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<br />DRAFT
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<br />1 on areas that would be appropriate in the growth arena. Ifwe get the words down on how
<br />2 things should work in water, that's good. It could take a lot oftime to get there. .
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<br />4 Rod Kuharich - in light of the idea of seeking additional information, we have 3
<br />5 meetings coming up in rural Colorado and the March meeting is scheduled just before the
<br />6 Saturday conference on Water for the Millenniuni, The Board will probably see what a
<br />7 lot of the front- range entities have in mind for the future and some ofthe sever problems
<br />8 they're facing. Groundwater.,. that could be trouble in the future. This could be very
<br />9 educational conference, I see many opportunities for input and interactions, I propose
<br />10 we put this presentation into a summary form with major issues highlighted and continue
<br />11 to seek public input at the next few meetings.
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<br />13 Greg Hoskin - Let's hear form the audience,
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<br />15 Harold Miskel- I have Dave Miller
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<br />17 Dave Miller - I'm a reservoir developer. I've been trying to do this for 15 years, and I
<br />18 have some insight on these matters, Ifwe'd developed storage 15 years ago, we wouldn't
<br />19 be having these problems now. The 1937 charter says you're supposed to protect,
<br />20 develop and use the waters of Colorado, Many of the problems we're facing, Kansas
<br />21 litigation, South Platte Endangered Species, Ag dry-up, groundwater, etc., result because
<br />22 we are not developing our waters, Look at the fundamentals, we have 80% of our water
<br />23 on one side ofthe divide, and 80% of the people.on the other side, It's a political
<br />24 problem, and we don't really address the politics at meetings like this, because it is too .
<br />25 controversial to discuss, There are ways of storing water, and storing it as high in the
<br />26 watershed as we can gives us the flexibility to move the water around to where the
<br />27 drought may be, We have several sights for high altitude reservoirs, but we don't discuss
<br />28 them, we avoid them. So to solve the farm problems lets develop the high country
<br />29 reservoirs. Right now these are considered to be a water grab from one slope to the other
<br />30 and that's a misconception. The #1 priority should be to deliver water for west slope to
<br />31 east slope in times of drought. With high storage, you could have best of both worlds for
<br />32 both slopes, but we have to get beyond the politics and start talking about it.
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<br />34 Bill Brown - I do rise with trepidation, I've beep on the other side, I'm a lawyer from
<br />35 Ft. Collins and I represent a lot of water users, Its easy to put our finger on the perceived
<br />36 problems, we're growing and the only way of getting the water we need is from
<br />37 irrigated. agriculture, Farmers want it both ways, and that's the difficulty. Listing to
<br />38 Moch trying to get a group of people to keep the water in the Arkansas Valley, I had to
<br />39 smile. We've had a group in our area for 3 years, We've tried to do it too, it's tough, I
<br />40 wish Leroy a lot ofluck, and ifhe's successful, I want to know how they did it. A couple
<br />41 of ways to go, if you utilize the government, it could make it awful hard to sell water
<br />42 away from the land, You cold provide incentives to farmers for not farming, but
<br />43 probably can't afford it. Conservation easements are good, but what you really can do is
<br />44 look at the water supply, look at the shortages. Even the farmers reco gnize that
<br />45 increasing the water supply is good for Colorado, I would urge you to focus your policy
<br />46 on the development of storage, and within your charge, look at some voluntary things you .
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