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Alex, <br />I have been out of town but would like to suggest some recommendations to you that <br />hopefully you will be able to incorporate into the Monday afternoon discussions. <br />Recommendation No. 1 <br />Expand the State Engineer's authority to prom ulgate basin rules for the administration of <br />water rights including ground water rights. This modification to CRS, 37-92-501 would <br />allow the State Engineer to approve for a pe riod of up to five years annual replacement <br />plans for various entities seeking to operate in accordance with the rules while the entity <br />was developing the final detail s of a plan for augmentation to be filed with the Water <br />Court at the end or during the five year pe riod after the rules became final for a river <br />basin. The rules for the Arkansas River basi n give the State Engin eer the authority to <br />annually approve a replacement plan but the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that such <br />Bijou v. <br />authority does not currently exist in st ate statutes elsewhere in the state in <br />Simpson. <br />The State Engineer will potentially be promulgating rules for the use of <br />ground water in the following river basins: <br /> 1. Republican River <br /> 2. Rio Grande <br /> 3. Gunnison River <br /> 4. Colorado River <br /> 5. South Platte River <br />The addition of this flexibility will allow the water users impacted by the rules reasonable <br />time to develop plans for augmentation that comply with the rules but may allow some <br />start up time if allowed by the rules. I di d this with the 1996 Arkansas River basin use <br />rules by allowing a year of reduced replacement with full replacement in year 2. These <br />rules also did not require replacement of depletions from pumping prior to 1996 since <br />pumping before 1996 was legal so it was difficult to just ify requiring replacement of <br />depletions from pumping prior to the first year that the rules went into effect. It is <br />my opinion that the same argument holds for the 1974 South Platte rules and any <br />pumping prior to this date was legal and therefore, depletions do not have to be replaced <br />for pumping prior to 1974. <br />Recommendation No. 2 <br />I would recommend modifying the water c ourt process for approval of plans for <br />augmentation or changes in use by having the Water Referee be a Professional Engineer <br />who would conduct a formal hearing on the te chnical merits of the case and issue a <br />findings approving, disapproving, or modifying the applicati on. A party could ask the <br />Water Court Judge to review the findings and review the record but not hold a new trial. <br />Any legal motions could be referred to th e Water Court Judge for determination. I <br />believe this would allow the Water Court Judge s more time to deal w ith the legal issues <br />and other court matters assigne d to the Judge but would allo w the often technical aspects <br />