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'" . . '< the understanding, the current practice should be thoroughly reviewee ane clearly understood. RLG believes that an impartial observation of the effect of the winter storage program will demonstrate that all the benefits ever envisioned for Narrows are or soon will be realized without one dollar of expense to the American ta~payers. The ditches and wells which effectuate this program are already in without expense to the federal government and must be maintained by irri- , gators at their own expense regardless of Narrows. Probably one of the reasons that no individual user has signed a subcontract to take Narrows water is because of the"high cost and because the users are already accomplishing what Narrows could accomplish with very little expense beyond the established cost to maintain their ditches. RLG water users are well aware of the fact that many thousands of acre feet of ground water storage in the Platte River Basin has been pumped to the point where there is 'a large underground basin available to store excess waters through extensions of existing ditch systems. The Basin Assessment will no doubt take this potential into consider~ ation. Junior in right to the Narrows decree, the Narrows" would tend .to impair the possibility of recharge which is expected to be reported upon in the current study. The irrigators expect this study to show.truly economical alter- natives to the Narrows which will take advantage of the now available unused ground water storage capacity. There is currently pending a law suit affecting some 90,000 acre feet of ~Iater, on the outcome of which ther~ will be a determination of whether or not Narrows is senior or junior to wells which have dates as early as 1940. This uncertainty does not exist with respect to additional projects which may be considered in the South Platte River study. . Any upstream water management program envisioned by the Basin Assessment probably would be precluded by the presence of Narrows. Substantial emphasis has been placed by some on saving for Colorado of water which runs out of the State to Nebraska, beyond Colorado's Compact commitments to Nebraska on the South Platte River. It is true that every year thousands of acre feet of water pass to Nebraska beyond what Colorado is committed to furnish. What seems to be overlooked is the fact that Colorado's Compact commitments are only between the months of April and October. RLG believes that the South Platte River Study will show that almost never does any Colorado. water in excess of the Compact requirement flow from Colorado to Nebraska during this period. The excess flows occur in the winter between October and April from ground water returns from summer irrigation. This -11-