University of Colorado Law Review Volume 55 Issue 3 Spring 1984

• Description: Plans and Studies: The Recent Quest for a Utopia in the Utilization of Colorado's Water Resources
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Other

1984] COLORADO'S WATER RESOURCES 407
4. Colorado Water Resources and Power Development
Authority
Another Colorado response to the decline of federal funding of
water projects was to establish the Colorado Water Resources and
Power Development Authority, an agency outside state government
that can incur debt.100 So far, the Authority has issued no debt. It
did receive $30 million for cost-sharing, but has not concluded nego-
tiations with the Bureau of Reclamation on this issue and may not
for years to come. The Authority's prospects for financing and build-
ing water projects depend on whether the projects it sponsors can
generate revenues needed to service debt.
In short, the Colorado response to a reduction in federal financ-
ing of water projects has been modest and subdued. The state legis-
lature affirmed this restraint when it removed millions from the Con-
struction Fund to meet a revenue shortfall in the 1983 fiscal year. In
fact, Colorado's response has been consistent with its historic reluc-
tance to build state planned and financed water projects. Efforts to
impose taxes, or permit debt to be incurred for state sponsored water
projects, have met with silence.101
B. The Colorado Response to Environmental Legislation
1. Minimum stream flows
In 1973, the legislature authorized the Water Conservation
Board to appropriate such water "as may be required to preserve the
natural environment to a reasonable degree."102 Eminent domain
may not be used, nor may the law be used to "deprive the people of
the state of Colorado of the beneficial use of those waters available
by law and interstate compact."103 The Board must request recom-
mendations from the division of wildlife and division of parks and
outdoor recreation prior to initiating a minimum stream flow appro-
priation.104 Later amendments required that before initiating a water
rights filing to preserve minimum stream flows, the Board:
shall determine that the natural environment will be pre-
served to a reasonable degree by the water available for the
100. Coi.o. REV. STAT. §§ 37-95-100 to 123 (Supp. 1983).
101. See Colo. Water Cons. Bd. minutes of 1982 and 1983.
102. COLD. REV. STAT. § 32-92-102(3) (Supp. 1983).
• 103. Id.
104. Id.; See Colorado River Water Cons. Dist. v. Colorado Water Cons. Board, 594
P.2d 570(Colo. 1979);Colorado Water Cons.Dist.v.Colorado Water Cons.Bd.:Diversion as
an Element of Appropriation, 57 DEN. L. J. 661 (1980).