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<br />2-07 House Committee Lay Over Unamended <br /> <br />Page 22 of 49 <br /> <br />So let me tell you what Denver has done to try to further this same <br />approach. We've been negotiating for -- personally I've made it <br />my objective to change the image and the approach of Denver <br />Water Department to people on the west slope. We've done a lot <br />of negotiations. <br /> <br />Most recently in the last three or four years, we've engaged in <br />something called the UPCO process, which is the Upper Colorado <br />River Assessment. We have made all of our data and our experts <br />available. We've worked with Summit County, Grand County, <br />Eagle County to try to help them figure out what their water <br />problems are. <br /> <br />Most recently within the last six months we have put on the table <br />in both Summit County and Grand County, effectively a cap on <br />how much water we will take from those basins. We will limit our <br />take to a celiain amount of water. That's an inter-basin concept, <br />but it doesn't apply to everybody in the South Platt basin. It's not <br />a cap on what a Front Range will take because I can't negotiate on <br />behalf of the Front Range. I can only negotiate on behalf of <br />Denver water. <br /> <br />We have said we'll take this amount of water, we'll do the <br />following things for you and what we expect in return is a high <br />degree of certainty and predictability about the vitality and <br />viability of our water rights. <br /> <br />We're trading our help and money and some of our water rights in <br />return for certainty what the exporting basin, that is either Summit <br />County or Grand County, are getting, our financial help, <br />operational help and certainty that this is all Denver will take. <br /> <br />We think the concept of doing that on a party by party basis is very <br />sound; less certain how you can do it on a basin by basin <br />arrangement. It's just hard to imagine yet anyway, at least in the <br />context is how do you set this up so a basin negotiates with another <br />basin and it becomes binding. It's very hard for me to figure out <br />how to do that. <br /> <br />On our part we are now negotiating with Summit and Grand <br />County only for our own water rights, but we will put a cap on <br />them. We will say this is what we'll take and this is how we'll do <br />it. <br /> <br />www.escriptionist.com <br /> <br />Page 22 of 49 <br />