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the responsibility of providing municipal water service to the said City and to those with whom <br />Aurora may contract. Presently, Aurora serves a population of approximately 300,000 people. <br />A substantial portion of the present City is not yet developed and additional lands may be <br />annexed to the City. Accordingly, it is reasonable to conclude the Aurora water service <br />population will grow. In order to maintain the high level of quality and dependability that <br />Aurora's water service customers deserve, Aurora must be flexible and creative in the operation <br />and expansion of its water supply system, as well as in the reuse of its existing supplies. <br />Aurora's water system currently derives water from the Colorado, Arkansas and South Platte <br />River basins. Additionally, Aurora operates numerous decreed exchanges throughout its system, <br />and anticipates operating additional exchanges in the future, many of which are presently on file <br />with various Water Courts. These exchanges greatly enhance Aurora's operational flexibility <br />and assist in reuse and conservation of its water supplies. Proliferation of recreational water <br />rights that command the entire flow of a river could seriously impede Aurora's ability to operate <br />exchanges, impair the maximum utilization of exiting water supplies and prevent the City from <br />keeping up with its growing demand for water service.3 <br />Each of the amici, working in cooperation with agencies of the State of Colorado, has <br />developed and implemented water resource development plans and projects designed to utilize <br />waters to which the state of Colorado is equitably entitled. Each of the amici has sought to <br />recob ize the need to correlate human activities with some reasonable preservation of the natural <br />environment in a manner consistent with the Colorado constitution and state law. Each of the <br />amici has sought to safeguard waters to which Colorado is equitably entitled so that water can be <br />conserved, used, and developed through storage, exchange, and changes in use. If the legal <br />3 Aurora's participarion in the issues before this Court is not in any way intended to alter the agreements <br />between any of the parties to the May 27, 2004 Intergovernmental Agreement.