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Platte Task Force support team Anne Castle, Alexandra Davis, Jim Hall, Jim Lochhead, Jim Miller and Dick Wolfe September 6, 2007 was the last meeting of the South Platte Task Force. The Task Force met six times over the past four months. The first two meetings were devoted to gathering public comment, perception, and information regarding the well issues in the South Platte. During the last four of the six meetings, the Task Force deliberated over the issues and a range of proposed recommendations. Materials provided to and reviewed by the Task Force were contemporaneously posted on a Task Force web page on the Colorado Department of Agriculture web site, allowing all interested members of the public access to the documents. The Members were provided with a significant amount of information to absorb and understand in a short period of time. The Members worked hard and diligently to discuss potential solutions in their effort to achieve the objectives set forth in the Executive Order. Given that the root of the well problems on the South Platte is simply that there is not enough water in most years to meet all the water demand and decreed appropriations, few people expected a silver bullet to emerge from the Task Force discussions. Further, the various Members' theories regarding potential solutions ranged from those seeking to maintain the current system with no changes whatsoever to those seeking to institute an entirely new paradigm for distribution of water in Colorado. Thus, the idea that the Task Force would reach consensus on any recommendations was not a given. However, the Task Force did agree to ten recommendations out of more than 20 suggested. These are incremental but important recommendations that cumulatively may provide some relief to some well users and may help improve Colorado's water allocation and distribution system. In addition, there were some recommendations considered that did not garner the 2 /3rd support required by the Executive Order that may provide legislators or policy makers food for future thought. For example, there was a recommendation for the creation of a South Platte Water Conservation District. Such a district could provide an entity that would. charged with developing regional solutions. A full list of all the proposals voted upon is attached to this letter. Because there is no easy solution to the problems faced by well users on the South Platte, some well users may be disappointed that the Task Force did not determine a means by which those with curtailed wells could resume pumping their wells. We believe, however, that the Task Force members strove to provide practical recommendations consistent with the direction to provide some relief to well users without injuring senior water rights. The following recommendations are hereby made by the South Platte River Basin Task Force to the Governor, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Chair of the Interim Committee on Water Resources. 2