PUB00080

• Year: 1989
• Title: Colorado Citizens' Water Law Handbook - Colorado Water: The Next 100 Years
• CWCB Section: Interstate & Federal
• Author: George Vranesh, P.E.
• Description: Handbook to help citizens learn about Colorado water law and define the role of water engineers
• Publications - Doc Type: Brochure

source of the water, the date of initiation of the appropriation, the amount of water

claimed, and the use of the water. A priority date is based on the date of initiation

of appropriation, No award of priority made in anyone calendar year can be senior

to an award made for rights for which applications were filed in a previous calendar

year. An exception exists when the federal government files for water rights. The

right dates to the creation of the reservation for which the water is required.

Priorities may be obtained for conditional water rights in the same manner

as those listed above. The appropriation date will revert to the earliest date on which

the claimant can demonstrate the initiation of an appropriation, The date of

initiation is the time at which an intent to appropriate co-exists with an action

manifesting that intent.

In order to claim and maintain an original priority date, an appropriator of

a conditional water right must demonstrate reasonable diligence from that date

forward in perfecting the appropriation. Once a conditional right is adjudicated,

showings of reasonable diligence must be made before the water court every four

years, until the appropriation is perfected, At that time an application to make a

water right absolute is made to the water court,

8, Rights of Wav

In Colorado, any person owning a water right is entitled to a right-of-way

through the lands which lie between the point of diversion and the point of use, for

the purpose of transporting water for beneficial use, The power of eminent domain

is conferred on water rights owners for the purpose of acquiring such aright-of-

way, but no occupied land can be subjected to the burden of more than one ditch or

other structure without the landowner's consent. The shortest and most direct route

practical must be selected,

On federal lands, no right of eminent domain exists. Rights-of -way must be

acquired under the terms of FLPMA, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act

of 1976. Though the secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior departments are both

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