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that we need to be involved in or any program that we're going to use to comply with these rules would have to be a credible program. The second goal was that the program would have to comply with the rules. However those rules come out and regardless of what kind of questions we might have about them, the program would have to comply with the rules. And third. our goal was to try and make use of Fry-Ark return flow waters to the extent that those waters were available for well augmentation purposes. I'll talk here in a moment about how those waters might be available for use in these programs. Fourth. we wanted to make sW'e that the program would be cost-effective for well owners. To the extent that we can work together, we can maximize oW' effort and provide what we think is a cost-effective program. Imagine having all the well owners between Pueblo and John Martin Reservoir participating in one program. lowering the administrative cost and maximizing the ability of that entity to pW'chase the replacement water that is needed. So, oW' goal is to try to move toward that high level of cooperation. To work together and not compete. The boards of AGUA and CWPDA and the Southeast District have all at this point made a decision to support the coordinated augmentation program. The Board of the Southeast District acted on the 21 st of December serving to hold together the work of the prior three or foW' months and approve the operating principles of that program. Let me elaborate a little bit on how we envision that program working. OW' first effort is to understand that we have a resoW'ce as a conservancy district available that can be used for well augmentation purposes. We have Fry-Ark return flow waters available and have in the past made some of that water available for well augmentation purposes but not to the extent that we've exhausted theresoW'ce. We have on average about 15,000 acre-feet a year, an average based on looking at the history of the deliveries from the Fry-Ark Project. That's a trans-mountain project that delivers beautiful crisp, clear, cold water from the western slope of Colorado. So we have an available resoW'ce, and oW' goal is to make that water available to individuals, to augmentation organizations and/or ditch companies. I'll elaborate on how that might work here in a moment. We would ask individuals or entities to submit plans to the Southeast District by the 1st of March. We're patterning oW' time-lines based on the time-lines described in the proposed rules. With their request for augmentation water, we would ask that entities provide us a copy of their well augmentation plan. That could either be you as an individual well owner or you as an association or group that might approach the Southeast District for use of some portion of the return flow water. When we receive that request for our return flow water, we'll understand a couple of things. That plan will need to have other water available to it for augmentation purposes. The Fry-Ark return flows are only a component of what's going to be needed for replacement purposes, and we cannot provide the full replacement requirements of a single plan or group plan. Those plans would also have to meet a set of standards that have been adopted by the Southeast District. We want to make sW'e that those individual plans are: (a) in compliance with the rules, honor the policies of the Southeast District and, most specifically, honor the vested rights that we have with the surface holders that we have been appropriating first use project water to. We refer to that as the first right of refusal provision of oW' policies. So, plans would have to adhere to not only the rules but to the standards and policies of the Southeast District. Again. individuals who may choose to offer up their own plan and do all the compliance work on their own. AGUA, CWPDA, LA WMA. and other organizations will approach the district for an allocation of that water and/or ditch companies who may choose to exercise their first right of refusal may come to the district seeking portions of that return flow water. Also contained in the principles of the coordinated augmentation program is what we describe as an alliance agreement between AGUA and CWPDA, LA WMA is focused on doing the work below John Martin, AGUA and CWPDA are vigorous in putting together plans above John Martin to Pueblo Reservoir. We have asked them as co-signers on this program to look toward consolidating into one organization in an effort to try and achieve one of oW' goals, . to see one organization providing the ,services for well owners who have replacement water needs. So, a main principle of oW' program conceives consolidation of those two organizations over the scope of a year. We're not sW'e how that consolidation is going to work; in fact, we're not sW'e whether they are going to be strange enough bedfellows that the consolidation will be a strained relationship, It may be a strange relationship too, But oW' effort is to pull together oW' resoW'ces and see those two organizations merge into one, It's a first-year effort. The Board of the Southeast District as well as the other co-signers of that document plan to review that at the end of the first year to gain an understanding of whether it has met our goals, for compliance with the rules, and to meet the obligations as prescribed to us by the Special Master of the Supreme Court. So, we will be going back to the drawing board at the end of this first year to see whether we have achieved what we hoped to achieve with this coordinated augmentation program. We're not the only effort out there. Hal has mentioned that he will be pW'suing legislation at the state capitol concerning financial resoW'ces and enforcement resoW'ces that he feels, and we would agree, are needed to do an effective job in the Arkansas River Basin Water Forum 28 itA River of Dreams and Realities"