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<br />DRAFT
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<br />1 it. The bottom line in how we look at this whole, Agriculture picture is the economy, It's .
<br />2 the economy, stupid, for all of us in Agriculture. ; The economy is what is really troubling
<br />3 all of us in Agriculture. Economists are telling Us we are having good years, yet we have
<br />4 historic low commodity prices, Go figure it. The economy is the single driving item that
<br />5 determines when water leaves agriculture, Kids won't make profit, will stop farming and
<br />6 sell out and there goes the water and the land, We can't solve that problem here, but we
<br />7 can work together to try and find some way to keep this from happening, How do we
<br />8 pull this thing together for the whole state? Nah.vally, our biases arl( for storage, so that
<br />9 we can have a part in helping provide water for growth, so they don't need to take it from
<br />10 Agriculture, For example, with California's water project, 5% of whole project satisfied
<br />11 the enviros needs, Those of us on the water dev~lopment side need to ask the enviros
<br />12 "what do you need?" and go forward with the projects, Re-read Hank Brown's "Green is
<br />13 Beautiful" Speech, ,.it has got good ideas,
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<br />15 Harold Miskel- any comments?
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<br />17 Rod Kuharich - As I become more engrossed hi Colorado River issues, the BOR
<br />18 estimates 6,0 mafis available to the Upper Bash!, which is more water than may be
<br />19 physically available in the system, But system storage has allowed more water to
<br />20 become available for use, Plus storage makes water available during drought. There's a
<br />21 hidden benefit with the development of storage and that is the water availability increases
<br />22 when you have enough storage. BOR has recognized that and we should build on this,
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<br />24 Harold Miskel- Ray, we commend you and the Farm Bureau for what you and your .
<br />25 organization does.
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<br />27 .Dan McAuliffe - The Legislature recognized some of these needs by giving us money
<br />28 for basin planning and the drought survey, We're looking for a 95% response for our
<br />29 drought survey; we're surveying everyone. The Governor wants to set up an advisory
<br />30 committee for the drought survey as soon as it's bid out. The study will allow us literally
<br />31 to make a marketing plan by doing this assessment survey and convince users who can't
<br />32 afford to provide future water supplies now to c6me to us for help.
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<br />34 Harold Miskel- We're on schedule, next is Fre~ Anderson, he was a long time senator in
<br />35 our state, did some great work for us, and continues to show great interest in water
<br />36 resources, is a farmer, and has experienced these issues first hand,
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<br />38 Fred Anderson - Thanks, Former a lot of things, and I still have a great interest in water
<br />39 and agriculture water, because that's how this w~ole thing started for me, I get
<br />40 concerned when you start talking about establishing policy for agricultural water, The
<br />41 houses on my property will be my 401K. Govehunental agency by trying to help can
<br />42 change the value of that private property right. When you establish policy, take a hard
<br />43 look at 2 cases: Strickler vs, Colorado Springs, and Watt vs, Larimer-Weld Irrigation,
<br />44 The laws state clearly that once you've developed water it's a property right protected by
<br />45 the Constitution. I get concerned when I hear things like "we're going to restrict water," .
<br />46 its no longer one state of Colorado, its by basins, and we're going to protect each other
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