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<br />., <br /> <br />ul)3~..74 <br /> <br />maximize use consistent with environmental and power needs, within the limits <br />of protection to state entitlements afforded by the Law of the River. <br /> <br />. Colorado has a need and commitment to recover the Colorado River endangered <br />fish species. In order to accomplish that recovery, funding for the Recovery <br />Implementation Program should be made certain, and consultations by the Fish <br />and Wildlife Service should protect the existing yield of historic water projects <br />and the full development of Colorado's Compact entitlement consistent with the <br />Recovery Program. <br /> <br />. Colorado should undertake a program to manage habitat to prevent future listings <br />and habitat designations, and prevent takings. <br /> <br />. Colorado has need for additional incremental water development to meet <br />identified demands. <br /> <br />. In order to secure a source of funding for the Recovery Implementation Program, <br />and achieve a level of additional incremental and defined water development, <br />Colorado should be willing to consider the deauthorization of federally-authorized <br />but unbuilt Colorado projects, and should be willing to analyze the benefits of <br />renegotiating the apportionment formula in the Colorado River Storage Project <br />, Act of 1956. <br /> <br />The Changes in Western Water Policy <br /> <br />Change has come to Western water policy. That change brings both new threats and new <br />opportunities to water users. The yield of existing water projects has been reduced, and water <br />users and power customers have had to pay for that to happen. And yet, incredibly, Western <br />water users have, in large part, been non-participants in that change. Change has been dictated <br />from Washington, D.C., while those most heavily impacted have sat on the sidelines <br />complaining, or have opposed new proposals without trying to improve them or make them <br />compatible with the realities of water use in the West. Anyone who continues to deny these <br />changes should consider the following examples of how new policy has been, and will continue <br />to be, imposed: <br /> <br />. The nation faces a severe budget deficit. Although the exact method for deficit <br />reduction is unclear, two things are clear - (1) spending will be reduced, which <br />means that traditional methods of appropriation for large water project financing <br />are dead, and (2) Congress and the Administration will look to new sources of <br />revenue, and all users of natural resources will be required to start paying more <br />for the use of those resources. The prospect of surcharges on existing users of <br />natural resources, water users included, is a reality. In other words, nothing is <br />safe in the current budget crises. <br /> <br />2 <br />