BOARD01250

• Board Meeting Date: 12/9/1964
• Description: Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

4144

accordance with the doctrine of prior appro-
priation. Such waters can be found almost
anywhere in the State of Colorado, even in
the Arkansas or South Platte. In some of
the deep aquifers, we cannot measure any
effect upon surface decrees. In the alluvial
aquifers, we can. In the Republican River I
drainage, out of about 430,000 feet annual
flow in the Republican River, 390,000 feet of .
that is subsurface flow. Surface decrees are
almost nonexistent in that area. The river
is almost entirely an underground river. Of
the 430,000 acre-feet of water which goes by
the state line in that river, only about
40,000 feet is available at the surface.

b. {.This provision worries Mr. Saunders
and it worries me also}. Those waters in
areas not adjacent to a continuously flowing
natural stream wherein ground water withdrawals
had constituted the principal water usage prior
to January I, 1950, and continuously since that
date are nontributary. The date is purely
arbitrary. One can argue about the dates;
one can argue about whether it is constitu-
tional. There is only one agency that can
decide whether or not any law is constitu-
tional. That is the Supreme Court of the
State of Colorado and, in some cases, ulti-
mately the united States Supreme Court. I
cannot state what their reaction may be.

But we have existing water uses that
have existed for many years. Whether or not
they are constitutional or unconstitutional,
we have them. We must recognize the existing
facts. So this is sort of a grandfather
clause. There is no question about it, there
have been areas in the Bijou, prospect Valley,
and other areas, particularly in the South I
Platte Valley, where for perhaps fifty years
ground water has been used. We say, sometime
or other the existing situation must be faced,
and if it can be upset in the courts, that's
one thing; but again, we have an existing
situation that we must recognize.