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confirming the date of appropriation of the water right, the amount of the right and the purposes for which it may be used. A decree is not necessary in order to obtain a water right, howev- er, it is the best evidence of the existence of the right and provides an enforcible priority date.19/ Prior to 1969, water rights were adjudicated by the district courts. When water users desired to adjudicate their water rights they would petition the court to commence an adjudication. Notice of the adjudication proceeding would be given to all per- sons within the water districts or irrigation division involved. A decree would ultimately be entered confirming the water rights of all those who entered the adjudication proceeding. Any person who failed to enter such an adjudication proceeding was bound thereby and subject to the postponement doctrine. The postponement doctrine simply provides that a person who fails to enter an adjudication proceeding by which he will be bound cannot thereafter obtain a priority for his water right senior to the most junior right decreed in that adjudication proceeding. This has the effect of making senior water rights junior to those with later appropriation dates if the junior rights are adjudi- cated first. This sometimes harsh result was designed ?to require everyone to adjudicate their rights at the earliest possible time. The doctrine insures that those who have their rights de- creed can rely on the decrees of the court as establishing what rights are senior to their own. This prevents an unadjudicated senior right from coming in later, getting a senior decree and, thereby, upsetting the expectations of appropriators with decreed rights that had relied on their relative priority dates. This manner of adjudicating water rights has been modified by the Water Right Determination and Administration Act of 1969, sec- tions 36-92-101 to 602, C.R.S. (1973 & 1985 Supp.). Under the 1969 Act, water courts were established which continuously adju- dicate water rights. However, the postponement doctrine is car- ried forward in the 1969 Act.20/ The Act provides that the dates of appropriation shall control the relative priorities among all water right applications filed in the same year. However, a wa- ter right application filed in any year is junior to all water right applications filed in previous years. The operation of the postponement doctrine shows why it is essen- tial to adjudicate a water right as soon as possible. Failure to adjudicate the right results in continual loss of priority re- gardless of the date of initiation of the right. Failure to ad- judicate water rights and consequent loss of priority is a seri- ous problem for state agencies. -7-