Laserfiche WebLink
constitutional muster, ; <br />Dist. v. Colorado Water <br />570 (1979), there is no~ <br />citizens to appropriate <br />effectuating a means of <br />so as to vest a private <br />gee Colorado River Water Conservation <br />Conservation Bd., 197 Colo. 469, 594 P.2d <br />k a constitutionally guaranteed right in <br />water for instream flow purposes without <br />capture, possession, and control of water <br />property right in the use of the water. <br />IV. RECREATIONAL WATER USE ALLOWABLE UNDER CURRENT COLORADO <br />LAW -- IMPOUNDMENT RELEASE FROM STORAGE, AND TAE <br />MINIMUM STREAM PROGRAM OF TAE COLORADO WATER <br />CONSERVATION BOARD. <br />As exhibited by the cases cited in Part I above, <br />Colorado statutory and case law recognizes. and accommodates a <br />wide spectrum of water use as part of the public interest of <br />Colorado citizens. Components of the public interest include <br />agricultural, domestic, municipal, manufacturing, the <br />environment, and recreational use. <br />1. Colorado's Appropriation System Was Adopted and <br />Aas Continued to Change in Order to Serve the <br />Public Interest. <br />Those who assail Colorado's prior appropriation <br />doctrine for not addressing the public interest have either not <br />studied, or choose to ignore, the fact that the prior <br />appropriation doctrine grew out of the hard necessity of life in <br />the. semi-arid West. In the arid regions. of the West the public <br />interest could not be served by the riparian doctrine which only <br />permitted those along river banks to use the water resource, and <br />then only if the quantity and quality of flowing water were not <br />diminished except minimally. See "Water Rights Protection in <br />Water Quality Law," 60 U. Colo. L. Rev. 841, 857-859, 874-882 <br />-14- <br />