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., Wednesday, November 17, 1976 The Dally Senllnel, Grand Junction, Colorado-PIge 31 Dg lias Creek proiect officially endorsed ,. i MONTROSE - The Dallas Creek project was officially en- dorsed Tuesday by the six-county Region 10 Planning Commission. The group also .gave conditional approval to the Fruitland Mesa Project and. expressed reserva- tions about proposed new water quality standards for the state. The Dallas Creek Project as now proposed - a single, 80.000 acre-foot reservoir at Ridgway- 'was unanimously endorsed by the commission. The project had ten- tative endorsement before in the form of a resolution sanctioning abandonment of Denver & Rio Grande railroad lines in the Rid- gway area, conditional upon ap- proval of the Dallas project. Rail relocation Relocation of the rail lines was estimated to cost $90 million, doubling the original estimated cost of the project and making it economically unfeasible. Aban- donment has been approved, ef- fective Nov. 29. There was some initial reserva-, tion over endorsing Dallas, which was originally proposed as hav. ing three reservoirs including one of 125,000 acre-feet at Rid- gway, and a series of pipelines, canals and pumping stations. It was feIt that the cost did not justify the benefit, that too much land would be taken off tax rolis, and ranching in the area would be severely curtailed. There were also fears heavy industry, sucb as a once-proposed coal power plant, would have to be allowed ".1. , ~; .' c. into the area to help amortize the' cost. As now proposed and tentati- vely funded by Congress, Dallas Creek is a $50 million project to begin next year. The water is allo- cated to communities as far away as Delta, 45 miles downstream, and for irrigation. Other water projects Tentative approval was given to the draft environmental impact statement on the proposed Fruit- land Mesa project near Crawford. I However, there were some reser- vations about the costs and whether geology in the area would permit economical driving of necessary tunnels. There was no comment on the statement plans to spend $950,000 to buy winter range for a claimed 600 head of deer that might be dis- placed by the Goodwin Reservoir, nor on Gov. Richard Lamm's request to spend $4 million on range for the deer. Nominating and goals and means committees were ap- pointed by Chairman Tillmon Reed. Elections and a vote on goals are set for a general memo bership meeting Jan. 18. Nominations for officers are to be submitt,ed by George Means, Gunnison County commissioner; John Hawkins, Delta commis- sioner; and Del Kinkel, Montrose councilman. The goals committee is comprised of Ouray Commis- sioner Warren Comerer, Mon- trose Commissioner John Kramer, Crested Butte Mayor Tom Glass, Cedaredge Mayor Ed Marah and Nucla Mayor John deKoevand.