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<br />4-14 Senate Committee <br />Interviewer, Interviewee <br /> <br />Page 16 of 37 <br /> <br />Chairman: <br /> <br />Senator Isgar: <br /> <br />Chairman: <br /> <br />Peter Nichols: <br /> <br />Senator Isgar, any preferences in remaining witnesses? There are <br />none who have signed up against; there is one who is neutral. <br /> <br />No, I don't think it matters. Just go ahead and call them. <br /> <br />Okay. Peter Nichols. Mr. Nichols, welcome to the Senate <br />Agricultural and Natural Resources and Energy Committee. <br />Please state your name for the record and proceed. <br /> <br />Thank you, Senator. My name is Peter Nichols. I'm a water <br />attorney from Carpendale, and I'm here representing the Lower <br />Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District. <br /> <br />If! might, I'd like to offer a view from 30,000 feet briefly. I've <br />been picking at water issues since I was on the staff of the House <br />Ag. Committee early in my career, which I barely remember at this <br />point, but more intensely in the last six years, I'm the principal <br />author of a study on water and growth in Colorado. So, I think all <br />of you got a copy of by the Natural Resources Law Center <br />University of Colorado. <br /> <br />Probably none of you got the chance to read it, it doesn't really <br />matter. The remarkable thing about the studies that I've done in the <br />last six years is not really what they've showed, but the beaches <br />really haven't changed in 50 years. One could really take studies <br />from the 1950's, like the McNichol, studies from the 1960's, the <br />John Carlson Studies, studies from the 1970's, done by DNR. <br />Update the language, and these would show no significant, <br />noticeable changes and issues in Colorado. So what? <br />Well, I think the "so what?" is we haven't really gained any <br />ground on many of the fi.Jl1damental water issues in Colorado in 50 <br />years. There have been, as you know, countless legislative <br />proposals to solve Colorado's water needs. There have been many <br />referred to the initiated majors as well; none really have passed, <br />but why is that? <br /> <br />My own view is that probably it is because they've been only <br />piecemeal. They solve one group's problems or issues at the <br />expense of another's. I think it is time to try a new approach. <br />Privately, every water professional I've talked to in the past five <br />years and I've talked to probably like 90 people for that study, <br />agrees that we need to find a way to mentally change the way we <br />approach water issues in the state of Colorado. <br /> <br />www.escriptionist.com <br /> <br />Page 16 of 37 <br />