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<br />I <br /> <br />supply, waste, beneficial use, much in the <br />same manner as we have in the first bill. We <br />have tried to pin down the definitions from <br />our case law and from our statutes to define <br />these various terms so that everybody can <br />understand them. <br /> <br />The principal reason for devising Draft <br />Bill No. 1 was to set up an inexpensive pro- <br />cedure by which water rights could not only <br />be determined but provisions could be made for <br />transfers of water rights: in changes from one <br />type of use to another; in changes from stor- <br />age to direct flow and direct flow to storage: <br />and so forth. All these conditioned upon a <br />fundamental principle of colorado water law <br />that you can do anything with a water right <br />provided you don't hurt somebody else. Now <br />obviously these court adjudication matters are <br />long, they're time-consuming, they take years <br />to finish. In our present statutes there is <br />no cutoff date on adjudication proceedings: <br />it's started and it goes on and on and on in <br />some areas. So people cannot be too certain <br />just what their water rights are for a good <br />many years. We wanted certainty in here. We <br />wanted an inexpensive proceeding. We wanted <br />to really put in the division engineer as a <br />referee for the courts, a fact finder, so we <br />could have the expertise of those who are in <br />this field in making these original factual <br />determinations which can be appealed to court <br />immediately if somebody feels that they are <br />hurt or they can be left over for proceedings <br />in court much in the same manner as they are <br />today. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />Why did we set up a water court? For <br />many, many different reasons. This idea is <br />not new either. It has been suggested before. <br />Some have suggested that we have a water <br />court that will travel around the state and <br />determine these things. Others say no, we <br />don't want that; we have good judges in our <br />division that know water law. We'd rather <br />have somebody at home in this position. So <br />that's what we have done here. We know how <br />