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In Santa Fe Trail Ranches Propertv Owners Association v. Simpson, 990 P.2d 46 <br />(Colo. 1999), the Court stated as follows: <br />The property right we recognize as a Colorado water right is a right to use <br />beneficially a specified amount of water, from the available supply of <br />surface water or tributary groundwater, that can be captured, possessed, <br />and controlled in priority under a decree, to the exclusion of all others not <br />then in priority under a decreed water right. See Shirola v. Turkev Canon <br />Ranch Ltd. Liab. Co., 937 P.2d 739, 747-48 (Colo. 1997). A water right <br />comes into existence only through application of the water to the <br />appropriator's beneficial use; that beneficial use then becomes the basis, <br />measure, and limit of the appropriation. <br />This is the essential premise of appropriation law throughout the west. <br />"Beneficial use is the measure and the limit of an appropriative right.° <br />Joseph L. Sax, Robert H. Abrams & Barton H. Thompson, Jr., Legal <br />Control of Water Resources, Cases and Materials, Second Edition 164 <br />(1991). <br />After quoting the foregoing, the Court in Empire Lodqe, supra, stated at p. 1147: <br />"Water rightn means a right to use in accordance with its priority a certain <br />portion of the waters of the state by reason of the appropriation of the <br />same. § 37-92-103(12), 10 C.R.S. (2001). A water right is created when <br />a person appropriates or initiates an appropriation of unappropriated water <br />of a natural stream of the state. Shirola v. Turkev Canon Ranch Ltd. Liab. <br />Co., 937 P.2d 739, 748 (Colo. 1997). <br />A right to use water of the natural stream arises from placing the <br />unappropriated water to beneficial use; a conditional water right holds a <br />place in the priority system to which the water right antedates in the event <br />the appropriator places the unappropriated water to beneficial use. Dallas <br />Creek Water Co. v. Huev. 933 P.2d 27. 35 (Colo. 1997). <br />Maximum utilization is a critical component of this state's objective to "maximize <br />the beneficial use of all of the waters of this State." See also BOCC of Park Countv v. <br />Park Countv Sportsman's Ranch LLP, 45 P.3d 693 (Colo. 2002). As described in <br />Emqire Lodge Homeowners Association v. Mover, 39 P.3d 1139 (Colo. 2001), this <br />analysis involves maximizing uses consistent with Colorado's interstate compact <br />obligations. That Court stated at p. 1150: <br />18