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-16- with our belief that the most effective means of achieving control is through local in-state efforts enhanced by a seven state consensus that such programs are beneficial to water supplies as well as other resource values. ARIZONA FIGHTS CHANGES IN COLO. RIVER PLAN: Arizona balked at proposed changes to a Colorado River drought plan and appealed to the federal government to settle the dispute or delay approval of the plan. In a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and the other six states that take water from the Colorado River, Arizona officials said attempts to rewrite an agreement reached earlier this year put Arizona's share of the river at an unacceptable risk. At issue is whether a new system of managing reservoirs on the river would threaten the portion of Arizona's allotment that serves Phoenix and Tucson. Arizona argues that changes sought by states on the upper river could deprive Arizona of water even when storage levels in one reser~~oir were high. The request for federal mediation could upset an already-tenuous peace among the seven states, which negotiated for more than two years over how to manage the river in times of drought. The states' version was undergoing a final review, and Kempthorne was expected to approve it in December. URL: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1004river-arizona1004.htm1 WATER COURT REFORM A `CAN OF WORMS': A suggestion by former Colorado Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis to streamline the state's water courts could open up a can of worms. A key point of her suggestion was formation of a panel to report on how courts could be made more efficient. Part of that regime would be to allow the courts' water referees to act like special masters who could move water around as needed. During a forum where these ideas were discussed, Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, said, "Developers can spend $100,000 in water court, but our little district with a budget of $6,000 has a hard time competing with that." Added Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, "I've talked to landowners who say they don't have the money to fight for their surface (water) rights." Colorado water courts should be more efficient in order to benefit large and small users, a former state Supreme Court justice told a legislative committee looking at water issues Wednesday. "At issue is whose interests need to be taken into account. Water courts will continue to be a hotbed of issues that need to be worked out," Rebecca Love Kourlis told the Water Resources Review Committee. "We're putting a lot of weight on the water courts." Kourlis, who served on the Supreme Court from 1993-2006, recommended forming a panel, possibly appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter, to report on how water courts could be more efficient. Kourlis is now executive director of the University of Denver Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System. The recommendation came out of two separate groups, a DU Water Futures Panel, which looked at satisfying future municipal demands in the Denver Metro area, and the South Platte Task Force, which Flood Protection • Water Project Planning and Finance • Stream and Lake Protection Water Supply Protection • Conservation Plarming