Laserfiche WebLink
values 3 <br />New ways of using water have always been met with alarm; yet "what constitutes a <br />beneficial use tracks legislative enactrnents, court decisions, and principally, the acts of <br />appropriators which control the water for their purpose." Santa Fe Trail Ranches Prop. Owners <br />Ass'n v. Simpson, 990 P. 2d 46, 54 (Colo. 1999) ("Santa Fe Ranches"). In 1886, in Larimer Co. <br />Reservoir Co. v. People ex rel. Luthe, 9 P. 794 (Colo. 1886), objectors to a reservoir warned that <br />"using the beds of streams in this way will lead to serious discord, contention, and trouble." Id. <br />at 796. In 1897, the Colorado General Assembly adopted its first sta.tute allowing for exchanges <br />of water rights. In City of Westminster v. Church, 167 Colo. 1, 13, 445 P.2d 52, 58 (1968), <br />"municipal uses" were specifically recognized as beneficial uses, wluch included a wide variety <br />of uses incident to governmental activities. In 1973, when societal values shifted towards <br />protection of the environment, the General Assembly adopted the in-stream flow program to <br />protect in-stream flow values. This Court upheld the in-stream flow program in 1979, in spite of <br />the fact that in-stream flow rights could be appropriated and applied to beneficial use without a <br />diversion. Colo. River Water Conservation Dist. v. Colo. Water Conservation Bd, 594 P.2d 570 <br />(Colo. 1979). In the 1980s, the uses of water for land reclamation and dust suppression were <br />upheld as beneficial uses in connection with application of State mi.ning and air quality laws. <br />State of Colo. v. S.W. Colo. Water Conservation Dist., 671 P.2d 1294, 1323 (Colo. 1983). <br />3"The doctrine of prior appropriation has evolved to meet changing needs as the West has <br />matured and diversified. Changes have occurred with different emphasis and at different rates <br />from state to state ... The flexibility of the appropriation doctrine has been... one of its most <br />important chara.cteristics. It evolved as a method for ada.pting to change in mining and irrigation <br />practices, and it will flourish if ttiat adapta.tion process continues." Norman Johnson and Chazles <br />DuMazs, A Survey of the Evolution of Western Water Law in Response to Chan?p Economic <br />Public Interest Demands, 29 Nat. Resources J. 347, 387 (1989). <br />7