocaer revenues it would generate. The Colorado River District is currently engaged in preliminary planning for construction of this site and conceivably this oroject could bc� under construction within the next five years. As this reservoir is located below where most of the current development need for water exists in the Yamna Valley, it's primary value, aside from the powe�r generation potential, is for replacement water for upstream users. Such replacenent miqht be required in the event that future develooments in the Colorado Basin depleated all of Colorado's allocation under the Upper Colorado F,iver Comoact and if in addition a series of dry years occur, ancl a call for delivery is made to Colorado in orcier to satisfy delivery reauirements at Lee I'erry. In this situation it_ is probable that the recent most decress would be cut off first. The 1954 date for Juniper is senior to many of the larqe industrial transmountain deversion decrees which have been granted in recent_ yeass and it is unli.l:ely ry-ln I ' �, ' f ' 1 C ' u C ' ' ' 1 ' � 1 1 I ' � ' i ' '