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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />accommodating water rights and water quality law in Colorado <br />has already been clearly enunciated in the State's common <br />case law: water quality protection is for the purpose of <br />forwarding maximum development and utilization of the State's <br />water resources. <br />Under State law the Commission does have authority <br />to regulate the generation and introduction of waste products <br />into public waters, but does not have authority to curtail, <br />condition or prohibit the diversion, carriage or storage of <br />water in the exercise of water rights. The Commission does <br />~ have power to adopt water quality standards on 208 plans <br />for puproses of the federal Clean Water Act which would re- <br />quire minimum stream flows or effect the ability of water <br />rights holders to store or release water for application to <br />beneficial use in accordance with their de.C::,f'ges. Nor can <br />EPA do this independently of the State through the Clean <br />Water Act, in view of the "Wallop amendment" and the fact that <br />diversion, conveyance and storage systems are not point sources <br />of pollution. <br />Properly viewed, water qualitJ protection should aid <br />the maximum utilization of the water resource. The challenge <br />of the nineteen-eighties will be how to do this in the most <br />cost effective manner. The costs of necessary regulation <br />will inevitably be spread throughout the. body politic of <br />water users. Standard setting should be no more restrictive <br />than necessary to preserve water uses which can be made along <br />the stream segment. <br />N~w and innovative legislative and cooperative <br />approaches must be found if Colorado is to develop fully <br />its compact apportioned waters while maintaining an ac- <br />ceptable level of water quality for the complex of agricultural, <br /> <br />-17- <br />