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An adjudication date is as important as the appropriation date in establishing the <br />priority of a water right. If a water -user put water to use in 1920 but has only <br />recently filed in court for a water right, the right would be junior to rights <br />adjudicated before the recent filing. <br />Proving when water was appropriated is not always easy. Neighbors can testify <br />about water use, or photos can show water being used. Sometimes a sign in the <br />ground with a date can evidence an appropriation. <br />Decisions about water rights are made by water courts. In Division 7, Judge Greg <br />Lyman is the Water Judge. Appeals of water -court decisions go directly to the <br />State supreme court, bypassing the Colorado Court of Appeals. <br />Water rights are decreed only for "beneficial uses ". Over time, the list of such <br />uses has expanded. Originally, the primary uses were mining, livestock and <br />irrigation. Now there are many more. The Water Rights Determination and <br />Administration Act of 1969 recognized augmentation as a use. Recreation and <br />instream flow ( "ISF") are more recent beneficial uses. <br />The Colorado Division of Water Resources designates certain areas as "water - <br />critical" when such areas routinely have water shortages at some time during the <br />year. This designation relates primarily to well - permitting. To obtain a well permit <br />in a water - critical area, requires at least 35 acres or a land subdivision prior to <br />1972. <br />Hermosa Creek is a tributary of the Animas River. The Animas has never had a <br />sustained call, though there have been occasional shortages. A call occurs when <br />water demanded by senior water rights which are not receiving their entitlement <br />and for their specific decreed uses. Hermosa Creek is considered "non- critical ", <br />although there was a call for a short period in 2002, a year of severe drought. <br />There has rarely been a call on Hermosa Creek. <br />There was a new water right decreed recently in Southwest Colorado for a <br />recreational in- channel diversion ( "RICD ") for the City of Durango for recreational <br />boating. The right is for a significant year -round flow. Because of the adjudication <br />of that right, it is possible that the Animas in the future may be considered over - <br />appropriated and, therefore, designated could be designated as "water critical" <br />for the purposes of well permitting. <br />The decree for the Durango RICD was arrived at through negotiations, which <br />allow for some future consumptive development within La Plata and San Juan <br />Counties under rights held by SWCD and La Plata County. Durango's RICD was <br />adjudicated in 2006 and is a junior water right to these designated future uses. A, <br />RICD can be held only by a municipality or other designated public entity, not by <br />an individual. <br />2 <br />