WSP04994

• File Number: 8221.110.J
• Description: Juniper-Cross Mountain Project
• State: CO
• Basin: Yampa/White
• Date: 7/6/1981
• Title: The Echo of Echo Park: The History of National Park Development and Water Resource Nondevelopment in Northwest Colorado
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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to the people must be kept." (22)

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Keith Barnes, president of the Utah wildlife Federation, under
the organization's letterhead, (undated) denounced the opposition
to the Echo Park project and detailed the "facts" behind the power
withdrawal controversy and concluded: "...Factually, the...bounda-
ries when they were extended in 1938, were extended either (a)
subject to prior rights for power and reclamation or (b) the monu-
ment boundaries invaded power and reclamation withdrawals." (23)

J. Perry Egan, director of the Utah Department of Fish and
Game, rebutted Echo Park foes with this statement on May 2, 1955:
"Senator Watkins proved conclusively that power site withdrawals,
specifically covering Echo Park and split Mountain dam sites, were
in effect when the Dinosaur Monument was enlarged. They still are
valid today, under a ruling as recent as March 16, 1955." (24)

National Park Service Director Newton B. Drury in a letter
dated May 2, 1946 stated in part: "Dinosaur is one of the few
areas in the system established subject to a reclamation withdrawal
and this may have some bearing on the proposed Echo Park project." (25)

But, Conrad L. Wirth, director of the National Park Service,
in a letter dated June 23, 1952, sought to refute "commitments al-
leged to have been made by representatives of this Service...Enough
information, however, is at hand to convince me that Mr. Madsen's
recollection of our policy is not correct...." (26)

David R. Brower of the Sierra Club hit Utah Senator Watkins'
"assertions that valid power and reclamation filings still exist
in Dinosaur National Monument, including Echo Park dam." He said,
"'President Roosevelt's proclamation enlarging Dinosaur National
Monument disposed of all such claims...'" (27) and Brower was joined
by several other Echo Park project opponents in that claim. (28, 29,
30 and 31)

ECHO

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Just as they lined up to attack the projects themselves and
refute proclamation interpretations, foes of Split Mountain and
Echo Park lined up to attack the power value of the projects.

In something of a reversal from positions taken today by the
same or similar groups, project opponents cited coal, oil shale and
atomic power as the sources of the future and generally maligned the
value and cost of hydro power.

"with the coming of atomic power who would buy high-priced
power from the dam?" asked Floyd Camp, president of the Colorado
Citizen's Committee fighting the dam. (32)

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