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must carefully examine the articles, bylaws and water rights decrees of the ditch company to learn what impediments or prohibitions to transfers may be involved. TRANSFER OF AGRICULTURAL WATER IS NOT NECESSARILY A QUICK A.'ID INEXPENSIVE SOLUTION TO MUNICIPAL WATER NEEDS Thus, a municipality cannot simply purchase agricultural water rights and conclude that it has a guaranteed additional supply. It must obtain a change decree, and that decree may require leaving a significant amount of water in the stream and ditch system in order to prevent material injury to other water rights. In addition to a change decree, the municipality must obtain the federal, state, and local permits and approvals necessary to construct whatever additional diversion, storage, and distribution systems it needs to deliver the water to the new place of use. The permitting process, particularly federal permitting, car. result in substantial costs, delays and restrictive conditions, see Riverside v. Andrews, 758 F.2d 508 (lOth Cir. 1985). Finally, the municipality must finance and construct the facilities necessary to implement its change plan. In a complicated change case, extensive expert hydrologic and legal expertise is required. In the absence of consultation and agreement with potentially injured water users, years of litigation can be expected before the final outcome is known, see Hillhouse "Management of the Complex Water Case," 31 Rockv Mountain Mineral Law Institute 24.01 et seq. What initially looked like a relatively cost effective investment at the water rights acquisition stage can become very costly by the time water is finally available to the municipality. Thus, conversion of agricultural water to municipal use is not necessarily the immediate and wondrous solution to municipal water supply which some persons trumpet it to be. Sudden, large scale purchases of agricultural water by municipalities almost always raise intense political and legal opposition. On the -11-