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s <br />would like to speak because I was here in 1973 and in <br />1972, 1970, and 1971, and can speak to some degree on <br />how Senate Bill 97 got its start. It actually didn't <br />start out as a formal piece of legislation. The <br />Colorado Open Space Council at that time was the <br />watchdog resource manager between that <br />group, Roger Hansen and some of us associated with <br />that project. It was more the adversarial side than <br />the happy harmony, and the idea of the minimum stream <br />flows originated to a certain extent in the Aspen <br />area as you know, and when they came forth with the <br />idea of commandeering water to be used for purposes <br />in the stream, they thought,,at least it appeared to <br />me, they thought they had a brand new idea, and I <br />informed them they dial not and Senator McCormick has <br />already introduced into the record the provisions in <br />the Act which made our project — the Fry Ark Project <br />— a reality, and I can say from my awn personal <br />knowledge that project was not 'has 'been authorized by <br />the Congress of the United States certainly not <br />enacted were it not for the provision of the minimum <br />stream flows that were part of'that package. So when <br />SB 97 wa's being considered by the General Assembly <br />here, we supported it with certain modifications that <br />we believed then, and we believe now, made possible <br />an agency such as the Colorado Water Conservation <br />Board should be the agency. Otherwise I think you're <br />dealing with chaos, and that's been reaffirmed by <br />decisions that Senator McCormick -referred to in the <br />Colorado Supreme Court. We did not intervene in those <br />two cases. We wanted they were talking <br />about our Ovate :r to some extent, but we wanted to see <br />how the Supreme Court would rule. Senate Bill 97 has <br />worked very well to intervene, its purpose <br />and hundreds of applications that have been filed in <br />Division 2 and Division 5 based on and so on, <br />—20— <br />