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 393
late methods, means and plans for bringing about the greater utiliza-
tion of the waters of the state and the prevention of flood damage
therefrom."7 This legislation also authorized the Board to "gather
data and information for these purposes."8 The Board's principal
duty, however, was to cooperate with the United States in planning
•
and building federal reclamation projects.°
In 1953, just prior to passage of the federal Colorado River
Storage Project Act of 1956,10 the legislature broadened the powers
of the Board by authorizing it to study western slope waters "to the
full extent necessary to a unified and harmonious development of
those waters."11 A full 14 years later the legislature again expanded
the Board's authority to permit continuous studies of "all" water
within the state." And in 1967 the Board gained the authority to
establish a "comprehensive water planning program" in conformity
with the recently enacted federal Water Resources Planning Act."
Finally, in 1969, the legislature authorized the State Engineer,
in cooperation with the Water Conservation Board, to collect "infor-
mation on the water supplies . . . of the State of Colorado in order
to make a more efficient administration thereof."14 The most recent
legislation on planning and studies was in 1981 when the legislature
gave the Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Au-
thority broad power to "plan, design, develop, acquire, and construct
•
. . . and participate in one or more projects within or without the
state. . . ."16 Ten years earlier, the Colorado Water Conservation
Board had been authorized, in effect, to make loans for building
water projects that conformed with the "state water plan,""
whatever that plan was.
With the exception of site specific studies for projects financed
by the Colorado Water Conservation Board construction fund, the
statutes authorizing state water plans and studies did so with the
view that some entity other than the state would finance the develop-
ment and construction of water projects in Colorado. Moreover, until
7. 1937 Colo. Sess. Laws 1305.
8. Id.
9. Id. at 1305-06.
10. 43 U.S.C.S. §§ 620-620(o) Law. Co-op. (1980 & Supp. 1983).
11. 1953 Colo. Sess. Laws 645.
12. 1967 Colo. Sess. Laws 295.
13. Id.
14. 1969 Colo. Sess. Laws 1194. (Emphasis added.)
15. CoLo. REV. STAT. § 37-95-106(k)(I).
16. 1971 Colo. Sess. Laws 1343-45.