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New Concern Over CUP

Click to see original imageCentral Utah Project, the state’s No. I water development program, has encountered many pro lerns through the years, most of them involving the federal government or national issues. – But now the vital billion-dollar project faces a new test in a dispjute with Utahns – Indians of the lntah and Ouray Reservation over the Ute Compact – a proposed agreement aimed at settling a dispute over Indian rights to water, hunting and fishing, and taxes on 4.2 million acres in eastern Utah. The CUP, in the past, has encountered niggardly federal allocations in some years, delays caused by the national environmental movement, and opposition by the Carter Admlnistration. The state’s congressional delegation, with good support by a Congress generally aware that water ls the lIfe blood of the arid West, salvaged funding after a Carter veto of the public works blll last year. But now the issue with the Ute Tribal Council. Negotiations with the state on the compact fell apart Thursday, during the hectic last day of the Utah legislative session, after compromises were reached on every issue except one – the lndlan hunting rights. Gov. Scott Matheson has urged the Utes to come back to the bargaining table, promising a special session of the Legislature i a compromise compact can be worked out. But the Ute committee has renewed its threat to pull out of agreements to make Indian water available to the CUP – including the Bonneville Unit which is designed to bring Uintah Basin water to the Folpu ation centers in Utah and Sa t ake counties. It is understood a third of the water for the Bonneville Unit would come from Indian lands in exchange for water from other segments of the project which have not yet been built. Water for the Uintah, Upalco, and Ute Indian units would come mostly from the tribal lands. The govemor says he doesn’t think “the Ute Tribe controls the future of the CUP. We have invited the trlbe several times to go to court on these issues.” Rep. Gunn McKay is deeply concerned with the state of affairs. He had warned Utah legislators last Wednesday at the CUP could be in trouble if the Utes withdrew their su port because some people in the (garter Administration are anxious to flnd a reason to kill it. The roject – after being supported gy five federal administrations – has been on the Carter hit list the past two years. As this was written, the Tribal Council was sticking with its guns as it looked to Washington. The Indian delegates were expecting, in meetings with administration offlclals and members of the Utah delegation, to stress the tribe’s decision to cancel the agreement. 1% is hoped that all concerned wil recognize the gravity of the situation, including the vital necessity of long-range goals yet to be achievedin the C P; and that calm judgment may prevail on all sides in ironing out the dIfflcultles in a fair and just manner so that the threat to the project imay be quickly removed. So They Say ‘”l’hey’re stogy and they’re not flexible. I’m in the process of changing banks.” – George Kllllck, who returned $75,000 mistakenly credited to his Wee Haul Co. account by the Republic Natlonal Bank of Dallas. It happened a few days after Killlck had been tumed down for a loan. “The most powerful force loose in the world is not communist ideology. The most powerful force loose in the world is the idea that all people are somebody.” – Andrew Young, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, asserting the origins of Iran’s revolution parallel Amerlca’s clvll rlgbts movement. “It’s just the most fun in the whole-world. You just jump in there and you’re in hog heaven.” – Sam Lewis, a novelty promoter who became sponsor of an Osona, Texas, event bllled as the reglon’s first organised mud waller-ln – for scores of chlll buffs at a “sanctloned” cook-off.