2-07 House Committee Lay Over Unamended

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2-07 House Committee Lay Over Unamended Page 15 of 49 studies from the 50s, the 60s, the 70s. I could've merely just updated the language and republished them and nobody would know any different. So what? Well I think so what is we haven't gained much. We haven't made too much progress on some of the fundamental water issues that have faced the state of Colorado since it started growing very rapidly in the 1950s. As you know first hand there have been countless legislative proposals to "solve Colorado's water needs." There have been many referred and initiated measures as well. None of them have really passed. Why is this? Well my personal view is is because they've been piece mealed. They've solved one group's problems and issues at the expense of another or proposed to solve one group's problems and issues at the expense of another. I think it's time to try a new approach. Privately every water professional I've talked to in the past five years agree that we fundamentally need to change the way we approach water issues in the state of Colorado. A model we have not tried for some reason is one Colorado initiated; the one that Russ George just talked about and that is a model that worked very successfully to solve some very imminent and very serious interstate water wars at the beginning of the last century. The Colorado River was not over-appropriated when the compact was negotiated in 1922, many of the other rivers in which we entered a compacts were. The fact that this state is over- appropriated in many basins is not a reason why this can't work here now. This is a very difficult challenge. There's lots of reasons it won't be successful. I'm sure you're going to hear many of them today. I'm sure you've probably all heard many of them already. There are very different interests involved in the water rights in the state of Colorado and everybody wants to protect theirs. There are geographic differences. There are economic differences. There are piece meal needs. There are urban needs, mral needs, ag needs, environmental needs. Many of these have been addressed in the past; many of them have not. There's lots of reasons why we must be successful at this. We live in an aired state. Growth continues; it will continue. The urban front range demands will grow. They will need more water. www.escriptionist.com Page 15 of 49