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Colorado water law ... normally involve[s] the placement of dams and diversion structures in <br />streams." (v. II, p. 369). Another co- sponsor of SB 97 also subsequently stated that legislators <br />"were worried that somebody might come along and want a bank -to -bank type <br />appropriation which would create havoc all the away (sic) down the stream." (v. II, p. 406) <br />(emphasis added). <br />The Legislature's concerns were obviated when this Court upheld SB 97, but reiterated <br />that physical diversion from the stream was still an essential element of appropriations for water <br />users other than the CWCB. CWCB 594 P.2d at 574. The Court specifically "emphasized" that <br />it was "not hereby causing any erosion of the many opinions of this court ... holding that a <br />diversion. is an essential element of the water appropriations" in Colorado. Id. (emphasis <br />added), citin Guiraud Luthe, Rocky Mountain Water and Miller Thus, while the CWCB <br />could appropriate instream flows, other appropriators were still subject to the long- standing <br />diversion requirement or the requirement that the water be controlled in its natural course or <br />location by storage in the streambed for later diversion. <br />In light of this background, this Court must now determine whether claiming the <br />maximum flows within a stream by rock arrangements constitutes a diversion, capture, <br />possession, and control of the water or whether the rocks simply allow the water to continue to <br />flow as an instream flow within the natural channel. The term "instream flow" is used to "mean <br />the same thing as streamflow, which is simply water flowing within a natural channel." D. <br />Gillilan & T. Brown, Instream Flow Protection: Seeking a Balance in Western Water Use p. 8, <br />(1997). There is no question that the Applicant has claimed a water right for water simply <br />flowing within the natural stream channel. Because the water continues to flow as it did prior to <br />11 <br />