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compensatory storage reservoir which provided water for existing and future Western Slope growth and development. In December 1941 the construction of Lake Granby began. The lake stores water for diversion to the Eastern Slope. It collects water from the Colorado River and its tributaries and saves it for pumping into Shadow Mountain and eventually into Grand Lake. From Grand Lake the water flows into the Adams Tunnel. A rock fill embankment, the East Portal Dam creates a pond for the regulation of outflow from the Adams Tunnel and provides a head works for the Aspen Creek Siphon which delivers water to Mary’s Lake. The CBT project resulted in 13 dams and 10 reservoirs being constructed which includes Carter Lake Reservoir and Horsetooth Reservoir. Power generation supplies an additional 18 pumping plants and 11 power plants. Other parts of the South Platte River system also looked to the west as a source of water supply. In this case the water user was primarily the Denver Water Board. The first of the diversion system they pursued was from the Williams Fork and Fraser River basins. The Denver Water Board began construction of its northern collection system in the 1930’s. The Gumlick and Vasquez tunnels deliver water from the Williams Fork Basin. They also constructed a 27 mile collection system involving open and buried closed conduit system to collect runoff to the Fraser River system. The water is delivered to the Moffat Tunnel which was originally constructed as a first bore to aid in construction of the tunnel for trains crossing the continental divide. The delivered through the Moffat tunnel is delivered to South Boulder Creek and Gross Reservoir. From Gross Reservoir it is tunneled to Ralston Creek and Ultimately to Ralston Reservoir to meet the needs of Northern portion of the City of Denver. As compensation to west slope water users Williams Fork Reservoir was constructed to meet downstream senior water rights requirements. It also provides replacement energy when Denver is diverting water upstream that impacts Green Mountain Reservoirs power generation capabilities. Denver completed the 23.3 mile long Roberts Tunnel in 1962 which delivers water from Dillon Reservoir to the North Fork of the South Platte River. Roberts Tunnel was under construction 16 years and is the world’s longest major underground water tunnel, it is nearly as long as the Chunnel under the English Tunnel. Completed in 1959, the Williams Fork Dam & Power Plant was constructed to send water and electricity to the Western Slope as compensation when Denver diverts water for use on the east slope. Early Water Commissioner History The first Colorado law that provided for the regulation of streams was enacted by the first Territorial legislature in 1861. They enacted a statute that provided: That in case the volume of water in said stream or river shall not be sufficient to supply the continual wants of the entire country through which it passes, then the nearest justice of the peace shall appoint three commissioners...whose duty it shall be to apportion, in a just and equitable proportion, a certain amount of said water upon certain or alternate weekly days to different localities, as they may, in their judgment, think best for the interests of all parties concerned, and with a due regard to the legal rights of all..." However, the earliest pioneer irrigators had little need for a law of this character. At that time ditches were small and the water in the rivers was sufficient to meet their needs. By 1876 when the Colorado constitutional convention was held its delegates were aware of the need to resolve existing and potential disputes among irrigators. It was not a question of what doctrine was to be used but of how the doctrine was to be administered. Actually the clauses in the State Constitution did little more