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<br />MR. CUYKENDALL: <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />1l.Li:l <br /> <br />nIn answer to your question, Mr. Nelson <br />I think it is very generally understood that <br />nobody does anything about water until the <br />well runs dry and the people who were working <br />on this problem in the past saw the possibility <br />of that dry well. It's very difficult to get <br />across to the common user of ground water the <br />fact that it isn't a supply which is inexhaust- <br />ible. We may point out to them areas which have <br />gone through that same program such as in <br />Arizona and Texas and California but until it <br />happens to them personally, it's rather hard <br />to convince them. <br /> <br />Now we have an area here in Denver in <br />which some people are being convinced the well <br />does go dry. People have bought small acreages <br />around Denver on which there was an artesian <br />well, a well which was to the level of Arapahoe <br />Sands. They thought they had , their own water <br />rights; they weren't going to be dependent upon <br />the City of Denver, and suddenly one day the <br />pump begins to suck air and then the well <br />drillers say "Yes, we'll get you some more water, <br />we'll go down about another hundred feet or so <br />and it will cost you two or three hundred dollars <br />or whatever it might be'. Those people are <br />unhappy. <br /> <br />, There is the matter of pollution which is <br />occurring ,out east of Denver. A man who put a <br />well in, in the spring of 1958, has now been <br />advised not to use the water for domestic pur- <br />poses, even for bathing purposes. So..those <br />people are having trouble. <br /> <br />I think Mr. Sparks has probably gone a <br />little further into the future than was en- <br />visioned by our resolution that was presented <br />to you. What we are asking for, I believe( if <br />you will refer to it, was the setting up or a <br />task committee made up of various agencies who <br />would have enough prestige to do in the next <br />Legislature what the Governor's group on re- <br />sources reported should be done arid that was to <br />give some authority to the Commission in this <br />area of critical use of water. As of today the <br />Commission has no authority at all. Anything <br />that they do can be immediately vetoed by a <br />group of local people, and following our ex- <br />perience in the Wiggins area, that most gener- <br />ally is a matter of personal prejudice,personal <br />financial interest, or something of that type <br />which is the controlling factor, not what is <br />happening to the water table. <br />