PROJ02195

• Contract/PO #: 07000000090
• Contractor Name: Ditch and Reservoir Company Alliance
• Contract Type: Grant
• Water District: 0
• Loan Projects - Doc Type: Report

PREFACE

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By Justice Greg Hobbs

How WATER DITCHES HELP TO INVENT AND REINVENT COLORADO WATER

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Ditches help to invent and reinvent Colorado. A mag-
nificent but harsh landscape, prone to cycles of flood and
drought, has become a habitable place due to them.
The study of ancient water works in the Amelicas-paleo-
hydrology-reveals a 2,000-plus year history of community
organization based on good public-works water supply and
drainage practices.
In Peru and the Lake Titicaca region, the Pukara, Wari,
Tiwanaku, and Inca peoples constructed canals and aque-
ducts to carry water for growing food and to feed fountains
and cisterns for drinking water and ceremonial rituals-at
such sites as Tiwanaku, Pikillacta, Chokepukio, Machu Pic-
chu, Tipon, and Moray.
On the limestone caprock of the Yucatan Peninsula within
Guatemala, 12 small reservoirs encircle Tikal. The causeways
into and out of this great Mayan ceremonial center doubled
as ditches to fill them.
The Hohokam constructed hundreds of miles of canals
for growing crops in Arizona's Salt and Gila River drainages
beginning as early as 300 B.C.
In Colorados Mesa Verde, ancient Puebloans operated
four reservoirs between 750 and 1100 A.D. Upstream diver-
sion ditches fed the two canyon-bottom reservoirs. Water
from intermittent storm runoff was so precious it was used
for drinking only, not irrigation. These early Coloradans
were dry land farmers.
The Hispanos of northern New Mexico had nearly 400
acequias in place by the 1800s. These direct flow ditches
were the centerpiece of community livelihood. To have a
share of water for your fields, you had to help maintain the
Mother Ditch and her laterals.
In 1858, Lt. Joseph c. lves of the U.S. Topographical
Engineers saw how the Hopi on their mesas, dating back
centuries, were grovv1.ng peaches, watering sheep, tending
gardens, and supplying drinking water from springs through
strategically-placed stone conduits and reservoirs. The old-
est continuously-operating water right in Colorado is the San
Luis People's Ditch of 1852, constructed by Hispano settlers
soon after the 1848 Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo brought the
great Southwest into the United States.
No, the Anglo Mormons and the miners did not invent
Western water use!
Recent tree ring studies show that each generation faced
recurrent drought cycles, some of seemingly impossible du-
ration. How to survive in the Americas is how to cope with
water scarcity. Smart soil and water management has always
been the key to community possibility.
In its very first session, the Colorado Territorial legisla-
ture in 1861 set forth an irrigation water law (not a mining
water law, contrary to popular legend, although customs of

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the miners in making claims probably had an influence). It
contained two fundamental features: Water could be taken
from any "stream, creek or river.. .to the full extent of the
soil, for agricultural purposes" and any person with land re-
moved from the water source "shall be entitled to a right of
way through the farms or tracts of land which lie between...
above and below him" for the construction and operation of
"water facilities. .. to irrigate his land."
Water and ditches-the right to beneficially use water in
priority, combined with the right to cross the lands of others
with water structures-reside at the core of Colorados 1876
Constitution. Over the course of 145 years since territorial
days, many decisions of the Colorado Supreme Court and stat-
utes of the General Assembly have reinforced Colorados de-
pendence on its greatest treasure, the publics water resource.
In 1879 and 1881, the legislature assigned to state courts
the responsibility for adjudicating water use priorities, and
directed the State Engineer, division engineers, and local wa-
ter commissioners to administer them, curtailing junior uses
in times of short supply. In 1903, the legislature provided
for the adjudication of all other types of water rights, in addi-
tion to agriculture. In 1919, the General Assembly required
that all water rights be adjudicated in the courts; if not, they
would not be enforced.
By the start of the 20th century, the South Platte, Ar-
kansas, and Rio Grande river basins were interlaced with
ditches. Reservoir construction to capture spring runoff and
manage direct flow diversions within ditch systems was well
under way. This was the era of private water development
centering on mutual ditch and reservoir companies. A share
of a mutual company represents a prorata ownership in the
water right and the water facility assets it owns. These orga-
nizations of landowner water users pooled their money and
muscle to develop and maintain water facilities for ranching
and farming.
From the commercial impetus and the food supply the
mutual ditch and reservoir company owners provided sprang
the cities, while mining camps and towns came and went.
For-profit water and land companies attempted to gain a toe-
hold; most failed. Commerce and industry tied itself mostly
to municipal water suppliers.
Throughout the 20th century, a multitude of local gov-
ernmental entities came into being-cities and water con-
servancy, water conservation, and water and sanitation dis-
tricts-whose job it was to supply water for growth through
water infrastructure financed by tax levies and bond issues
secured by user fees.
The federal government, through the reclamation program
in cooperation with local sponsoring districts, assisted with
the construction of large storage and delivery facilities that

Ditch Company Handbook I June 2005