BOARD02069

• Board Meeting Date: 11/13/1968
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

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MR. GEISSINGER:

MR. STAPLETON:

MR. GEISSINGER:

some proposed water legislation. Will
35 minutes be enough time for you, Jim?"

"Plenty of time."

"All right, then let's start now."

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"Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen,
Senate Bill 407 of the 46th Session of the
General Assembly authorized and directed
the Coordinator of Natural Resources to
undertake studies leading to recommenda-
tions for legislation which would provide
for the integrated use of surface and ground
water, conserve water resources for maximum
beneficial use, and permit a greater utiliza-
tion of all the waters of the State of
Colorado. other objectives of the study, in
the language of the Bill, are:

'To review existing water laws of
the State of Colorado to determine their
sufficiency and the need for any modifica-
tions or supplementations thereto in order
to provide an effective system for adminis-
tration, development and control of water
use in colorado, and to achieve maximum
utilization of water resources compatible
with the requirements of the State Consti-
tution. '

Of course, this is old hat to most of
you but even antedating the constitution of
the State of Colorado we've had in this
state the miner's law, first in time first
in right. This was recognized by the congress
of the united States in the 1860's in the
various mining laws and in 1877 it was in-
corporated into the Desert Land Act. So
since 1877, if not before that, the waters
of the State of Colorado have not been tied
to the land. This is a concept that was
difficult to get through to a lot of people,
you get title to your land through patent
from the United States but that your water

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