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<br />{!. . <br />" '001979 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />FOR IMHEDIATE RELEASE <br />3 DECEMBER 1971 <br /> <br />EAGLE PINEY WATER PROTECTION ASSOCIA- <br />TIONIS VIEW OF THE DENVER WATER BOARDIS <br />EAGLE-COLORADO PROJECT \ <br />\ <br />The Denver Water Department's new Eagle-Colorado water diversion.plan <br /> <br />is simply a bigger, greedier water grab that is being hidden under a guise <br /> <br />of an "environmental awareness" program. <br /> <br />Now, instead of taking just the waters of the Piney, Gore, Upper <br /> <br />Eagle, and Homestake Creeks, they want the water from the Colorado River, <br /> <br />Beaver Creek, Lake Creek, June Creek, and all of the other streams flowing <br /> <br />into the Eagle River between Edwards and Dowd Junction. <br /> <br />The Denver Water Department's environmental thinking is obviously a <br /> <br />rationalization, a juggling of facts, to justify economic realities. The <br /> <br />Eagle-Colorado system will.yield much more water and the initial construc- <br /> <br />tion costs will be much less. (This article assumes that, because the <br /> <br />Denver Water Department will take water from the Eagle near Wolcott, they <br /> <br />will not have to take it from the tributaries of Gore Creek and from the <br /> <br />Upper Eagle and Homestake Creeks above Red Cliff. If, in fact, they still <br /> <br />plan to build the entire Eagle-Piney project plus the Eagle-Colorado <br /> <br />project, then there are no environmental advantages whatever involved in <br /> <br />the Eagle-Colorado project.) Instead of building ten or more small diver- <br /> <br />sion sites, they will be faced with building one big collection area <br /> <br />near <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />the Eagle River and a larger installation on the Piney. <br /> <br />The fact of the matter is that the real environmental disaster will <br /> <br />still occur. The water, even more of it, will be removed from its basins <br /> <br />of origin. The Eagle-Colorado system is a bigger transmountain diversion <br /> <br />and, as a result, greater repercussions will be felt in the water-short <br /> <br />towns of Eagle, Glenwood, Rifle, and Grand Junction. <br /> <br />The Eagle Piney Water Protection Association is not about to be placated <br /> <br />by the idea of fewer diversion sites in the high country. Diversion sites <br /> <br />are a big part of the problem but the water itself is equally important. <br />