Laserfiche WebLink
course or location by means of a ... structure or device. " The <br />dam structures and flow deflector control devices which constitute <br />the City of Golden's White Water Course and which will constitute <br />the Extension are such diversion structures or devices. See Cif <br />Thornton v. City of Fort Collins, 830 P.2d 915 (Colo. 1992). <br />(Record V.3, at 550 (italics in original).) <br />Golden's dam structures and flow deflector devices, which were found to control water in <br />its natural course or location within the meaning of section 37- 92- 103(7), span the entire channel <br />from bank to bank. (Record V. 4, at 149 -150, 159; V.5, at 30.) However, the course creates low <br />flow and high flow channels. (Record V.4, at 160, 168.) At high flows, Golden claims that the <br />entire channel is the deflector device. Id. <br />III. Summary of Argument <br />The Colorado General Assembly has carefully limited the appropriation of water for <br />instream flow purposes. In granting a water right to the City of Golden for recreational boating <br />in the channel of Clear Creek, the water court ignored important limitations in the definitions of <br />"diversion" and "beneficial use," limitations which are of critical importance because rights for <br />instream flows could prevent the future development of waters to which the state of Colorado is <br />entitled under interstate compacts and decrees of the United States Supreme Court. <br />At flows in excess of 30 c.f.s., Golden's structures and devices merely change the <br />direction of the flow of water in Clear Creek and change the hydraulics of the flow to create <br />whitewater features, but do not control water in its natural course or location within the meaning <br />of section 37 -92- 103(7), 10 C.R.S. (2001), and therefore do not constitute a diversion under <br />section 37- 92- 103(7), 10 C.R.S. (2001). If Golden's structures and devices were sufficient to <br />control water in its natural course or location, it would effectively resurrect the riparian doctrine <br />in Colorado. <br />0 <br />