2-07 House Committee Lay Over Unamended

• Title: 2-07 House Committee Lay Over Unamended
• IBCC - Doc Type: Legislation

2-07 House Committee Lay Over Unamended

Page 16 of 49

Madam Chair:

Mr. Treat:

Ifwe can't figure out how to work together to meet the needs of
the entire state, we will continue to fight and to litigate and to
legislate. The weakest parts of the state may well become
sacrificed areas to support the urban growth of the urban Front
Range.

Nothing else we've tried to do has succeeded. There's little reason
to believe that all of a sudden we will succeed at any of the
legislation we've been trying to pass for the last 25 or 30 years.
_ a camp to directly confront issues between the basins; issues
that the legislators spent a lot of time trying to deal with, trying to
address piece meal and tried to address indirectly.

In fact we just had a good example of that in the previous bill.
Nobody mentioned that that bill was really about stopping trans-
basin diversions, but everybody in this room knows that it was.
Why not just sit down, negotiate, face this stuff head on and try to
figure out a solution that will work for everyone in the state of
Colorado.

The Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District supports
the bill in concept. As you know, as Russ George just mentioned,
as Representative Penry has mentioned, this is a framework, it's a
starting process. There needs to be amendments probably. There
needs to be refinement, but it's a concept that really has a lot of
merit. We urge the committee's support. I'd be happy to answer
any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Nichols. Chris Treat. Come back up and join us
agall1.

Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee. I'm
actually here representing the same person I was before, the
Colorado River Water Conservation District, but also the statewide
Colorado Water Congress. You've heard from Mr. Simms during
the last bill, the background of the water congress. I won't belabor
that, but I will tell you we are both organizations in support in
concept of this bill.

We support both the basic concepts and the ambitious goals of
1177. Both groups appreciate both the creativity and the difficulty
associated with the ideas inherent in this proposal.

We applaud Representative Penry and Director George from taking
on what everyone knows to be a long-term and a difficult task.

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