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DRAFT A major issue in obtaining congressional support for the project concerned protection of West Slope interests.79 I n the "Operating Principles, Fryingpan-Arkansas Project" adopted in 1959 and incorporated project80 it is stated into the federal legislation funding the Ii that one of the purposes of the project is , the "protection of western Colorado water u~es, both existing and I' potential, in accordance with the declared policy of the State of Colorado."81 The means of providing . , tha t protect ion was to be construction of the Ruedi Reservoir on the Fryingpan River with a capa~ity of at least 100,000 acre-feet. A ~ortion of that water is dedicated to replacement of any senior West Slope water rights affected by project diversions. The remainder is available for other municipal and industrial uses on the ~est Slope.82 , The other transmountain diversion involv ing the statutory 79Bythis time the Congressional representative for the West Slope was Wayne Aspinall, chairman in the early 1950's of the Reclamation Committee and later chairman of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee. Just as with Representative Taylor in the 1930's, without Representative Aspinall's support, no bill funding this project could hope to pass in the House. Thus the West Slope wielded substantial leverage in the discussions concerning protection of its interests. Brace, supra note 77, at 21. 80p.L. 87-590, 76 Stat. 389 (1962). .1 810perating principles Fryingpan-Arkansas project, H.R. Doc. No. 130, 87th Congo 1st Sess. (196l) ,at 1. 82Correspondence contained in Ruedi Dam and Reservoir, Colo. (Letter from Acting Secretary of the lnterior Transmitting ~port and Findings on Ruedi Dam and Reservoir, Colo., Pursuant to the Federal Reclamation Laws) (March 7, 1960) specifically discusses. the expected water needs associated with oil shale development in western Colorado. 32