7750

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7750
• Author: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
• Title: Study of Alternative Water Supplies for Endangered Fishes in the "15-Mile Reach" of the Colorado River.
• USFW Year: 1992.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

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CHAPTER IV
Utilization of Agricultural Water Rights
"An appropriative water right includes a number of elements, most of which
can be changed in Colorado. Generally, there is a specific point of diversion.
There is a specified rate of diversion in the case of direct flow rights and a
specific quantity of water in the case of storage rights. Water rights have an
implied or expressed time of use. They have an implied or expressed place of
use and they exist for specified types of use. By statute, change may be made
in the point of diversion, in the type, place or time of use, or between direct
flow and storage rights. The only limitation on such changes is that they must
not "injuriously affect the owner of or persons entitled to use water under a
vested water right or a decreed conditional water right.
1 As the Water Acquisition Committee (WAC) of the Recovery Program has witnessed, there
seems to be a significant amount of confusion and controversy regarding the scope of the
water right to be transferred. One significant water right was submitted to the WAC for
consideration to purchase. Upon an initial investigation it was determined that, yes, the right
did divert a substantial amount of water but there was not a corresponding amount of
consumptive use (CU) of the water. For the purpose of making a change, a water right is
defined not by its decree but by its historical use.'
When a change of water rights is made the simplest and easiest way to prevent
injury is to limit the volume of the exchange to the historical consumptive use
that occurred under the right. This assures that only water previously lost
from the system and upon which no junior could rely is moved. However,
there appears to be no precise requirements that only the historical
consumptive use can be changed. The legal limits on the ability to change a
water right are prescribed by the amount beneficially used and by the "no
1 injury" rule.'
On a stream as highly appropriated as the Colorado River, it is not unreasonable to assume
that water transfers will be limited to their historic CU during the irrigation season.
' THE WATER TRANSFER PROCESS AS A MANAGEMENT OPTION FOR MEETING CHANGING
WATER DEMANDS, a report prepared for the U.S. Geological Survey by Dr. Lawrence J. MacDonell, April
1990, Vol II, Chapter 3, p. 3.
' Ibid. p. 4.
3 Final Draft - AN ANALYSIS OF WATER SALVAGE ISSUES IN COLORADO. Colorado
Department of Natural Resources, Water Conservation Board. January 9, 1992. pp. 15.
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