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recreational opportunities. Mountain Resort Homeowners Survev Tables (Norlhwest Colorado <br />Council of Govei-nments 2003) (attached as Exhibit D). <br />Water rights applications for projects that stimulate this emerging economy should not be <br />given second-class status, nor should the CWCB venture into the sphere of local-government <br />planning and fisral policy. S.B. 216 carefully delineates CWCB's role in the IZICD proceeding <br />so that local government decision-making is respected, and the water court's ti-aditional role as <br />final azbiter of water rights is retained. The water court in this case properly understood and <br />applied the balan.ce tha.t S.B. 216 was designed to protect. <br />B. S.B. 216 Reflects the Evolution of the Prior Appropriation System and Does Not <br />Create a New V?ater Right. <br />1. Water law has evolved to accommodate Recreational In-channe-l Diversions as a <br />beneficial use. <br />Colorado's water law is a dynamic doctrine that is meant to expand and accommodate <br />new, economica lly beneficial uses of water. "Water has been at the front edg<; of initiatives to <br />create new settlements and economies ever since Americans took control of ttie arid landscape of <br />the American W est in the 1940s." S. Bates, D. Getches, L. MacDonnell, C. V'Jillcinson, <br />Searching Out t?ie Headwaters 3(1993). First, water drove the mining rush ui the mid- <br />nineteenth century. Then, a generation later, it fueled the Jeffersonian agricultural ideal in <br />Colorado, encouraging settlement by allowing farmers to grow crops. Id. Ovrer txme, the <br />General Assembly and the courts have responded to evolving uses of water by expanding and <br />ada.pting the definition of beneficial use to track with changing economic and comununity <br />6