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Answer Brief of Amici Curiae
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Answer Brief of Amici Curiae
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Last modified
1/26/2010 4:41:40 PM
Creation date
7/29/2009 1:56:16 PM
Metadata
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Template:
Water Supply Protection
File Number
8230.2F
Description
Colorado Supreme Court Appeal
State
CO
Basin
Colorado Mainstem
Water Division
4
Date
9/29/2004
Author
Glenn E. Porzak, Anne J. Castle
Water Supply Pro - Doc Type
Court Documents
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legislature did not impose the additional, unstated limits that the State and its Amici urge this <br />Court to create. When the water court decision is read as a whole, the statement that additional <br />limits on the "size and scope" of any RICD "would appear to infringe on the Constitutional right <br />to appropriate" can only be read to mean that, absent explicit direction from the legislature which <br />did not exist in this case, any additional court imposed flow limit on the RICD claim at issue <br />might be unconstitutional.s <br />VI. A RICD IS NOT AN INSTREAM FLOW RIGHT AND IS NOT SUBJECT TO <br />THE LIMITATION OF THE STATE INSTREAM FLOW PROGRAM. <br />Contrary to the State claims, RICDs are neither riparian rights nor in-stream flow rights. <br />They are water rights for the water that in-channel diversion structures divert and control to <br />create recreational opporiunities. Under the plain language of SB 216, such rights require a <br />statutory diversion, and can only be claimed for the amount at a specific point that is "diverted, <br />captured, controlled and placed to beneficial use... by physical control structures." C.R.S. § 37- <br />92-103(10.3).6 In contrast, a CWCB minimum in-stream flow is for a reach between two points <br />on a stream, does not require pLny control and, in fact, "usually signifies the complete absence of <br />5 Whether or not the legislature could have imposed more stringent limits on RICDs without violating the <br />constitutional right to appropriate was not an issue that was raised before the water court, and it should not be <br />considered or decided by this Court. <br />6 The State argues at considerable length that prior to SB 216, appropriation of a water right in Colorado required a <br />physical diversion. (State at 6-8). On that premise, it further characterizes RICDs as a legislative exception to the <br />requirements of Colorado water law, and urges the Court to adopt strict limits on the size of such rights. This <br />argument is entirely without merit. First, RICD claims involve water controlled within the channel and thus a <br />"diversion" under the statutory definition in § 37-92-103(7). That is the essential holding of the Fort Collins <br />decision. Second, the State completely misunderstands the CRWCD v. CWCB decision, and the many cases and <br />authorities cited therein, which unequivocally hold that diversion of water out of the stream has never been a <br />constitutional requirement for an appropriation in Colorado. Colorado River Water Cons. District v. Colorado <br />Water Cons. Bd., 598 P.2d 570, 572-575 (Colo. 1979); see also Larimer Co. Reservoir Co. v. Luthe, 9 P. 794, 796 <br />(Colo 1886)("there may be a constitutional appropriation of water without its being at the instant taken from the bed <br />of the stream."). Even the State Amici concede that this Court "has held that a physical diversion is not a <br />constitutional requirement." (State Amici at 19). <br />Tm1650 13
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