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create whitewater features sufficient to attract experienced <br />whitewater kayakers and therefore will be for the minimum stream <br />flow necessary to provide a reasonable recreation experience in <br />and on the water if those stream flow amounts are as follows: <br />250 cfs during May through September, and 0 cfs during the rest <br />of the year." <br />Applicant then proceeded to the water court for <br />adjudication. After hearing testimony and reviewing the CWCB's <br />findings -and conditional recommendation, the water court issued <br />a decree awarding a RICD in the higher flow amounts Applicant <br />claimed and not the 250 cfs recommended by the CWCB. In doing <br />so, the water court acknowledged that Applicant's was "the first <br />application to be addressed under" SB 216. Therefore, the water <br />court began its analysis by examining the language of the <br />statute, leading it to conclude that it was to treat the CWCB's <br />findings of fact as a rebuttable presumption. The water court <br />then addressed what it determined to be the "primary issue" — <br />"whether Applicant has overcome the rebuttable presumption that <br />250 cfs for the entire rafting season is the appropriate <br />quantity of water for its proposed whitewater park recreational <br />use." As the water court explained, "once [the] CWCB concluded <br />that 250 cfs for the entire rafting season was appropriate, <br />Applicant had the burden of going forward to demonstrate why any <br />greater amount is appropriate." "Based on the totality of the <br />4 <br />