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<br />'~ ~,' :.Jkt/U~~$~~-. <br /> <br />the District. Map 1 attached to this statement shows the 1973 Directors and <br /> <br />their respective counties. The River District is the primary western Colorado <br /> <br />water policy body and the principal headwaters of the Colorado River originate <br /> <br />within its boundaries. Map 2 attached to this statement shows some of these <br /> <br />headwater streams. These headwa,ters contribute something over 60% of the <br /> <br />, <br />flow of the Colorado River at Lee Ferry, Arizona, the dividing point between <br /> <br />the Upper and Lower Colorado River Basins 0 They contributed more water before <br /> <br />massive'transversions took so much of the high quality headwaters to the eastern <br /> <br />slope of Colorado. Further, there is a scheme now pending to take approximately <br /> <br />100,000 acre feet per year from the Upper South Fork of the White River into the <br /> <br />Colorado River to partly exchange for the transversion of an additional 144,000 <br /> <br />acre feet annually from the headwaters of the Colorado River. <br /> <br />From the standpoint of the local people, we would like to suggest that <br /> <br />hearings be held in the field in the vicinity of the lands under consideration, <br /> <br />when possible. In the case of the S. 702, a more accurate representation of the <br /> <br />thinking and attitudes of aU the people would be available to the Subcommittee <br /> <br />with hearings held at Meeker. Although it may appear optimum to hold hearings <br /> <br />on Colorado wildernesses proposal bills at a population center like Denver, the <br /> <br />people who are most directly affected can ill afford the time or money to travel <br /> <br />to Denver to testify. Communities whose present and future welfare and economic <br /> <br />viability are wholly or partially dependent upon multiple use of public lands may <br /> <br />very well suffer tangible and intangible losses if relatively large areas of natural <br /> <br />-2- <br />