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J-' '. - " -5- beyond the limits of such local entities are not affected adversely to statewide interests," he said. Aspinall denied charges that the bill is being fashioned to dispose of nearly 200 million acres of public land. "I know of no member of our committee who has voiced any desire that our public lands be subject to wholesale disposal. Most of the members have strong motives to preserve our parks, monuments, and forests to make them available for the widest use to which they are susceptible," he said. John W. Larson, assistant secretary of the Interior, told the conferees that not enough dollars have been spent in meeting recreational needs where they are greatest, and that the big problem is access to water areas near the big cities. Larson cited the city of Denver "where", he said, "there are more than l20 water supply reservoirs with l5,000 surface acres of land of which only 5 percent are used for recreation, yet almost all of them offer opportunities for water recreation." Water Board officials, in response to inquiries on Larson's state- ment, expressed wonderment at the source of his information as it is a matter of government record that under signed operating agreements the Denver Water Board has for several years turned the major portion of its water supply reservoirs over to state and federal agencies for recreational use. These include Dillon Reservoir to the U.S. Forest Service and Williams Fork, Antero, and Eleven Mile Canyon Reservoirs to the Colorado Game, Fish and Parks Division. Also the Board has opened Gross Reservoir to public recreational use under its own administration. P. T. Barrows, chief environmentalist with the Colorado Division of Wildlife, speaking before the group, charged that the Federal Water ~ -.J Project Recreational Act which was passed in 1965 requiring that a localcn (".;, recreational use age~cy pick up half of the bill for recreational ."