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the foundation also targets adults because they are the current water users. <br />There is a significant portion of the Colorado population that is from out-of-state, <br />and they may not recognize the value of water in Colorado. <br />± <br />Conservation has worked. One municipality?s goal was to save 5,000 acre-feet of <br />water through conservation, as compared to last year?s use. That municipality will <br />meet their goal. Compared with the year 2000, Greeley has used 22% less water <br />from April 1 through the end of August. <br />± <br />Once lawns turned brown because of the drought, some people seemed to lose <br />pride in the appearance of their property and stopped upkeep and maintenance. <br />Once the nice appearance was lost, people seemed to lose interest in generating <br />it again. <br />± <br />The SWSI name should be changed to include a D for demand since the supply is <br />fixed. This project can impact both supply and demand. <br />Legal restrictions on water to protect endangered species limits solutions: <br />± <br />Under the Endangered Species Act, the habitats of endangered bird species in <br />Nebraska are protected by controls placed on how much water must flow to <br />Nebraska from Colorado. This poses a significant challenge to water users in the <br />South Platte Basin as it limits the amount of water we have available to use in <br />the basin. <br />± <br />The utilization of flood flows and the ability to store flood flows has been legally <br />challenged. The Fish and Wildlife Service is pushing very hard to use flood flows <br />to protect the endangered birds in Nebraska. Negotiations need to occur on this <br />issue among Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska. <br />Consider agriculture to municipal transfers <br />± <br />How much of a free market does the agricultural community want to have in future <br />water transfers? And how much does that impact future water projects? Should <br />we build smaller projects based on agricultural water rights that a few people <br />want to sell, or should we build bigger dam projects based on appropriated water? <br />± <br />There are those for whom water rights are their ?401(k)? and they need to have <br />the ability to sell. There are others who feel that transferring the agricultural <br />water rights to municipal use will destroy a way of life and harm those who don?t <br />sell. <br />± <br />The last thing a farmer wants is the government to come in and say it wants to <br />help by restricting the farmer?s private-property right. Instead, the farmer will want <br />government to say that a farmer has the right to sell the water right at the highest <br />price possible. <br />± <br />There needs to be protection within a ditch system so if water is sold from that <br />system, no one is caught as the last person on the ditch and left holding the bag. <br />This is also true of agricultural-to-agricultural transfers. <br />± <br />Intra-basin transfers should be considered differently than inter-basin transfers. <br />Water rights provide an economic building block for a community, and intra-basin <br />transfers of water removes the economic benefit from the locality from which it is <br />transferred. Loveland suffers if water rights are transferred to Aurora because <br />that economic building block is gone and the economic benefit of that water <br />transfers to Aurora. Basin of origin legislation may protect intra-basin transfers <br />such as protecting La Junta when its water is transferred to Aurora, but it may not <br />