9356

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9356
• Author: Wigington, R.
• Title: Water Right Marketing Strategies to Protect Instream Flows in Colorado.
• USFW Year: 1990.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

This rather complicated series of transactions would not
have been possible without the very public spirited cooperation
of 5, rather typical members of what is sometimes viewed the
traditional water establishment. The conservancy is optimistic
about working out a long term agreement for instream flows at
Phantom Canyon.
VII. Conclusions.
The Nature Conservancy is optimistic generally about the
prospects for protecting instream flows under Colorado law as it
now exists and believes that the marketplace transactions that
are encouraged by Colorado's existing water law, can make a
significant contribution. Whether our optimism is justified
depends a great deal on how skillfully the Colorado Water
Conservation Board negotiates agreements to change and enforce
senior water rights for instream purposes. The Board must be
willing to obligate itself to the meaningful enforcement of
senior water rights which are acquired in the marketplace and
offered for instream use, and it must make some tough policy
decisions about the conversion of major conditional water rights
to instream use. Based on our dealings with the Conservation
Board so far, we sense that the Board is ready to embrace this
mission and to embrace it vigorously.
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