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<br />I <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />MR. SPARKS: The important thing to recognize is that if the state is <br />involved, almost in every case, other junior appropriators are involved, <br />too. We are not the only ones. Almost any time we are in a case, you <br />will find that other junior appropriators are in asserting their rights <br />just the same as we are. This is true in the case Ray just mentioned. <br />The Southeastern Water Conservancy District is an objector along with <br />the state in that particular case. You will find that in about ninety- <br />percent of the cases, the state is merely another party. Any time you <br />start changing points of diversion or use, many junior appropriators <br />are involved that are going to be in there to protect their interests, <br />and we're just another party in that group. <br /> <br />MR. BURR: Well, Larry, taking an actual experience, one of my decrees <br />was up right next to parkview Mountain. I had to change the diversion <br />from the top of the mountain down to where the stream flowed. Now, if <br />I changed that diversion, I change an 1873 right to a 1975 right if <br />they did have a minimum flow on that stream, because I have changed <br />the diversion on it. <br /> <br />MR. SPARKS: No, you are not going to lose your'priority right. If you <br />change an l873 right, it's an l873 right regardless of where you change <br />it to. <br /> <br />MR. BURR: Now, if I change the diversion on any of this water, I have <br />los t my. decree up to the amount of this minimum flow and you I re taking <br />a right away from an individual who has a right now. If he is not <br />hurting anybody down below in changing his point of diversion, he will <br />be hurting the state because these are old rights and it has a chance <br />to dry up the river and this minimum flow is going to take his water <br />away from him. That's the way I see it. <br /> <br />MR. SPARKS: I just can't follow that. Clarence, I don't see how these <br />minimum flows could take anybody' s right. <br /> <br />MR. MOSES: The one Clarence is referring to is one where there was an <br />error in the original decree with regard to the location of the head- <br />gate. As he says, the headgate was up on the side of the hill instead <br />of down where the stream was. I have difficulty seeing that the state <br />would assert its junior appropriation against that kind of corrective <br />procedure, but I can't predict what future administrations might do. <br /> <br />MR. BURR: The average individual like myself can't buck the Water <br />Board. I'm just beating my head up against a stone wall. I know that. <br />And the Attorney General's office. And the average fellow, he can't <br />beat these things. The'Water Board ought to see that. <br /> <br />MR. SPARKS: Clarence, has anybody in this state ever tried to take <br />one drop of your water, and if so, by what decree? <br /> <br />MR. BURR: . They haven't' tried it, but when you get these minimum flows, <br />they have a right to come in and do that. <br /> <br />MR. SPARKS: I'm sorry, Clarence, but we don't have that right'. <br /> <br />-23- <br />