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SB01 -216 . <br /> HOUSE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, LIVESTOCK, <br /> & NATURAL RESOURCES <br /> May 7, 2001 <br /> Clerk: House Agriculture Livestock and Natural Resources will come back <br /> to order. Representative Spradley, we are anxious and awaiting to <br /> hear about Senate Bill 216 and I'll let you proceed. <br /> Rep. Spradley: Thank you, Madam Chair. The [unintelligible] of your voice makes <br /> me nervous. But what I'm bringing — I bring you House Bill 216. <br /> This is a bill that has had a long life in the Senate, and some tortured <br /> life in the Senate, but it is now here. It is a — concerning the <br /> establishment of a procedure for the adjudication of a recreational in- <br /> channel diversion by a local government. And what I'm going to do <br /> is in order — this is one of those issues where you have everybody <br /> together you think, or pretty much everybody together, a lot of <br /> agreement. And part of the agreement has been that I would read a <br /> statement into the record so that we have it for legislative history <br /> purposes information if this is needed later on. <br /> And what I will do is read this statement that was presented by the <br /> Northern Water Conservancy District and put that into the record. <br /> And that will be by introduction because it pretty well covers the bill <br /> and so I will try to make it cover two purposes with one and save the <br /> committee's time. <br /> "Senate Bill 216 is designed to ensure that [unintelligible] for <br /> recreational in- channel diversion is recognized by the Colorado <br /> Supreme Court, and the City of Thornton versus the City of Ft. <br /> Collins case are integrated into the state's prior appropriation system <br /> in a manner which appropriately balances the need for water -based <br /> recreational opportunities with the ability of Colorado citizens to <br /> divert and store water under compact entitlements for more <br /> traditional consumptive use purposes such as municipal, industrial <br /> and agricultural uses. It does not bestow upon any individual or <br /> entity the authority to appropriate in- stream flows or minimum lake <br /> levels. This remains an exclusive prerogative of the Colorado Water <br /> Conservation Board. <br /> "The bill accomplishes this objective by expressly providing for the <br /> following — it specifically limits the category of entities that can <br /> obtain such decrees to the public and quasi- public entities identified <br /> May 7, 2001 <br /> Page 1 <br />