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SOUTH PLATTE RIVER TASK FORCE <br />Options for Further Consideration <br />Comments, Responses and Questions <br />Prepared by Senior Users and Augmentatio,n Decree Holders <br />August 22, 2007 <br />In accordance with the Governor's Executive Order entitled "Creating the South Platte River Basin <br />Task Force, " the Task Force is charged with clearly articulating the problems faced by water users in <br />the South Platte River Basin and recommending potential solutio,ns. Specifically, the Task Force is to <br />consider whether there are any changes to current water law orpolicy that will provide relief to junivr <br />ground water users without injuring senior water right holders. <br />Consistent with the executive order, in considering these recommendations, the senior water right <br />holders believe it is important for the Task Force to first clearly crrticulate the problem faced by all <br />water users in the South Platte River Basin, including junior weld owners and owners of water rights <br />which are adversely affected by operation ofjunior wells, before considering any changes to the law <br />or administration af water rights. <br />The Task Force discussed certain recommendations for changes in the legal system governing well use <br />at its July 27 and August 13, 2007, meetings. At the close of the August 13 Task Farce meeting, Mr. <br />Sherman, the co-chair, proposed that the Task Force give additional consideration to five of the <br />options under discussion at the next meeting on August 27. These options raise important legal and <br />engineering questions which the Task Force should consider in iti,, deliberations, many of which have <br />not been discussed at previous Task Force meetings. With this document, certain Senior Water Right <br />Users and Augmentation Decree Holders are pleased to provide udditional information on these <br />options for consideration by the Task Force. The comments provided by the Senior Users and <br />Augmentation Decree Holders,f'ollow in italics. ' <br />1) Option 1: Statutory change to provide amnesty on replacemernt obligations for depletions resulting <br />from pre-1974 pumping. <br />a. Well depletions reduce the flow of the South Platte River regardless of when the <br />pumping that created the depletions occurred. The failure to replace the current and <br />future depletions still occurring from pre-1974 purraping will injure other water users. <br />This proposal will result is a redistribution of water from senior water users to junior <br />wells and is beyond the scope of the Task Force's charge as set forth in the executive <br />order. <br />b. The nature of the proposed amnesty has not been clearly defined for the Task Force. Is <br />this amnesty proposed to apply statewide or only wr.'thin the South Platte River Basin? <br />Is the amnesiy proposed to apply only to wells that do not yet have an augmentation <br />plan in place, or to welds within already-decreed plans? The majoriry of augmentation <br />plans do not provide amnesty for depletions from pre-1974 pumping. Those that do <br />include amnestyfor depletions arising from pre-19 74 pumping do so as one of many <br />complex terms and conditions which, taken as a whole, assure that all water users <br />would be protected from injury by the plan. Changing one term of a carefully <br />negotiated decree would undermine the overall protective effect of such decrees.