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State Water Laws, Policies, and Administration <br /> Reservoirs to store water may be constructed either in the channel or bed of a <br /> natural stream or elsewhere. The State Engineer's approval of plans for <br /> construction and completion of reservoirs is required by law. The State <br /> Engineer heads the Division of Water Resources. Reservoir owners are held <br /> strictly liable for damages arising from leakage, overflow, or floods caused <br /> by the breaking of embankments of their reservoirs. <br /> Spring water, like other water, is subject to appropriation and use. The <br /> Colorado Supreme Court has thus upheld an injunction against a landowner prevent- <br /> ing his interference with the appropriative use of spring water tributary to a <br /> natural stream even though the water arose on the landowner's land and a statute <br /> specifically gives landowners the right to use spring water arising on their lands. <br /> Landowners, too, must acquire an appropriative right to use tributary spring <br /> water. Spring water that is not tributary to a natural stream may also be <br /> appropriated, in which case the priorities are determined just among the users <br /> of the spring water rather than among all water users in the drainage basin. <br /> Rainwater and other water following no defined course or channel is <br /> appropriable in Colorado as part of the waters of natural streams of the State <br /> "whether found on the surface or underground." <br /> Ground Water <br /> The State constitution applies the appropriation doctrine to the unappropriated <br /> waters of any natural stream. The treatment of ground water in the State has <br /> historically involved the characterization of the ground water involved as water of, <br /> i.e. , tributary to, a natural stream or as water not of, or tributary to, a natural <br /> stream. In general, water tributary to a natural stream has been treated as <br /> water subject to appropriation. The status of water not tributary to a natural <br /> stream has been in doubt until recent times when the enactment of the 1965 Ground <br /> Water Management Act authorized the creation of "designated ground water" basins, <br /> within which designated ground water, by definition, would appear to include all <br /> water not tributary to any natural stream or at least not in practice a part of the <br /> source of supply of appropriators from any natural stream. Designated ground <br /> water is administered according to a modified version of the appropriation doctrine <br /> under the 1965 act. <br /> 2.11 <br />