Laserfiche WebLink
<br />doctrine; they believe that in most years there is enough water to be converted to <br />beneficial use by means of wells without having to shut down wells; the tributary <br />wells in existence pre-1974 be preserved in the first-in-time and first-in-right <br />doctrine; and the beneficial use of water should include increased storage, He <br />encouraged the Task Force to use the Colorado Farm Bureau as a resource. It <br />is the feeling of their members that if the State Engineer had the ability to <br />manage the resource, it would be accomplished in a more timely fashion versus <br />going through the courts, Potential legislation may result from their upcoming <br />summer annual meeting, <br /> <br />Joe Frank - Manger of the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District, he's <br />also a member of the South Platte Basin Roundtable <br />He's a firm believer of the priority system and believes that augmentation <br />is needed to protect the integrity of the priority system and water rights; need to <br />fix flaws in the system; have a system in place to get everyone together to <br />discuss issues, the applicants and objectors should sit down with mediators and <br />work out issues without involving attorneys; need more flexibility in the State <br />Engineer's Office to administer plans. There is a supply issue, too many are <br />competing for water in the South Platte and it's difficult for agricultural interests to <br />compete for water, Solutions: develop unappropriated water in the state; <br />additional storage and expansion; support existing projects (e.g" Windy Gap <br />Firming Project); more flexibility of using excess credits; use Modflow over <br />Glover; phreatophyte control; use center pivots versus flood irrigation, <br /> <br />Michael Shimmin - Representing the Bijou Irrigation Company (provided <br />material later bye-mail <br />http://www.aq.state.co.us/com m issioner/southplatte/biiou .pdf) <br />Bijou Irrigation is an agricultural irrigation system and serves about 25,000 <br />irrigated acres of farmland, They have direct flow rights, storage rights and <br />recharge water rights, and also have 200 wells that irrigate land under their <br />system, There are surface water users and well owners, and he was asked by <br />Bijou to encourage compromise and find a middle ground on these issues, Bijou <br />has a complicated system using various water rights; the current law is close to <br />where it needs to be for encouraging the development of augmentation plans <br />while protecting surface water rights, Whatever the rules are, everyone should <br />be living by the same rules, Bijou has a decreed augmentation plan to replace <br />out-of-priority depletions; the laws governing augmentation plans does a good <br />job of requiring junior wells to provide replacement water to protect senior <br />surface water rights, There should be more flexible water management. When <br />there is a shortage, water management does not work when it competes with the <br />priority system; current rules for augmentation plans only requires out-of-priority <br />depletions to be replaced; people need to develop recharge rights, put water into <br />storage and have that available to replace out-of-priority depletions on the days <br />that it occurs, He is opposed to paper-filling downstream reservoirs because it <br />injures senior storage water rights; cannot predict in advance if reservoirs will fill <br /> <br />- 2 - <br />