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July 13, 2007 <br />Page 4 <br />soil on the banks of the ri ver will slip away causing irreparable erosion. . . . <br />We believe that in this situation unr estrained self-help to a previously <br />untapped water supply would re sult in a barren wasteland. <br />529 P.2d at 1327. See also Ready Mixed Concrete Co. , 115 P.3d at 644 (“[t]o permit such a <br />practice would encourage stripping the envi ronment . . . and reward developers”); R.J.A., Inc. , <br />690 P.2d at 828 (“maximizing beneficial use and in tegrated use of surface and subsurface water <br />must be implemented with a sensitivit y to the effect on other resources”). <br />Legislative Enactments <br />The holdings of Shelton Farms and Castle Meadows are now codified at C.R.S. § 37-92-103(9) <br />with respect to the use of salvag ed water in augmentation plans: <br />“Plan for augmentation” does not include the salvage of tributary waters by <br />the eradication of phreatophytes, nor doe s it include the use of tributary <br />water collected from land surfaces that have been made impermeable, <br />thereby increasing the runoff but not adding to the ex isting supply of <br />tributary water. <br />As discussed above, the Court in Shelton Farms specifically noted that the legislature had <br />authority to prescribe new salvage water protocols. The legislature has already created at least <br />two such statutory exceptions to the salvaged wate r rule, which allow reservoirs and gravel pits <br />to take credit against their ev aporative losses for vegetation that was eradicated by inundation of <br />the water surface. See C.R.S. §§ 37-84-117(4); 37 -80-120(5); 37-92-305(12)(a); see also <br />Central Colorado Water Conservancy Dist. v. Simpson , 877 P.2d 335 (Colo. 1994) (upholding <br />gravel pit statute and stating th at “the General assembly has au thority to create programs by <br />which water that would otherwise be lost becau se of natural vegetativ e transpiration can be <br />developed in an orderly fash ion for beneficial use”). <br />Other programmatic approaches to salvaged wate r and developed water have been proposed. For <br />example, a recent study examined the potential fo r “rainwater harvesting” in Douglas County. <br />See Leonard Rice Engineers, Inc., Meurer a nd Associates, Inc., and Ryley Carlock & <br />Applewhite, “Holistic Approach to Sustaina ble Water Management in Northwest Douglas <br />County” (January, 2007). This report conclude d, among other things, that while current <br />Colorado law requires replacement (augmentation) of 100 percent of captured precipitation, it is <br />recognized that a portion of this precipitation is lo st to native vegetation a nd sublimation (loss of <br />water through evaporation of snow) and never reaches the stream system. See id. , at pp14-16. <br />To the extent that the portion of precipitation th at did not historically reach the stream system <br />could be quantified, the study sugge sts that this amount could be credited against augmentation <br />requirements with appropri ate legislative action. See id. at p. 2. <br />