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Chronology 1969 Colorado General Assembly adopts Water Rights Determination and Administration Act, with seven water divisions in the state and a division. engi- neer and water court in each division. 1969 Congress adopts the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). 1972 Colorado Supreme Court decides City and County of Denver v Fulton Irrigating Ditch Co., holding that water imported from one river basin to anoth- er can be fully consumed by reuse and successive use, to extinction. 1972 Congress adopts Water Pollution Control Act Amendments. 1973 Colorado General Assembly adopts the instream flow and lake level law, allowing the Colorado Water Conservation Board to obtain new water rights sufficient to "pre- serve the natural environment to a reasonable degree." 1973 Congress adopts Endangered Species Act. 1976 United States Supreme Court decides Colorado River Dist. v. United States (Mary Ahin), recognizing the authority of the Colorado water court over the Native American reservation water rights of the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Tribes. 1976 Congress adopts the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. 1977 Congress adopts Clean Water Act. 1979 Colorado Supreme Court decides People v. Emmert, holding that Colorado does not follow the public trust doctrine and the stream beds belong to the adjoining landowners. 1979 Colorado Supreme Court rules in Colorado River Water Conservation Dist. v. Colorado Water Conservation Board that the state instream flow program is not unconstitutional under the state constitution's prior appropriation provisions. 1980 Colorado Supreme Court in Weibert v Rothe Bros. holds that the historic beneficial use of a water right governs its change to a different point of diver- sion, place, or type of use. 1983 Colorado Supreme Court in Colorado v. Southwestern Colo. Water Conservation Dist. holds that the prior appropriation doctrine applies only to surface water and tributary groundwater. The General Assembly may decide how to allocate nontribu- tary groundwater. 1992 Colorado Supreme Court decides City of Thornton v City of Fort Collins, rec- ognizing the validity of water rights for boat chute and nature center diversions. 1992 Colorado Supreme Court decides Board of County Commissioners v Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy Dist., upholding the storage, release, and administration of water for use down- stream for recreation and fishing flows. 1995 United States Supreme Court decides Kansas v Colorado, holding that Colorado post-compact well pumping of Arkansas River tributary groundwater caused violations of the 1948 Arkansas River Compact. 1996 Colorado Supreme Court decides Ciry of Thornton v Bijou Irrigation Co., establishing standards for large agricul- tural water transfers to municipal use. 1997 Colorado Supreme Court decides Shirola v Turkey Canon Ranch Ltd. Liab. Co., recognizing the standing of any citizen to oppose an application filed in water court, in order to hold the applicant to a strict standard of proof. However, to assert injury to a water right, a person must have a legally pro- tected interest in a vested water right or conditional decree. The State and Division Engineers have broad stand- ing to appear in water court cases. 2001 General Assembly adopts Arkansas River Basin Pilot Water Bank and Recreational In-Channel diversion statutes. 2002 Colorado Supreme Court decides Board of County Commissioners v Parh County Sportsman's Ranch, restating the "Colorado Doctrine" and holding that aquifers can be used to store water under a decreed water right. To obtain such a storage decree, the appropriator must capture, possess, and control water and place it into the aquifer. The applicant for this kind of decree must prove that storage space is available in the aquifer without injury to other water rights. 2002 General Assembly adopts law allowing Colorado Water Conservation Board Instream Flow Program to pur- chase or accept donation of senior water rights to improve stream condi- tions. Previously, the Board could acquire instream flow rights only to provide minimum stream flows or lake levels necessary to preserve the natural environment to a reasonable degree. 3^ C^ L^ R A D D F^ U N D A T I O N F^ R W A T E R E D U CAT I^ N