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Show fjtizens for a Responsible Central Utah Project 727 6th Avenue, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84103 Board of Directors Dorothy Harvey, co-chairperson Fred Reimherr, co-chairperson Beth Duncan David Freed Karl Heidenreich Peter Hovingh David Littlefield Dave McCormick Barbara Polich lames Talley Hartt Wixom Supporting Organizations • Utah Council, Trout Unlimited •Rocky Mountian Council of the Federation of Fly Fishermen • Utah Member Clubs of the Federation of Fly Fishermen • Stonefly Society of the Wastach Salt Lake City, Utah •Order of the Royal Coachman Pleasant C.rove Utah • Utah Audubon 1445 N. 10 St. Manitowoc, Wisconsin 54220 March 5, 1979 Oliver Houck National Wildlife Rederation 1412 16th St., N.W. Washington, D.C, 20036 Dear Mr. Houck: Enclosed is a follow-up letter I wrote Guy Martin subsequent to ameetng held on Feb. 23 in Salt Lake City between CRCUP and Sierra Club members and the Bureau of Reclamation. We were not ever able to get written answers to our cost questionnaire on the Bonneville Unit from the Bureau and ultimately my Co-Chairmen in Utah agreed to a meeting with the Bureau to discuss questions and issues raised. 1_ would have held out indefinitely, and I have the feeling now that my CRCUP group may have lost the political capital we had in holding out. We shall see. There are issues being raised by changes in plan and purpose of the Bonneville Unit and I'm in the process of writing Senator Jackson and Congressman Kastenmeir ( Wisconsin) to inquire what basis now exists for considering re-authorization of the Project. As you can see from the newspaper article about the proposed "Compact" between the State, the Ute Indians, the Department of Interior - to authorize CUP under the guise of resolving the Ute Indian issue - the water developers are really aware that they are on shakey grounds on these changes as well as having exceeded the authorized project cost, supposedly by 1/4 million dollars. (I have not been able to get this information from OMB.) Congressional authorization could override re-authorization issues, provide for total project funding and increased manpower needs, and,as will be used by Utah developers, override most of the existing environmental legislation standing in the way of Utah's development. In addition, I am sending you background information on the sale of 40,000 a f of water by farmers in the Delta, Utah, area, to Intermountain Power Project at $1,750 per acre foot. State Senator Waddingham and his partners negotiating this over $70,000,000 constraet, will realize some $5,000,000. Gerry Kinghorn, Water Quality Dept, Salt Lake City, supplied the Information on Utah law re * the contract negotiation and the accompanying letter. However, he must be protected as the information source. He has written the letter to Harris Arth&r, Lands and Water Resources, Interior, at Harris' house, for Harris to contact a friend in the Justice Dep't. Brent had said he would contact the Justice Dep't before this other development came up. Apart from the issue of the legality of this transaction, the CUP issue involved is the fact that the |
