07SA293 Advance Sheet Headnote The Water Right Determination and Administration Act of 1969 The Colorado Ground Water management Act beneficial use well appropriation

• Description: Colorado Supreme Court opinion regarding classifying use of water for coalbed methane production as a beneficial use.
• State: CO
• Date: 4/20/2009
• Title: 07SA293 Advance Sheet Headnote The Water Right Determination and Administration Act of 1969 The Colorado Ground Water management Act beneficial use well appropriation
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Court Documents

In fact, the presence of water and its subsequent
extraction during CBM production is far more than an "inevitable
result." Indeed, the presence and extraction of water are
integral components to the entire CBM process. CBM producers
rely on the presence of the water to hold the gas in place until
the water can be removed and the gas captured. Without the
presence and subsequent extraction of the water, CBM cannot be
produced. As both Three Bells and Zigan make clear, the fact
that the water used during the CBM process may become "a
nuisance" after it has been extracted from the ground and stored
in above ground tanks (that is, after it has been "beneficially
used ") does not prevent a finding that the water is put to a
beneficial use. While the Engineers and BP are correct that no
Colorado case has specifically held that water used during CBM
production is a beneficial use, this fact does not prevent us
from finding such a beneficial use where our case law and the
language of the 1969 Act so dictate. See Sw. Colo. Water
Conservation Dist., 671 P.2d at 1321 -22.
That the water used in CBM production is integral to the
process itself distinguishes this case from a host of other
instances in which nuisance water is merely removed but not
beneficially used. The Engineers and BP argue that the use of
water in CBM production is akin to snow removal, removal of
flood water from a subsurface mine, and storm water control at
14