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Robert McLowrin: My name is Robert McLowrin. I represent the mayor and town <br /> council down in Vail. I'm not an attorney or a kayaker. I just wanted <br /> to say briefly that for us, we spent, Joel was almost right. We spent <br /> about $300 thousand building this whitewater park, worked out the <br /> necessary agreements with the upper Eagle Water and San District and <br /> would be concerned if the park were jeopardized. I don't think we're <br /> in the grandfather clause. But we view this very much as an issue of <br /> economic development. And Joel touched on it in terms of the off <br /> season. Over the last five or six years, we haven't seen a lot of growth <br /> in skier days in our community.. And our elected officials felt that this <br /> was a way to help stimulate and foster a year -round economy. And <br /> that's about all I have to say at this point. <br /> Mme. Chair: Thank you, Mr. McLowrin. And would you introduce yourself. <br /> Pat Dauphinais: My name is Pat Dauphinais. I'm a director of the Eagle River Water <br /> and Sanitation District. We're a district that supplies water and <br /> sanitation service to over 40 thousand customers in the area of the <br /> Eagle River basin from Vail down to Edwards. And I'm here to <br /> indicate our strong opposition to this.bill. We're very concerned about <br /> any bill that gives what we see as second class status to recreational <br /> water rights. We are an area that recreation is our bread - and -butter in <br /> that area. And we have a concern about handing over a, what we see <br /> as an appropriately administered judicial power in the Water Courts <br /> ti today to a political board. And we're here in opposition. Thank you. <br /> Mme. Chair: Thank you. Are there questions from the Committee? I guess not. <br /> Thank you very much. Just to tell you where we are, we have one, <br /> two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, nine to go. So if you can <br /> condense your remarks, we do really appreciate it. And the next <br /> person is Steve Bushong. <br /> Steve Bushong: Thank you, Madam Chair, Committee. My name is Steve Bushong. <br /> I'm with the law firm of Porzak, Browning and Bushong. I'm here <br /> today representing a number of different entities. That includes the <br /> town of Vail, the town of Breckenridge, the Eagle River Water and <br /> Sanitation District, the city of Golden and the Vail Valley Chamber of <br /> Commerce. Now I do have a number of comments to make and I <br /> really will try to make these brief. But I want to focus just on the legal <br /> issues, the real shortcomings that I see in this bill from a legal <br /> perspective. The first one of those is that the bill does away with the <br /> traditional role of the independent Water Court. And it replaces that <br /> with an appointed board. Now in Colorado, every citizen has the right <br /> to a level playing field, which is the Water Court. And that's where <br /> they get to argue their case for an appropriation. But this bill <br /> [unintelligible] does, is it changes that for a certain type of water right. <br /> April 12, 2001 <br /> Page 32 <br />