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

since to do so would violate Colo~ado's basic constitutional fra-

mework of individual water rights ownership. Moreover, the policy

of water use efficiency is already embodied in Colorado's

existing framework. For example, the Colorado courts have

adopted the doctrine of "maximum utilization". References to the

"greater utilization" of the waters of the state abound

throughout the organic act of the Colorado Water Conservation

Board, and the Board's construction fund authority includes (and

the Board has funded) projects which "effect more efficient use

of" Colorado's water resources. In the last legislative session,

the Department of Natural Resources sought a staff position in

the Water Conseevation Board which would have dealt exclusively

wi th water management and eff iciency issues. Colorado's system

for changes of water rights, exchanges, loans of water rights and

plans for augmentation also encourage cooperation and efficiency

among water users in the same basin.

Finally, the current policies of this state regardi ng water

management, use and efficiency can be improved through the

existing system, without restructuring the entire system. The

Colorado system has shown both flexibility and leadership over

the years, and water resource policy will continue to evolve and

improve.

The biggest area of potential improvement in the existing

system appears to me to be one of access: there is a mystique

about the workings of the Colorado water establishment. Although

the processes are open and public, they apparently are not easily

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