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<br /> <br />Source: Powder River Basin Council, WY <br /> <br />2. How has our society's water mana2:ement svstem incoroorated the ecolo2:ical <br />value of water? <br /> <br />For the first lOO years, Colorado's didn't. The Colorado Constitution provides that the <br />right to divert water to beneficial use shall never be denied. There is no public interest <br />test, no caveat for ecosystem protection. <br /> <br />In 1973, the General Assembly authorized the Colorado Water Conservation Board to <br />appropriate junior instream flow water rights to preserve the natural environment to a <br />reasonable degree in streams with adequate water available. As structured, the program <br />provides some protection for healthy stream systems from future growth, but does not <br />restore those stream systems that became over-appropriated in the first lOO years of the <br />prior appropriation system's use. <br /> <br />Even since 1973, the system still does not allow for protection to the ecosystem fi'om <br />other adverse ecological effects of dams and diversions, such as degraded water quality. <br /> <br />Moreover, given that the system has never limited new diversionary appropriations <br />(except for injury to appropriated instream flow rights), rivers without instream flow <br />rights may still face being dried up, even when they provide critical habitat to water <br />dependent species. <br /> <br />Meanwhile dams and diversions lead to the following problems with the ecosystem: <br /> <br />. Blocked fish migration and habitat fi'agmentation <br />. Higher summer temperatures while increased winter risk of anchor and frazzle ice <br />. Increased sediment deposition <br />