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<br />2. Suggestions for increasing overall supply of water in South Platte River Basin <br /> <br />a. Tree thinning on national forest land (decrease sublimation) <br /> <br />b. Removal of non-beneficial phreatophytes and vegetation and trash choking <br />flow in rivers and creeks <br /> <br />c. Construction of new water storage or expansion of existing rcservoirs <br />(including dredging) - to capture existing flow that may otherwise go out of the state unused. <br /> <br />d, Support existing storage projects (e.g., Windy Gap Firming Project) and <br />proposed projects (e.g., pump back projects from Colorado River basin) <br /> <br />e. Sharing of infrastructure <br /> <br />f. Conjunctive use of surface and ground water - reexamine assumption that all <br />ground water pumping reduces amounts available for senior surface water rights <br /> <br />3. Suggestions for improving the system of water rights adjudication and <br />administration <br /> <br />a. Water Court reform (e.g., streamline the Water Court process, recognize <br />specific engineering methods or calculations via rulemaking, increase authority of water referee, <br />require demonstration of actual, not theoretical, injury) <br /> <br />b. State Engineer authority <br /> <br />i. Delegate more discretionary authority to the State Engineer to <br />administer river (allows more timely actions) and augmentation plans (e.g., allow wells to call <br />for water when depIctions are in priority) - some suggest there should be reform of State <br />Engineer administration (e.g., don't require paper filling reservoirs). <br /> <br />11. Allow 30-day correction period for well augmentation <br /> <br />111. Allow projections that determine allowable well pumping to be <br />based on average pumping instead of 3 worst years <br /> <br />IV. More flexibility for using excess credits (could also be in 3.a) <br /> <br />v. Would any such authority require rule making by the State <br /> <br />Engineer? <br /> <br />c. Designate which engineering standards should be adopted by the water courts <br />(e.g., ground water modeling techniques like Glover and MODFLOW) to minimize time spent <br />arguing about which ones are better <br /> <br />d. Clarify the standard of review for 308(4) appeals <br /> <br />4. Ground Rules <br />