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Chivvis & Lovell Art · Antiques · Fine Framing (0 ~ ~C9J www.chivvisandlovell.com Jack Chivvis Linda Lovell 148 North F Street. SaJida . 719-539-4001 Your aging bricks and woodwork can be restored quickly. Your Habeas Corpus may take a little longer. SL.IM WOL.FE MASON. CARPENTER' CUSTOM WORK 719-539-41 14 Make Every Drop Count Hose Sprinklers Fertilizer Rakes Shovels Watering Pails Law,! DecoratIOns Qambles 127 F Street Sallda 719-539-6047 22'CQ!orado Central Magazine.June 2003 '.1,"" Delta and Grand JunctiQn, he said. Further, requiring that much water, with a 1933 pri- ority date, could cause some serious hurt tQ the irrigatQrs upstream from the canyon and the Aspinall Unit dams. '~bout a quarter of our irrigators in the up- per basin have rights that are junior tQ 1933," accord- ing to Kathleen Curry, manager of the Upper Gunnison' River Water Conservancy District. Lots of litigation lQomed if the feds pursued that claim, But the federal government changed parties and policies after George W. Bush was inaugurated in Janu- ary; 2001, The Clinton Administration had an environ- mental constituency that believed in protecting national parks; the Bush Administration had different priorities. Last fall, Walcher and other state Qfficials be- gan negotiating with the Interior Deparnnent, headed by Gale Norton, fonner attQrney general Qf ColQrado, The result was the agreement you heard about in early April. The feds would drop their claim to im- mense spring flQWS through the Black Canyon. Instead, there would be a 300-cfs minimum year-mund in-stream flow with a 1933 priority date, alQng with a 2003 right to some flQoding flows in wet years. "This still flushes the canyon from time to time," Walcher told me, "and even before the darns were built, it didn't get scoured every year. So we've protected the canyon's envimnment while also protecting ColQrado water users." But if much of the water stored upstream from Black Canyon is no longer required for the canyon, then is it now available for diversion tQ the Eastern Slope? .,.-.IfAT'S A BIUJON-DOLLAR QUESTION. Curry ~ points out that the state negotiated with the feds in secret, without involving other parties who had filed objections to the Park Service claim. "I have the impres- sion that the state wanted to settle the Gunnison ques- tion SQ that the water WQuld be available for diversion to the Eastern Slope," she said, I mentioned her concern when I talked to Walcher, He said that wasn't the case, that the state government was not trying to simplify matters fQr anYQne trying to divert water from the upper Gunnison. He said Gov, Bill Owens had campaigned against such diversions in 1998, and none would be built, "as long as I am in this job and Bill Owens is governor." ColoradQ may be the only place in the world where it is necessary to distinguish between "paper water" and "wet water." We can construct a paper WQrld where the State of Colmado has the rights tQ a milliQn acre-feet a year (enough for about 4 million more residents) Qf water from the ColoradQ River, of which the Gunnison is a major tributary. And in that paper wQrld, this paper water could be put to "beneficial use" elsewhere in the ' state, assuming sQmebody wants to pay for the im- mense amount of work it would take. The U.s, Bureau of ReclamatiQn looked at that in 1948 (see the follOwing sidebar). More recently, it's been the obsession of Dave Miller, a water develQper who runs an outfit called Natural Energy Resources Co,