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<br />Mitigation of Transfer Impacts <br />Because western water law generally treats the resource as a property right, the <br />emphasis in transfer proceedings has been to condition a transfer--not to prevent it from <br />taking place--by mitigating potential impacts. Mitigation may take several forms; the <br />proposed amendments to Colorado's 1991 Senate Bill 4 would have required revegetation <br />of retired farmland and financial compensation to local governments for reduced property <br />tax bases. Existing law in Colorado provides a form of mitigation referred to as <br />compensatory storage. Water districts proposing to transfer water out of the Colorado <br />River Basin must design, construct and operate any diversion projects <br />in such manner that the present appropriations of water, and in addition <br />thereto prospective uses of water for irrigation and other beneficial <br />consumptive use purposes, including consumptive uses for domestic, mining, <br />and industrial purposes, within the natural basin of the Colorado River in the <br />state of Colorado, from which water is exported, will not be impaired nor <br />increased in cost at the expense of water users within the natural basin. The <br />facilities and other means for the accomplishment of said purpose shall be <br />incorporated in and made a part of any project plans for the exportation of <br />water from said natural basin in Colorado. (Colo. Rev. Stat., 37-45- <br />118(b )(IV)) <br />The statute applies, however, only to water districts transferring water out of one basin; it <br />does not affect proposed municipal transfers out of other areas of origin. <br /> <br />Compensatory storage has been a mitigation option utilized by water districts <br />diverting Colorado River water to the Front Range. The Colorado-Big Thompson Project <br />(CBT) in northeastern Colorado has dedicated 100,000 acre-feet of water in the Green <br />Mountain Reservoir on the West Slope for use in the basin of origin. The compensatory <br /> <br />41 <br />