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. . . recommendations. This would severely impact Colorado's ability to develop and use its Colorado River compact apportionment and limit Blue Mesa's ability to store excess water in wet years for use in dry years. Staff is reviewing the revised recommendations and providing comments. Staff has received preliminary indications from water users in the Guunison Basin that they want to move forward with these new recommendations if further concerns can be addressed through an adaptive management process. Platte River Basin Issues Golden Appeal: The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments regarding the Golden appeal for Oct. 2 at 9:00 am. Emergency Drought Relief: During the Special Session a new law was enacted that set aside $1 million for emergency grants and loans to help farmers and ranchers deal with the water impacts ofthe drought. We have received three applications for funding, I will update you about the status ofthe applications at your meeting. South Platte Well Augmentation Program Update: By law, farmers must replenish the river after levels drop as a result of groundwater pumping. If they can't, they must stop pumping. In wet years, the issue never surfaces because there's more than enough water. . Tim Buchanan, an Arvada water attorney who represents more than half a dozen large eastern-plains irrigation and ditch companies, has armounced that his clients may seek an injunction to force the state to stop the pumping, or seek damages. . 'These wells are being allowed to continue pumping while my clients' fields are burning up. Their senior water rights are doing them no good," Buchanan said. Among Buchanan's clients are Fort Morgan Reservoir and Irrigation Co., North Sterling Irrigation District, Harvey Ditch Co. and Liddle Ditch Co. Even if lawsuits don't shut down the wells, the state engineer may have to shut them down anyway if water supplies continue to evaporate. "If they carmot replace their depletions, we will issue notices to well owners that they have to shut offtheir wells," said Dick Stenzel, the district engineer. Farmers who continue to pump after the state tells them to stop face fines of $500 a day, Stenzel said. A number of Front Range cities, including Boulder, Highlands Ranch, Denver and Thornton, are worried about the way the wells have been managed. During a recent water court case to determine how the well-management programs will run in the future, they filed formal protests against the state's management plans, saying the state doesn't protect the river well enough. South Platte Forum: The 13th armual South Platte Forunl is scheduled to be held in Longmont on Oct. 23-24. The theme for this year's forum is "who's running this ecosystem?" For more information visit http://southplatteforum.co lostate. edu. Chatfield Reservoir Reallocation Study Update: On July 31 we met with Storage Use Patterns Investigation Study contractor Brown and Caldwell (Be), Denver Water Board, Central Water Conservancy District, Greenway Foundation, City of Littleton and the South Metro Water District to discuss modeling results showing that increasing the storage capacity of Chatfield Reservoir will help water users meet their future demands 55.1 % - 88,6% ofthe time. We will be attempting to ascertain whether the entities involved will pay for the increased storage space because unless a project sponsor or coalition of project sponsors is identified there is little point in continuing the study. The water users generally agreed that considering the cost and time of building more storage, purchasing this storage space may be feasible. 19