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equally confident prior to the District court appeal that lead to the hearing. At the District Court level both sides won some arguments and lost some arguments. YCWA expected that the parties would experience this same level of success as the litigation continued. Unless the NHP Basin groundwater users were completely successful there was a likelihood of curtailment of between 300 to 1,300 wells. Case No. Q5-GW-14 was set for a month long hearing in June 2008 in front of a hearing officer for the Groundwater Commission. After the hearing, the full Groundwater Commission would consider the arguments of the parties and then vote whether to accept the proposed findings of its Hearing Officer. Following the decision of the Groundwater Commission, any party dissatisfied with the outcome would have the right to appeal the decision back to the District Court. The District Court could set another trial on the merits of the claim, essentially repeating the hearing conducted before the Groundwater Commission. Following this decision, the parties could once again appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. Reversal at the District Court or appellate level could result in another round of hearings and trials. YCWA estimated that it may take 4 to 10 years for a final conclusion to the dispute. YCWA also estimated that attorney and engineering fees during this time could range between $3 million to $8 million depending on the necessity of additional fees if the case were remanded for another round of hearings and trials. The only thing certain about the litigation was that it would be costly and would delay the resolution of the dispute for many years. It was unlikely that litigation would eliminate the need to mitigate impacts to the surface water users. 3.4. Alternative 2 The North Fork surface users initially sought more than $40 million for their water rights, but eventually settled for $20 million. The 2003-2007 average compact depletion charged to these rights was 2578 acre feet for the irrigation of between 1000 and 1500 acres. This second alternative prevents further litigation concerning a dispute lasting more than 30 years and threatening curtailment of the water supply to 190,000 irrigated acres. Coupled with the compact compliance pipeline, this purchase secures the irrigation/municipal/commercial water supply for the NHP Basin for decades to come. The acquired water rights will also add up to 2578 acre feet to the compact compliance water supply, which will prolong the useful life of the compact compliance wells and pipeline. In addition, the water can be relied upon by Yuma County cities as an emergency augmentation supply in the event that compact compliance efforts fail and municipal wells are curtailed. 3.5. Preferred Alternative Alternative 2 was selected as the preferred alternative because it provided a more timely resolution of the dispute, avoided years of litigation costs, prevented the huge economic impact of wide-spread well curtailment, provided additional compact 12368\1 \1204400.5 6