2-07 House Committee Lay Over Unamended

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2-07 House Committee Lay Over Unamended Page 9 of 49 the Continental Divide, inter-basin wherever you look. What also was becoming clear to me was that increasingly what happens in one basin affects other basins. Maybe its always been that way, but there's something about today and the times we're in and the magnitude of the demands and the stresses on the supplies that makes this time, while similar to other important times in Colorado's past, makes this time maybe more dramatic, more serious and therefore, the need for solutions more timely than at any point in history. So what the long and the short of this is that it seems to me we always do ourselves a favor when we look back in time, look at the folks who came before us and see how it was that they could rise to the challenge of their times and what that teaches us for us to try to solve ours. This guy is my hero. I thought he was for years. Now I know why. He had a way about him that said in effect, "Colorado will be best served as the head water state of the Colorado River basin if it will come to the table and invite the other states to the table and in the first instance bring two things. First of all, put aside the belief that you have to fight in order to come to solution, that there is value in negotiation." His point being if you're negotiating, you will have something to say about the final conclusion. If you litigate, you have less control and less ability to dictate that solution. Then he said, "When you come to the table, of course do it in good faith and goodwill and then bring two pieces for discussion. What it is you want out of that negotiation and what it is you're willing to give in order to get what you want." He was able by his kindly nature and his legal knowledge to bring those other states together and hold them together in goodwill, in good faith with those principles on the table. Eventually these seven states pulled together what probably in those days people said could not have been done. But it was done as we know and maybe more importantly we know that it has withstood the test of time. The Colorado River compact probably is as valuable as solid, as correct today as a matter of law as it was then. Now, some things have changed. It seems to me those negotiators could foresee the future better than they should have, but they saw much that was correct. If they failed in anything it was that the data was incomplete, but this always happens. Our technological age teaches us how to build data better than they did then. Carpenter www.escriptionist.com Page 9 of 49