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<br />- <br /> <br />The problems began around 1949 when the City and County of <br />Denver and other Front Range municipalities initiated plans for <br />the Dillon Reservoir - Robert's Tunnel diversion. Denver claimed <br />a priority date of 1946 for their reservoir, while Green <br />Mountain was afforded a priority date of 1935 by Senate Document <br />80. This senior priority date has since been contested on <br />several occasions. <br /> <br />The first round of litigation termed the "Blue River Decree" <br />(1955) aCknowledged that "the City and County of Denver & the <br />City of Colorado Springs are in need of adequate supplies of <br />water for municipal purposes both present & future...and...the <br />Blue River constitutes a source to which each must look in the <br />future if the respective municipalities are to reach their <br />greatest potential." However, the decree also stated that <br />".. .the rights of Denver and Colorado Springs.. ,are subject to <br />the rights of the United States to fill...Green mountain <br />Reservoir." With a decreed senior priority date, Green Mountain <br />gained the right to place a "call" on Dillon for those waters <br />:~hich w.er~ ~being,i5tored out of priority. <br /> <br />'. ,>'~-"" I~ 1964, . in'renewed-'iitigation, Denver stipulated that it <br />'.:h'ad~ no - "i:-1ght, title, or interest it in the waters of Green <br />Mountain Reservoir, In turn, Denver received a concession <br />whereby, each year in the spring, the Secretary of the Interior <br />could approve a limited exchange in which the City would be <br />allowed to store water out-of-priority in Dillon Reservoir, <br />provided 3 conditions are met; 1) replacement waters must be <br />physically on hand, 2) energy lost by Green Mountain power plant <br />must be repaid "in-kind", and 3) the right to fill and use Green <br />Mountain Reservoir for its decreed purposes must not be <br />impaired. <br /> <br />The explicit nature of this stipulation still did not stop <br />Denver from attempting to relieve itself of the Green Mountain <br />call. In 1977, Denver refused to release waters belonging to <br />Green Mountain by claiming an asserted domestic preference <br />(eminent domain), Again, the Court intervened, ruling that <br />Denver must honor the original 1955 Blue River Decree. So now, <br />when Green-Mountain does not fill, and a call is placed on <br />waters stored in Dillon, Denver releases an equal amount of <br />replacement water from Williams Fork Reservoir and lost power is <br />repaid to the Bureau. In addition, Denver is also required by <br />BLM to bypass 50 cfs or the natural inflow, whichever is less, to <br />maintain instream flows on the Blue River downstream of the <br />Dillon dam. <br /> <br />With increased demands for water by west slope communities, <br />particularly the ski areas in Summit and Eagle Counties, the <br />Bureau of Reclamation was compelled to revise the original <br /> <br />-2- <br />