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<br />State attorney general considers sUing U.S.
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<br />,Hopes to, stall Ariz,ona, water projeq,fjJn 'Colorlido}Rive,:
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<br />By RON TOLLEFSON '"r\~~ r: f Kansas soon may go to court over the now ',~~ Woodard and Lahlfn receoUy became eotangleq:1D
<br />TrlbuneSt.HWrl'er ,~f" . Arkansas River. ~ Denver's dally newspaper ".rover".-legal opinJqn
<br />Colorado Attorney General Duane Woodartt.:~ And the state already Is in court over southern ~D a sec~ of a bill to cure the $120 millIon stfe-
<br />without specifying a tLmetable, says he may sue the Coloradowaler wilhNavajos and Utes. budgetdeUclt., ''f' :' --~"'. ".1l'fI'>'!'.. ,j .,_~
<br />U.S. government soon. ,"':j'"r' . " Ex-Marine Woodard grinned and:recalled the Leglslaton last month finally aereed on budJet
<br />That lawsuit. he says might stall the 1985 start-up words of a MariDe leader In u,e-;~Korean War. cuts. borrowed from special funds and created SOlie
<br />of a Central Arizona ~ject on the lower Colorado Surrounded by Chinese forces, Woodard said, Cot. Dew taxes. to solve what. would have been in
<br />River that's Important to water-hungry Phoenll and "Chesty" Puller told correspondents: unconstitutional budget deficit, But the .lawmakers
<br />Tucson, and of keen interest to southern California. "Now I've got them where 1 want them." also wrote Into the bill a pcovLsloa to require that a
<br />The $2.4 billion, 4O-year Central Arizona Project. Colorado's disputes with Kansas, Woodard said., special legtslative committee oversee: use of !be
<br />by the end of this decade, reportedly could dellver lnvolve water storage questions over Trinidad money. ,d ~-~- ~{- ~'\; fl';'
<br />more than two million acre-leet 01 Colorado River Reservoir On the Purgatoire River, a tributary 01 the That. would have been .a. UDCOnstttutlonal I,Q_
<br />water to urban Arizona the bulk 01 that state'. Arkansas, and Pueblo Reservoir on the Arkansas. In .. trtngement on a governor's powers, [.amm believed.,
<br />Colorado compact allotme~t. both, Woodard saki. Kansas otnctals clalnl their In the legal opinion that Lamm requested. Wood~ Colorado Attorney General Duane Woodard
<br />"I believe the evidence is there to support a compact rights to flows of the Arkansas aren't being agreed - but also said that sectJon of the bUl COClld'i' .
<br />Colorado suit," Woodard said In a recent lntervlew. met. _ .. -;, be severed, with the funding'in tbebill rela1nedJlo wbet1 the Post editorial page praised him lor bfe I,
<br />The suU would challenge why Colorado dam projects Meanwhile, in southern Colorado, Woodard said, cure the deflcit. . _ r , .-' action. Tbe same day, that paper's bureau chlet'u
<br />have lailed to receive major lederal fundlng. Navajo and Ute tribal governments are_ suing The day belore Lamm signed the emergency bUl the Legislature, Carl Miller, charged Lamm anti
<br />Woodard said he continues to wonder why nearly Colorado in a Durango state water court over rights into law, Woodard said, somebody In UMl' governor's Woodard with playing "fast and loose with the law:'
<br />concurrent federal lundlng hasn't been met lor five tollie Animas, La Plala and Mancos rivers. office leaked part 01 his legal opinion to Tbe Denv,er in a column. .
<br />In-state, upper Colorado dam and water-management Republican W?Odard, in office about three months, Post. Woodard said when a Rocky Mountain Nen-~ Woodard's partitioned, doorless office is on the
<br />proposals. , is the first attorney general In decades not of the reporter later called him, all he could do was thtrd floor of the State Services Building north across
<br />Said Woodard, "There's been some lunding (or the . same party a.s the governor. A former Fort Collins confirm he'd given Lamm an opinion, which would Colin from the Capitol. Next to his entryway, a
<br />Oolores project, start.up lunding for Dallas Creek, no lawyer and former state senator from the remain confidential until Lamm acted. poster shows a waterlogged ape barely alloat In t~
<br />funding for Animas-La Plata - which would take Greeley.Fort CoUlns district, Woodard said be and The Post the next morning reported, based on Its ocean with the caption, "We're ail In this together."
<br />care of the Indian water claims - no lundIng lor San Democratic Gov. Rit:hardLamm get along well. leak, that Woodard had found the bill. to be He leads aslalfol9"J lawye~and65supportstaf(.
<br />~lIguel. and no funding for West Divide." But, he said. be intentionally avoids Lamm's unconstitutional, alter months 01 legislative eflort.! Woodard sald he believes the once-controverslaJ
<br />. cabinet meetings - so as not to be part of the on a workable compromise. But, Woodard said, that state Organized Crime Strike Force Is best left a part
<br />WOOdard considers bringing the suit against the decisions he may later have to rule on ill legal paper's Ie.-j apparently badn't noted that blS lepl 01 the Colorado Bureau 01 Investigation _ despite
<br />U.S. government "to sellle this question of the opinions. I oplnton also"sakI the unconstltutlonal part could be some legislators' objections. He sald~a..bUJ to
<br />federal government's obligation to fund our five And he criticized Lamm for "semi-public" dropped,andthebillwasslgnedlntolaw. properly do that leaves investigating powers to the
<br />Western Slope projects." breaklasts with legislative leaders at the Brown "Lamm was furious," Woodard saId. . CBI and. .trike force - but grants his olllce 'powers
<br />Th~ attorn~y general said, too, that Colorado and Palace Hotel that bend theSunsbine Law. The odd situation ended Marcb ZS, Woodard said. to prosecute Itr1ke force and state grand jury cases.
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