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~~ RECREATIONAL WATER RIGHTS Page 1 of3 ) ~ The Pueblo Chieftain Online Select file then print to print this article. Publish Date Sunday April 14th, 2002 RECREATIONAL WATER RIGHTS Chieftain photo/File Kayakers enjoy their sport on the Arkansas near the Pueblo Reservoir. Important to our future I ' - ~ ' ~"~ Tom Rorczak Law exists to serve the people. It functions as an expression of the will of the people and of our enduring principles as a nation, providing rules to protect and preserve all we hold dear - from our freedom and liberties to our health and safety and to our property and the products of our labor. If the law is to well serve the people, it must evolve, grow and adapt with the times - with each advance of civilization forward, and with each unfortunate stumble backwards. Law should guide us forward and it should cushion our stumbles, Water law in the arid West, particularly in Colorado, was born and nurtured along to serve the will and the changing needs of the people, It served the miners when there were thousands of mines operating in Colorado. Later, it served agriculture. It grew and adapted to protect massive water projects that took decades to construct in order to serve "great and growing cities" such as Denver. As competing demands for water increased and water became more precious, other concepts were incorporated into Colorado's water law so that the people could enjoy as much benefit as possible from this limited resource. Colorado's complex system of water law grew from a simple premise contained in its constitution: that the right to take water from any stream or river and apply it to a "beneficial use" should be protected, The framers of our state constitution were acquainted with the needs of the inhabitants and familiar with the uses of water for mining, agriculture and turning the stone wheels that ground flour. They also firmly believed that for Colorado to grow and prosper, the right to appropriate water needed protection. The drafters of Colorado's constitution had the foresight to recognize that, though perhaps unknown at the time, other valuable uses of water might someday come along and should also enjoy constitutional protection if the state were to continue to grow and prosper. These http://www.chieftain.com/print/sunday/editoriaVarticles/edi3.htm 04/15/2002