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

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the position of crafting the contents of compacts between basins.
Instead this bill is an effort on the part of the General Assembly, if
it chooses to enact it, to create the mechanisms and the legal
infrastmcture for basins to reach out to one another and answer
those questions for themselves.

That explanation of sort of the process in the bill and what the bill
is, I want to briefly explain what the bill is not and what it will not
do. There are a handful of them and I think it's very important in
terms of issues that have been raised in the course of the
conversations of the last few weeks.

This bill will not force, of course, the modification or alteration of
prior rights under our prior appropriations systems. I had this
conversation with Representative Rose today. Individuals and
water providers will not have to gain the approval of this process in
order to sell existing rights or acquire new ones.

This bill will not impair, amend or otherwise affect valid existing
water rights or the contracts _ use and other agreements that
govern the movement and use of those valid existing rights. In
collaboration with a number of folks in the water community, once
we get to the amendment stage we're going to offer some language
that would reinforce that important protection.

Next, this bill does not and will not coerce any basin roundtables to
negotiate or sign away perspective rights or opportunities. The bill
is clear that this negotiation process is voluntary, but the hope of
the authors, and I' lllet the speakers speak for himself, the hope is
that if we strike the right balance in this bill, this process will be
eagerly sought out by folks in the water community and other folks
interested in the appropriation of waters because it works and
because it's a mechanism to actually get things done; a way out of
the stalemate if you will.

Additionally this bill does not and will not exclude any of the key
stakeholders from having a seat at this important table. Madam
Chair, I know this is an issue we've explored at great length.
Ultimately for these compacts and agreements to have real
credibility, the people who negotiate them have to represent sort of
the broad array of stakeholders. This is one of the issues that
we've heard a lot of feedback from the water community on and
it's an issue that we're prepared to work very hard in the
amendment stage of this phase to make sure that people are
sufficiently comfortable that they will have a meaningful seat at
the table as this important dialogue goes forward.

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