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C utdoor 11;-', SRorts tL .~ o ,~ ---0-- '-" ~ Qj By JOHN LEWIS Whoo-ee-ee, dad used to sing a song about a Negro slave try. ing to escape 'his master and the flrsl stanza went like this "Oh, the Nigger ran and the Nigger new, and stuck his head in a hornet~s nest.H Well it seems like we stuck our head in a couple ofhorriets' nests recently in writing about controversial issues in this area, which we assure the few readers of the "Outdoor Sports" column in the Lamar Tri-State Daily News was strictly unintentional. But we write the facts as we see and hear them, and we also wish to let the public know that there. is no financial" con- nection at, all between the writer and the Lamar Tri-State Daily News, the": column is printed as a courtesy to the writer and is appreciated as such. Now here'~-we go again! . With, a,' rated capacity of the John Martin Reserv()ir Qf'683,- 260 acre feet, we cannot see why the Conservation Pool, or irrigators pool, as some call it, could not be raised 30 thous- and acre feet and divided be- tween the irrigators and the proponents of apermanentpool, which would allow the irriga- tors 15,OOO.acre feet more wa- ter and leave the other 15,000 acre feet for the benefit of recreation. This would still leave a flood control pool of almost 300,000 acre feet, which we believe would still be sufficient to hold up any additional flood waters. Even in case of a sudden flood the engineers would have enough warning to open those sixteen huge tainter gates at the top of the dam to take care of a mighty big flood. This is merelyasug- gestion to help save some of the now wasted flood waters that are, according to regulations of the Kansas-Colorado Com- pact supposed to be kept down to the Conservation Pool, or ir..: rigators level. We understand this Is sllghtly over one half lbe capacity of the Dam, We nollce in Friday's water report that the gates at John Martin are now discharging 2,134 second teet of water, with the storage rated at 378,494 acre feet, We feel that most of this water now being re- leased is. wasted water I as some of the irrigation canals are still not fully repaired, and even handling full capacity the ditches very seldom reach the above discharge figure" 'We have also wondered about Senator Gordon Allott claiming, credit for getting the discharge of flood water slowed down. Evidentlv It did not work' too well according to the latest !'Na- ter report, but It dId give the senator a chance to make a little "political Hay" which.we don't believe will do him any good unless he follows it' up with' a definite effort to sellle the Permanent pool issue. ' ' We were also glad to see the Colorado delegation okay the , pool at their recent meeting in Lamar. A permanent pool in the reservoir would make them thousands of acre feet of water ' that at present is being used to soak up the dried up lake bed of John Martin far tooonen in recent ye"arso At least one of the opponent's arguments has been sellled by the Game and Fish Department's Lake Setch- field washing out. and some 15 to 20 thousand acre feet of their water is now in John Mar-. tin Reservoir along with the fish that were in It" but it looks like this water will be simply wasted down the. river unless the bill to establlsh a permanent pool is set up and Representative John Evans bill is still lied up (or pigeonholed?) in the hands oflbe Public Works Committee, Write your Congressmen to work and vote in favor of this bill, also write your friends in other states to do the same, as we consider this a National af- fair and may have to be handled as such if the bill to establlsh __ _the poollsJurneddownin_Con" gress. Now is the time to act, send your letters airmail, as every taxpayer in the United Slates should be interested in this project, to which"'er a million dollars has been appropriated since 1948 for upkeep. salaries, etc.