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<br />became the 1902 Reclamation Act, lauded the system of cooperative <br />water exchanges which had grown up in Colorado's Poudre River <br />Basin: <br /> <br />What has been done has been to fill these <br />reservoirs in the winter and early in the <br />spring, then to fill the canals as long as <br />possible directly from the river. When the <br />river runs low the reservoirs are made use of; <br />not before. This system, as developed, does <br />not attach the stored water to any particular <br />farm or farms, but permits its use wherever <br />the need is greatest. There has grown up in <br />connection therewith a system of exchanges, <br />begun by farmers getting together in a <br />friendly way and arranging to make use of <br />existing canals not connected with reservoirs, <br />to carry to the place where it was most <br />needed, but this exchange is now regulated by <br />a law of Colorado passed in 1897. <br /> <br />Utilizing surface storage high up on the stream in combination <br />with reservoirs farther down to manage return flows, the cities <br />along Colorado's Front Range can capture water out of priority <br />and make releases when water is required by the downstream senior <br />agricultural ditch companies. Increasingly, conjunctive use of <br />surface water with groundwater extraction and recharge will be <br />involved in creative arrangements between cities and farmers. <br />Exchange and augmentation plans have been encouraged and given <br />explicit sanction by the Colorado General Assembly, for the <br />purpose of making more efficient use of the groundwater and <br />surface water resource than would otherwise be available under <br />strict application of the priority system, C.R.S. 37-83-101 <br />et seq., 37-92-302(5), 37-92-305(5) and 37-92-307. Water caB <br />thus be managed for the mutual benefit of cities and farmers in a <br />thoughtfully planned manner. <br /> <br />Early in its existence, Governor Lamm's Metropolitan <br />Water Roundtable adopted a statement of principle which places a <br />low priority on the conversion of agricultural water to municipal <br />use, so that disruption to the agricultural economy of Colorado <br /> <br />-13- <br />