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r <br />Upper Gunnison River Water Conser^vancy District <br />02CW038 <br />the reach and (2) impacts on upstream junior diversions for transmountain diversion purposes and <br />exchange through the reach, as being the only possible sources of impact to compact development. <br />Impact, however, does not necessarily mean "compact impairment." The Gunnison <br />Whitewater Park does not impair Colorado's ability to develop and place to beneficial use its <br />Colorado River compact entitlement, according to Mr. Lochhead, because there are many ways and <br />many places at which the state's Colorado River compact entitlement can be developed, including the <br />Gunnison River basin upstream of the reach of the whitewater course. "Compact impairment" does <br />not occur simply because a junior water right or exchange must respond to a senior call. Every right <br />that comes on line, not just the District's recreational right, will have an impact as it is developed, and <br />this will not stop development in the foreseeable future. <br />Colorado water law has developed tools to enable such junior rights and exchanges to operate <br />notwithstanding senior calls. Augmentation plans, for instance, are commonplace tools used <br />throughout the state to maximize beneficial use of Colorado's water supplies in overappropriated <br />basins. An upstream junior water right or an exchange, whether developed for in basin or out of basin <br />purposes, can enhance its reliability by means of an augmentation plan or upstream storage. Thus the <br />Gunnison Whitewater Park will not prevent or foreclose development upstream. <br />To conclude, as Mr. Seaholm does, that "impairment" means M effect, including any <br />increased cost or the need to develop an augmentation plan or storage facility, is overly restrictive, <br />-19-