9369 ‎(2)‎

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9369
• Author: Colorado Water Workshop.
• Title: 12th & 13th Annual Colorado Water Workshop.
• USFW Year: 1987.
• USFW - Doc Type: Western State College of Colorado.
• Copyright Material: NO

policies, through a more limited set of entities. At that time,

the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the conservation and con-

servancy districts, and major project developers such as the

Denver Water Board were the primary generators of state water

policy.

First, Colorado sought to preserve to the state as much water

as possible for appropriation by its citizens. This was

accomplished primarily through U. S. Supreme Court litigation and

the negotiation and implementation of interstate compacts.

Second, the state actively encouraged traditional water

storage project development. The state pursued the construction

of federal reclamation projects, and state water policy agencies

supported individual project development. The Colorado Supreme

Court responded in a similar manner. The court adopted the

"great and growing cities doctrine", and generally made it easy

to appropriate and keep alive conditional water rights for large

but then-unneeded water projects.

These two basic goals remained valid mostly because the state

did not have to consider raising its own capital for project

development. In cases where local support was apparent but

financing was not, the state was pleased to lend political

assistance toward obtaining cheap financing from the federal

bankroll. Therefore, th is state policy could be entirely based

on Colorado I s decentral ized, entrepreneural system. For those

local entities with the financial ability to develop their own

systems--such as Denver, Colorado Springs, and Aurora--the state

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