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<br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />'. <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />23 <br /> <br />from 275,000 to 500,000 "within the span of the present generation." R. I. <br />Meeker, Special Deputy State Engineer, testified that there was no more water <br />available from the South Platte River and that the only available supplies for <br />Denver would have to come to the East Slope by way of tunnels near the <br />headwaters of the Fraser, Blue, and Williams Fork rivers.54 He assured West <br />Slope representatives, as well as Lower Basin commissioners in attendance, <br />that a study of possible diversions from the Colorado River basin to the East <br />Slope indicated a feasibility of "less than 500,000 acre-feet per year, about 5% <br />of the unused waters of the Western Slope and 3% of lower river flow at <br />Yuma.,,55 Because of the pyramid shape of mountains along the Continental <br />Divide, the East Slope would be limited to the amount of water that could be <br />brought through tunnels at an altitude of 9000 feet or higher. Any lower than <br />that and tunnel length would increase exponentially. For this reason, Meeker <br />was comfortable forecasting a maximum transmountain diversion offrom <br />500,000 to 600,000 acre-feet from the Colorado River for domestic and <br />agricultural uses on the East Slope.56 <br />Carpenter agreed, although he saw "remarkable progress" being made <br />in tunnel construction which would make feasible projects which seemed idle <br />dreams a few years earlier. He noted that the Southern California Edison <br />Company had built a fourteen-mile tunnel "with a bigger bore than the <br />Laramie-Poudre Tunnel" to divert water for power purposes alone. He <br />predicted similar developments in northern Colorado, thus anticipating the <br />Colorado - Big Thompson Project of the 1930s.57 Although estimates of <br />transmountain diversion capability varied from A. P. Davis' 255,000 acre-feet <br />given in 1920 to Carpenter's 600,000 acre-feet in 1923/8 Upper Basin <br />representatives remained convinced that Colorado's transmountain diversion <br />possibilities were limited by nature. The Lower Basin really did not have to <br />