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6 <br />plans for wells on an annual basis and has allowed flexibility that we have not been able <br />to achieve in the South Platte River basin. <br />The Rio Grande water users entered into an agreement in 1985 to not require <br />wells to be curtailed as long as the Closed Basin Project is able to deliver up to 40,000 <br />acre-feet of water to the Rio Grande. The water users were also able to cooperate and <br />support the Legislature's approval of SB04-222 that gave them the flexibility to create <br />Ground Water Management Sub-districts that could develop a Ground Water <br />Management Plan approved by the State Engineer and water court that could protect <br />senior surface water rights and provide for aquifer sustainability through various <br />methods other than a traditional plan for augmentation. <br />We all hope that reasonable solutions can be found to forestall an otherwise <br />apparent economic misfortune. It will take great political resolve to address this issue <br />and even greater fortitude to defend any outcome of this process. <br />Prepared for the South Platte River Basin Task Force, August 2007 by the <br />Technical Advisors. <br />10