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July 13, 2007 <br />Page 3 <br />appropriation as we know it would fall—the phreatophytes and then the <br />individual salvaging water would have the best right. Furthermore, if <br />individuals salvaging public water lo st to encroaching phreatophytes were <br />permitted to create new water rights wh ere there is no new water, the price <br />of salt cedar jungles would rise shar ply. And we could expect to see a <br />thriving, if clandestine, business in salt cedar seed and phreatophyte <br />cultivation. <br />Id. Finally, the Court in Shelton Farms emphasized that while crea tive and beneficial solutions <br />for the treatment of salvaged water could be fa shioned, it was the General Assembly that would <br />need to do so: <br />No one on any river would be adverse to a schematic and integrated system <br />of developing this kind of wate r supply with control and balancing <br />considerations. But to create such a sc heme is the work of the legislature, <br />through creation of appropriate dist rict authorities with right to <br />condemnation on a selective basis, not for the courts. <br />529 P.2d at 1327. Justices Groves, in a special conc urrence, stated that “[i]t is earnestly hoped <br />that the General Assembly can provide a solution so that this water, now being lost in such large <br />quantities to the phreatophytes ma y be brought under control.” Id. at 1328. <br />The holding of Shelton Farms has been affirmed and approved many times over the years. In <br />R.J.A., Inc. v. Water Users Ass’n of Dist. No. 6 , 690 P.2d 823 (Colo. 1984), the applicants had <br />removed extensive deposits of peat moss and dr ained a swamp. They argued that because the <br />consumptive use of the swamp and peat had existed before the first appropriations had ever been <br />made on the stream, Shelton Farms did not apply. The Court disa greed, holding that “reduction <br />of consumptive use of tributary water cannot provide the basis for a water right that is <br />independent of the system of priorities.” Id. at 825. This same holding has been repeated in <br />many contexts. See Giffen v. State , 690 P.2d 1244 (Colo. 1984) (removal of pine and fir trees); <br />State Engineer v. Castle Meadows, Inc. , 856 P.2d 496 (Colo. 1993) (increased runoff from urban <br />development); City of Aurora v. State Engineer , 105 P.3d 595 (Colo. 2005) (reduction of native <br />vegetation by lowering water table in c onnection with conjunctive use project). <br />In addition to an emphasis on the importance of the priority system, as described above the <br />salvage water decisions have also consistently expressed concern for the effect of a salvage water <br />credit on Colorado’s environment. The Court in Shelton Farms was particularly concerned that: <br />If these decrees were affirmed, the use of a power saw or a bull-dozer <br />would generate a better water right than the earliest ditch on the river. The <br />planting and harvesting of trees to creat e water rights superior to the oldest <br />decrees on the Arkansas would result in a harvest of pandemonium. <br />Furthermore, one must be concerned th at once all plant life disappears, the <br />