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C. r" ~ "j i' '...' -I' ' ..J .~ Governor Love at the hearing favored the Forest Service proposal, but suggested that the South Fork of the Whi-te River be excluded until water resources studies and evaluations were further advanced. Individual testimony indicated that 59 percent favored the casc proposal and 28 percent favored the Forest Service proposal, while testimony from groups indicated that 46 percent favored the Forest Service proposal and 42 percent favored casc's. All federal and other agencies favored the Forest Service proposal, except the Bureau of Recla- mation which indicated that additional water resource studies were needed in the South Fork area. The boundaries of S. 702 are apparently a compromise to include the Forest Service's original proposal as well as most of the areas pro- posed by casc. The casc proposal included those areas recommended by the Colorado Game, Fish and Parks commission. The Trout-~mndall Creek area and the Patterson Cre~, area proposed by casc were not included. Both the Rocky Mountain Power Company and the Colorado River Water Conservation District are interested in the South Fork of the White River for construction of hydroelectric facilities. Their proj- ects are known as the ,Sweetwater Project and the Flat Tops Project for ffi4PC and CRWCD, respectively. The CRWCD has been granted a power permit by the Federal Power Commission. The Sweetwater Project sponsored by ffi,IPC is a vast pumped storage hydroelectric concept that includes a main storage reservoir of 133,000 acre-feet in the Meadows of the South Fork of the White River and another large reservoir downstream from the confluence of Lost Solar Creek of 100,000 acre-feet called the Lost Solar Reservoir. Water would be released to the White River from the Meadows Reservoir and consider- able water would be diverted to the Colorado River via the Plateau Tunnel. The total system represents a maximum peaking capability in any one cycle or 150,000,000 kilowatt hours. Appropriation date for the Sweetwater Project is December 18, 1957, of some 100,000 acre-feet. The FPC issued Opinion No. 514 on February 16, 1967, dismissing the license application of the RMPC. The grounds were that ffi1PC had not made a sufficient showing of a market for power and the ability of the ffi-lPC to finance the project. RNPC planned to market the power to buyers in Nebraska and Kansas through the Mountain-Midwest Power Pool, a con- sortium of power companies including Rocky Mountain Power. In effect, then, the Colorado River Water Conservation District has an FPC permit, but Rocky Mountain Power Company has the water rights. Memorandum -3- July 5, 1973