WSP08363

• File Number: 8240.200.30.C
• Description: UCRBRIP Conditional Water Rights
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 6/1/1987
• Author: The Nature Conservan
• Title: Converting Conditional Water Rights to Instream Flow Protection: A Property Transfer Strategy
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

the ROMPOcO project and part of one
reservoir site were included in the
Flattops Wilderness Area;
The wilderness designation greatly
reduced the feasibility of
developing the ROM POCO project as
originally proposed and decreed.
An unprecedented exemption from the
President was now required to
develop the project and the
prospects for securing federal land
use permits became quite dim.
2) The conditional water rights were
nonetheless purchased by an oil
shale company who sought to change
their points of diversion from the
wilderness headwaters to a pumping
pipeline 87 miles downstream near
the energy rich piceance Basin.
3) This change of water rights was
resisted on the grounds that the
contemplated draft of the ROMPOcO
project was effectively reduced to
zero by the wilderness designation
and that the requested change of
water rights was so fundamental

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