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24 POTATO GROWER | FEBRUARY 2016 " THE CORNERSTONE OF OUR POTATO PROGRAM BEGINS AND ENDS WITH BIOSAFE." REAL CUSTOMERS, REAL RESULTS - CALL 888.273.3088 OR VISIT BIOSAFESYSTEMS.COM TO LEARN MORE ® LLC 157934BioSaf13.indd 1 1/5/16 9:20 AM 145020NebIrr13.indd 1 6/5/14 8:57 AM While the plan does involve government entities, it is not regulatory in nature, meaning that there is nothing to be enforced if individuals or entities choose not to follow the guidelines laid out. "The Water Plan is a vision for how Colorado can address its water challenges into the future," says Bornstein. "We took a very deliberate approach not to be regulatory in nature. The plan is incentive-based rather than using regulatory hammer. It's very collaborative and incentive-based." One major concern for agricultural water in Colorado is the practice of "buy-and-dry," in which municipalities purchase water rights from growers, thus permanently taking that water out of agricultural production. "Our data shows that in the South Platte Basin, which has the most productive agriculture in the state, we can lose upwards of 35 percent of our existing agriculture if that continues," says Bornstein. "We're looking at ways we can be innovative in sharing water between agriculture and our growing municipalities to stem this unacceptable loss of irrigated agriculture." Colorado's Water Plan is still in its infancy, so the jury is still out on its effectiveness. It has, however, already proven successful in engendering cooperation across varied schools of thought. "For the first time we have folks agreeing on how to think about our future," says Bornstein. "We have the environmentalists and agricultural producers agreeing on how to move forward with both protecting the environment and keeping agriculture viable in Colorado. We have the municipalities agreeing with the agriculturalists and environmentalists that we need to continue to do more municipal conservation and efficiency. "However, implementing it will be the next chapter." next chapter."