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Municipal Use Distribution of Use At least 100 cities or towns in Colorado use surface water derived almost exclusively from runoff from mountain areas. High mineral content curtails the use of water of the South Platte, Arkansas, and Colorado Rivers after they leave the mountain area. For this reason, the use of surface water by urban centers in Colorado is largely restricted to areas that are in or very near the Rocky Mountains. In these areas, the use of surface water predominates, except in the san Luis Valley where abundant ground water of good quality is readily available. Where there is a choice, towns of less than 5,000 population generally prefer ground water because surface water usually needs to be filtered: however, many small mountain towns use surface water because their systems were established in the last century before the avail- ability of local ground water was known. Municipalities use only a small part of the surface water available in Colorado. Municipal demand, even in the South Platte basin where it is highest, is small compared to the average supply (table 2). The average flow of Clear Creek, a tributary of the South Platte River, is nearly equal to the water demand of all municipalities in the South platte Basin in Colorado. It is esti- mated that municipal consumptive use of water is less than 2 per- cent of the total consumptive use of water withdrawn in the state, but because the water needs of irrigated and potentially irrigable lands in parts of the State exceed the available surface water supply, there is keen competition for the right to use the surface- water resources of the State. Water Rights Colorado's constitution provides that the unappropriated water of every natural stream is the property of the public, sub- ject to appropriation, and that the right to divert such water for beneficial use shall never be denied. It declares further that: "priority of appropriation shall give the better right as between those using the water for the same purpose: but when the waters of any natural stream are not sufficient for the service of all those desiring the use of the same, those using the water for domestic purposes shall have the preference over those claiming for any other purpose, and those using the water for agricultural purposes shall have preference over those using the same for manufacturing purposes." However, in 1896, the supreme Court of COlorado ruled that in this section of the constitution, "domestic purposes II were not meant to include municipal purposes: and that if given a greater meaning, including municipal purposes, such preferred municipal use requires just compensation to senior ap- propriation. 13