Senate Bill 212 Transcript: Exhibit A-B

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prior appropriation system is about to come tumbling down because of the fact that Fort Collins and others have filed for instream water rights. Indeed, I think that it may be an appropriate balance to the Board to have some-competition out there if you Will, This is' in fact the way it is done in the state of Alaska and other prior appropriation states. And it seems to have worked effectively there. It might not be going too far as well to suggest that doing it any other way raises a constitutional question. The constitution provides that the State shall not discriminate upon the appropriators, but will generally allow Elie right to appropriate among all citizens. To say that some groups such as the Conservation Board appropriate for some purpose but not others I think creates at least a legitimate constitutional question. Aside from that, if there are problems out there I think that we ought to try to focus more directly on resolving that and I can imagine that there is a concern if euery Tom, Dick, and Harry is able to march into water court and say I hereby appropriate all the unappropriated water in the Colorado River, that that is not going to sit well, but I think that . there are finer approaches to addressing that concern then simply saying the Board is the only entity which can file for an instream flow water right. If our concern for instance that the people are going to apply for massive instream Flow water rights where they really don't have any need for that water then the simple and traditional way to address that problem is to say that water court ought to deny that water right because it is not for a beneFicial use. If someone goes to water court and says I want all the water, the water court can give an opinion for and she says well I just like to-know that it is -9-