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Show ( SIERRA CLUB LEGAL DEFENSE FUND, INC. by Ansel Adams in This is the American Earth JAMES W. MOORMAN Executive Director BARRY A. FISHER JOHN D. HOFFMAN LAURENS H. SILVER Staff Attorneys, San Francisco H. ANTHONY RUCKEL Staff Attorney, Denver November 26, 1973 Mr. John D. Leshy Natural Resources Defense Council Palo Alto Office 664 Hamilton Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94301 Re: Central Utah Project Dear John: I received your letter and attachments. The arrangement you suggest is certainly satisfactory to us, and we would welcome very much your participation and the excellent research, writing, etc., we know that you habitually do. Secretary Morton, in view of the considerable flak he received from the Sierra Club and the Forest Service, decided to recommend construction of only what would appear to be a very small portion of the project. He announced that construction bids would be sought for the Currant Creek Dam, that the Bureau still maintained commitment to the Central Utah Project, and that the Department was meeting with the Indians to ascertain how the Indians could be furnished water at an earlier date than generally contemplated in the Indian Deferral Agreement of 1965. What all this means is that the lower echelon levels of the Department of Interior, apparently the Office of Management and Budget, etc., oppose continuation of the Central Utah Project as currently conceived, yet the political appeals of particularly Senator Bennett to the White House and to Secretary Morton overcame everything else. Morton, seeking the best path he could find, decided that construction should proceed on the Currant Creek Dam. By itself, Currant Creek Dam is indeed destructive; however, it pales to insignificance when one looks at the rest of the Central Utah Project. Nevertheless, this relatively small part of the project San Francisco: 3 11 California Street, Suite 311, 94104; Telephone (415) 398-1411 Denver: 508 Majestic Bldg., 209 16th Street, 80202; Telephone (303) 892-6301 |
