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<br />58 <br /> <br />V. MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS AND ISSUES <br /> <br />. Chapter IV di scus,sed current management practices which have evol ved <br />over a long period of time. These represent an answer to the question : <br />how are all of the.competing demands on the river currently met? Now <br />must be asked: how are emerging problems on the river likely to he <br />faced in the future? <br />The problems of managing the South Platte have been increasing ever <br />since water users first began to bump against the limits of water avail- <br />ability. Early problems resulted in a system of laws and water rights <br />administration which have served the State well. Now additional prob- <br />lems 100m ahead: increases in litigation and conflict, growing urban <br />demands, water quality issues and finding ways to utilize and conserve <br />the deep bedrock aquifers. These issues will be discussed in this <br />chapter in relation to the South Platte River Basin in Colorado. <br /> <br />5.1 Increasing Litigation and .Water Use Conflicts <br />An issue that is apparently most serious is increasing litigation <br />and water use conflicts. An ideal syst~m of water law and administra- <br />tion would provide ready mechanisms for security of water rights and for <br />exchanges between water users, without the expense of constant legal <br />battles to defend water rights. While increasing competition for water <br />naturally leads toconfl ict, an improved mechanism is needed to resol ve <br />the confl icts ina way such that water users avoid heavy penalties. <br />The issue of increasing litigation needs further research to <br />identify more precisely why litigation is increasing, to determine its <br /> <br />. <br />