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<br />But if the Juniper-Cross Mountain water rights are a <br />necessary vehicle for satisfying the Endangered Species Act on <br />the Yampa River, then that vehicle will be driven on a two-way <br />street. Before entering an agreement pursuant to S.B. 212 on <br />these water rights, the Conservation Board must be satisfied that <br />it is good water policy to dedicate these water rights to <br />instream use. In negotiating an agreement under S.B. 212, the <br />Conservation Board will also have a fundamental say in how much <br />of these water rights are dedicated to instream use and under <br />what terms. <br />There are several reasons why converting the Juniper-Cross <br />Mountain water rights to instream use is good water policy: <br />1. While the Juniper-Cross Mountain water rights are <br />senior to most other conditional water rights in the Yampa River <br />basin, they are junior to most absolute water rights which are <br />all relatively small. The change of the Juniper Cross Mountain <br />water rights to instream use therefore would not impose any new <br />burdens on existing water uses upstream. <br />2. The Juniper-Cross Mountain water rights are subject to <br />several subordinations that would accommodate perhaps 100,000 <br />acre feet of new water depletions upstream. 19 So while the bulk <br />19 W.W. Wheeler and Associates, supra nt. 18, pp. 10-12. <br />19