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 17 of 49

Madam Chair:

Mr. Treat:

Some of the things that we support are an alternative approach to
our current situation; the tensions, the conflicts. Whether those are
tensions and conflicts between ag and urban, between east and
west, between surface and ground water, between water quality
and water quantity, this is an alternative approach to resolve some
or all of those issues.

We support the direct basin to basin negotiations represented by
this bill. We support a locally driven, locally supported process
that has as an assurance a local approval component at the back
end of whatever comes out of it. We appreciate and support the
voluntary aspect of the participation in the entire process. That
said, we have many concerns.

Without elaborating on any of those, I will tell you that there are
lots of concerns. Within the Water Congress, there are lots of
concerns within my board and throughout my district. This bill in
all the discussions I've had, come down to whether people choose
to focus on the risks or the opportunities represented by this
process.

I would ask this committee to focus on the opportunities
represented by this process, represented by this proposal to keep
this idea alive in whatever form the committee sees fit so that there
can be an alternative to our current conflicts or at least a process
that provides hope for resolution of those conflicts.

Mr. Treat, I don't need to tell you that your organization's done
some really innovative work and you've coordinated and
cooperated with Front Range entities and tried to find solutions.
Do you believe this bill is needed or do we already have the tools
in the toolbox to create those kinds of agreements and to move
forward like we have on the South Metro effoli and the work that
the Colorado River District has done in the past?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the compliments to my
organization.

I don't know that it's necessary, but if it weren't important, we
might have a lot more solutions already. We have come up with
some alternatives, some compromises, some meeting of the minds
across those historic conflicts as you've referenced, but we haven't
done it all over. Not every group and every party represented by
the many conflicts out there have succeeded. I think this is an
alternative worth exploring.

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