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. . ; . . . Page 5 3. Legislative History Statements oflegislators and commentators at the time S.B. 91 was adopted underscore the CWCB's express statutory authority to acquire storage water rights for release for instream flow use downstream of a reservoir. As noted above, Sen. Martha Ezzard mentioned storage as one method of exercising the CWCB's acquisition authority. Further, in a 1986 article about Senate Bill 86-91, current Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory J. Hobbs, Jr. discussed the numerous options that bill opened up for the CWCB by clarifying its acquisition authority, including changing water rights to obtain the benefit of a senior priority, working with water users on augmentation plans to increase surface flows, and entering into contractual arrangernents that allow a water user to retain ownership of a water right and still make it available to the CWCB for instream flow use, Justice Hobbs concluded that S.B. 91 enabled the CWCB to "utilize the full scope of Article 92 and Colorado's free market system of water rights to acquire water for instream flow and natural lake levels and to build upon its appropriations by supplementing them with additional water." He also noted that S.B. 91 provided a "context for working with new water project sponsors to provide instream flows as part of their projects" and that the "annual rental market for storage and direct-flow water which has grown up in the state, particularly in the Northern District area, could be tapped as part of the Board's program," Gregory J, Hobbs, Jr. Colorado's Instream Flow Law and Senate Bill 91: State Water Rights for Preservation of the Environment, Can They End the Federal Reserved Water Rights 1nstream Flow Controversy? pp, 21-23 (from "How the Rivers Run, An Analysis of Current Issues in Colorado Water Law;" CLE presentation in 1986). These statements show that S.B. 91 was intended to give the CWCB maximum flexibility in its acquisition of water, water rights and interests in water for instream flows and natural lake levels, both in the context of the mechanism by which the CWCB acquires the water (donations, leases, contracts, deeds) and the methods by which the CWCB uses the acquired water. In our research of the cases addressing in stream flow water rights we have not uncovered any cases directly on point, but we find nothing in those cases that challenges the conclusions we have reached or that suggests a different result. SUMMARY Based upon the above, the acquisition authority given to the CWCB by section 37-92- 102(3), C.R.S, includes the authority to acquire and hold storage water rights for release for downstream instream flow use.