WSP11716

• File Number: 8507
• Description: Rio Grande Project
• State: CO
• Basin: Rio Grande
• Date: 7/1/1997
• Title: Water Management Study: Upper Rio Grande Basin part 1
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

Water Management Study: Upper Rio Grande Basin

yet to be learned about how transfers can affect other claims, however, and
the regulation of transfers is likely to evolve. In practice, few transfers have
occurred and fewer still have the potential to effect major changes in water
uses. The City of Albuquerque, for example, has been a major purchaser of
water rights but has purchased rights to take only about 4,300 af/yr of water
from the river that othenvise would have been used for irrigation (City of
Albuquerque Public Works Department 1996). When El Paso sought to
acquire groundwater from southern New Mexico, the state initially restricted
the export of groundwater out of the state, but then agreed to relax the
restriction in response to litigation that claimed it was an unconstitutional
restraint of interstate commerce insofar as it treated interstate and
intrastate transfers differently.

Texas. Texas applies the prior-appropriation doctrine in a manner similar
to Colorado and New Mexico, but it does not apply it as comprehensively as
those states do. The state's appropriative process applies to surface water as
well as to streams that flow under or alongside a surface stream. Texas
defines beneficial use as "the use of water that is economically necessary for
a purpose authorized when reasonable intelligence and reasonable diligence
are used in applying the water to that purpose" (Folk-Williams et al. 1985).
Texas Water Code, Chapter 11, Section 11.134 stipulates the following
requirements be met:

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1. The unappropriated water of every ordinary flow, underflow, and tides
of every flowing river, natural stream, and lake; and of every bay or
arm of the Gulf of Mexico; and the storm water, floodwater, and
rainwater of every river, natural stream, canyon, ravine, depression,
and watershed within the state of Texas are the property ofthe state,
to be held in trust for benefit of the people and is subject to
appropriation for beneficial use in accordance with the laws of the
state.

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2. Beneficial use defines the limit, measure, and extent of water rights.

3. New appropriations shall not impair existing water rights or vested
riparian water rights.

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4. Appropriations shall not impair the public welfare.

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5. Evidence that reasonable diligence will be used to avoid waste and
achieve water conservation shall be provided by the applicant.

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