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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />The Bureau's drafting group in Boulder City is currently <br />working with the Field Solicitor to produce a revised draft. <br />Once that occurs, a notice of meeting will be published in the <br />Federal Register. At the meeting state and tribal <br />representatives will be invited to comment, and other interested <br />parties will be able to observe. After that meeting the Bureau <br />will decide whether to produce another draft or to publish the <br />proposed regulations. Current estimates see the publication of <br />proposed regulations in December of 1992, with hearings early in <br />1993. <br /> <br />Even though the draft regulations are only a reflection of <br />the Lower Colorado Regional Office's thinking as of last spring, <br />they foretell a new era in the federal governance of the Colorado <br />River. With the release of these draft regulations a bell began <br />to toll. For whom does this bell toll? It tolls for the good <br />old days in the Lower Basin. It announces change. The peels of <br />the bell may appear far away to those of you from the Upper <br />Basin, but there could be an early warning in their sound. <br /> <br />I propose: <br /> <br />* <br /> <br />First, to discuss what has motivated the Bureau to act <br />in this way ("Why are we here?"); <br />Second, to discuss briefly the history of efforts to <br />regulate the use of Colorado River water rights ("How <br />did we get here?"); <br />Third, to summarize some of the main features of the <br />pending draft regulations, comparing them to existing <br />regulations ("Where might we be going?"); <br />Finally, to identify major issues that the regulations <br />respond to and pose, and to offer some personal <br />opinions about how these draft regulations symbolize <br />larger struggles involving federalism, water use <br />efficiency and pressures for the reallocation of <br />Colorado River water ("What is the larger meaning of it <br />all?"). <br /> <br />* <br /> <br />* <br /> <br />* <br /> <br />I am Special Counsel for the City of Henderson, Nevada, <br />along with Bob Marshall of Reno. In that capacity, I have joined <br />others in helping get the Southern Nevada Water Authority formed <br />and underway. The opinions I express here today, however, are my <br />own. Since I contributed to the preparation of Nevada's comments <br />on the draft regulations, some parts of my talk will adopt <br />descriptive parts of those comments. <br /> <br />- 2 - <br />