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Water Board provides the sole source of municipal water supply to over a million people. In <br />order to maintain the high level of quality and dependability that the Water Board's customers <br />deserve, the Water Board needs certainty as well as flexibility in the aperation of its system. The <br />Water Board operates numerous exchanges throughout its system an.d. makes new a.ppropriations <br />of water dependirLg upon the circumstance. Proliferation of recreational water rights that <br />command the ent:.re flow of a river could seriously impede the Water Board's ability to operate <br />exchanges and aFpropriate water to keep up with the growing municipal demand. <br />4. Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District ("Southeastem") is a statutory <br />water conservancy district which includes within its boundaries most: of the municipalities and <br />irrigated land in i:he Arkansas River Valley. Southeastern has participated in numerous <br />proceedings in this Court relating to water issues, both as a party anc( as amicus. Southeastem <br />holds the water rights for the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, a$550 mzllion project authorized by <br />Congress and built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation under contract with Southeastem, which <br />diverts water uncierneath the Continental Divide, from the Fryingpan and Roaring Fork River <br />drainages, into t]Ze Arkansas River drainage, where Project water is stored in reservoirs. <br />Southeastern pravides Project water and return flows to supplement the decreed water rights of <br />water users throighout the District. In an effort to prepare for the water needs of the growing <br />population in th,- Arkansas River basin and to help sustain water supplies for agricultural use, <br />Southeastern with participation from other Arkansas basin water providers, initiated Preferred <br />Storage Option:; Plan ("PSOP") in 1999. The PSOP Report, published September 21, 2000, <br />analyzed various options to meet the year 2040 water demand. The plan contemplates both <br />changed operations of existing Fryingpan-Arkansas Project reservoirs, as well as enlargement of <br />Pueblo and Turquoise Reservoirs. PSOP participants, as well as Southeastern, yvill rely on the <br />5