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Show Water Meeting ' Held at State Capital Building The general committee for the M.i:u'.no.n-oonoM resetvo.r pto-i pto-i jeel requested this week al u meeting Salt Lake City that ' i ;1U Carbon county delegation ;ve the.r answer as to participation participa-tion ut t project, u possioie. at a miviiiis ot tho committee i called ior Tuesday, January 7, a; 10 a. n. I The eommittiv, composed of ! representatives from Carbon, Emery and Sanpete counties and members of the state water storage stor-age commission and state depart- meats, met Friday at the state c.ipnol to iron out details preu-ni'iury preu-ni'iury to tho approval of the project. They hit a snag when k j members from Carbon county ob jected to certain phases of tne general plan. Fred V. , Keller, attorney for .. I the Carbon county interests, told the meeting the Scofield users ' had not been allowed enough ' ' acreage of arable land under me ' U. S. Bureau of Keclamauon plan, and that "double ditch" rights ot primary- users had not been considered. Fear was expressed that water belonging to Carbon - county would be diverted for use , in Sanpete county if the present plans are carried out and the Mammoth dam rather then the i Gooseberry is constructed. The "double ditchers," it was explained, have been given the ngat in high water season to pour the water onto the land up to twice the amount they would ordinarily use m order to store it m the land. This practice is not considered beneficial use by ' the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation. Dr. John A. V idstoe. committee com-mittee chairman and member ot L-.e water storage commission, sa.d the answer concerning Sco-iieid Sco-iieid must be forthcom.ng if money is secured from the $3,500,000 allocated under the I Case-Wheeler act lor smad reser- V0.TS. In explaining the bureau's stand. E. G. Nielsen, engineer m charge of Utah investigations, said: "We simply present a proposal pro-posal by whicn we believe you , can buiid a dam. I; is your pri-. pri-. valege to build it under this plan or by any other method you choose." Mr. Nielsen said the bureau, in making its report, had recognized 12.500 acres of araoie iand under tr.e Pr.ce project. We cannot go 1 teyond that, ne sa.d. because tr.e bureau wdi not recommend projects pro-jects for lands where people cannot can-not make a living. W. C. Crump, ueputy state fish ar.d game commiss.oner, reported' at the meet.r.g mat tne Utan Wild! Life :eaera;.on has passed a resolution reso-lution askj.g tne f.sn and game Qepartraent oe granted author. ty to part.c.pate in reservoir projects pro-jects ior purposes of f.sh culture. CarDon county sportsmen urged participation at Scofieid to me tx.ent of oOOO acre leet, he said. Opposition to S'jch a plan was j expressed by some of tne irri- gators who asked if the department depart-ment would be satisfied with cOai acre teet of dead storage during dry years, Mr. Crump said he could not answer for the department, but in conference following the meeting Neweil B. Cook, department commissioner, stated the sportsmen's position. "If we participate in tne cost of this project we must be guaranteed guaran-teed enough water to perpetuate fish life," he said. "Our fish experts ex-perts tell us it will require 3000 acre feet in Scofield reservoir to do this. However, if such participation partici-pation is believed undesirable the fish and game department will withdraw, although the project pro-ject is an attractive one for the sportsmen. Fish and game participation m the project is figured to cost approximately ap-proximately 831,000. Cost to the water users is figured at $70,000, after benefits from the Case-Wheeler Case-Wheeler small reservoir act and the federal flood contol act, together to-gether with the fish and game participation are subtracted. The net cost of the dam is to be re-i re-i Paid to the government in 40 equal installments without interest. in-terest. J. Stewart McMaster, assist-i assist-i ant district counsel for the bureau of reclamation, discussed proposed pro-posed legislation at the meeting ( which would make it possible for the Carbon county interests to finance their part of the costs of construction. |