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DEVELOPMENT of THE REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR DENVER BASIN AQUIFERS Age Geologie Unit Aquifsr Nomenobdu e Q 'Y Recant and Fteistoaene Quaternary surfed deposits Stream channel, flood plait and terrace depcO ;colian sand, eta, h em Tertiary Oligocene Cudc Rock Conglomerate Wall Mountain Tuff Tadary intrusive and C&uusive rocks Toraaryww Faleooena Dawson Arkose Dawson Aquifer Cretsoco us Dawsast Oroup Denver Fermation Denver Aquifer 2 Arapalm Formation Arapahoe Aquifer Upper Cretaceous upper part I.eramic Formation E sandsone A sandstone Im mie -Fox Hilts Aquifer Fox Hills Sandstone Fierce Formation REGULATORY HISTORY Colorado's water law evolved around a need to allocate and administer the surface waters of the state under what is known as the "doctrine of prior appropriation" or "first in time, first in right ". This concept allows the most senior appropriator, the person who took water out of the stream and put it to beneficial use before anyone else, to claim all of the water needed to satisfy a particular use. Later appro- priators ( "junior water diverters ") may have their diversions of water curtailed so that the senior appropriators can divert all the water due them. While there was a dim recognition that some groundwater might be hydraulically connected to the surface waters, administration of ground- water was not considered in early water rights legislation. Some early case law did acknowledge that some ground- water might not be hydraulically connected to the surface waters, making that groundwater "nontributary ", and there- fore not subject to administration under the prior appropri- ation doctrine. Use of Colorado's groundwater was essentially unregu- lated until the early 1950s. The first law directed at the administration of groundwater and water well construction, SB 57 -113, was passed in 1957. This law called for the licensing of water well drillers, and prohibited the wasting of groundwater by calling for the control of water from unregulated flowing artesian wells. While this legislation did not control water use, it did institute a process that Figure 2. Generalized stratigraphic col- umn of the geologic and hydrogeologic units of the Denver Basin. Modified from Romero, 1976. provided some data on the number of water wells being drilled. Additional significant laws regulating groundwater were implemented in 1965, 1969, 1971, 1972, and 1973. In 1985, the Colorado General Assembly mandated that the State Engineer promulgate rules and regulations for the administration of the bedrock aquifers of the Denver Basin. The State Engineer is the appointing authority and the director of the CDWR. The office of the State Engineer was created in 1881, and assigned the responsibility of measuring the water in each stream from which water was being diverted for irri- gation purposes. Along with the creation of the office of the State Engineer, the first three Water Divisions consisting of the drainages of the South Platte River, the Arkansas River, and the Rio Grande were created. The remaining four Water Divisions were created over the next six years (unpublished CDWR memo). As a result of 1969 legisla- tion, The Water Rights and Determination Act, the State Engineer's Office also became known as the Division of Water Resources, and the administration of groundwater was formally combined with the administration of surface waters. While Colorado had very strict laws for the develop- ment and appropriation of surface water, there was no administration of groundwater until the late 1960s. With the passage of the Water Rights Administration laws of 1965 and 1969, groundwater became subject to the prior appropriation system of water law. At first, administration 155 The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists