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II , ~. . . ., . . SUMMARY OF COLORADO WATER TRANSFERS STUDY Colorado Water Transfer pOlicy Colorado courts first recpgnized that a change could be made in a water right without loss of priority in 1884. Early Colorado cases were strongly influenced by California decisions which allowed such changes subject to the requirement that there be no "injurious consequences" to others. The guiding rationale in these cases was the view that the priority to use water from a given source is a property right under the pri"or appropriation system which should be freely transferable, just like any other property right. Appropriation and continuing beneficial use are essential to the right. Attributes such as the point of diver- sion, the place of use, and the purpose of use may be freely changed without affecting the right itself, so long as no injury to others results. In 1899, Colorado enacted legislation requiring district court approval for changing the point of diversion of an existing water right. Changes in water rights now are governed by the 1969 Water Right Determination and Administration Act which explicitly recognizes changes in type, place, or time of use, the point of diversion, and the means of diversion. It recognizes changes in storage rights and changes in conditional water rights. The applicant carries the burden of sustaining the application, including the "burden of showing absence of any injurious effect." Terms and conditions may be imposed to prevent injury, including limitations on the new use, relinquish- ments of water, and time limitations on the diversion of water, Continuing court supervision for some specified period to consider questions of injury is required. Colorado water policy as reflected in its laws emphasizes the allocation of water primarily through the decisions of individual appropriators. Water rights are "determined" to exist by a water court, not "permitted" to be established by an administrative agency, Changes in water rights are encouraged by . the very broad definition of allowable changes, by limiting review of such change requests to a consideration of injury to other water rights, and by allowing terms and conditions to be incorporated which will prevent any injury. In practice, injury is only reviewed in the change proceeding when the change application is protested. Colorado Water Transfer Activity To examine the level and types of water transfers in Colorado we examined all decrees for changes in water rights (except those str ictly for a change in the point of diver sion) based on applications filed in the seven Colorado water courts between 1975 and 1984. The attached tables summarize some of our findings from this examination. A total of 973 applications for changes in water rights (excluding strictly changes in point of diversion) were filed between 1975 and 1984 (see Table l). Of those, 743 or about 76 ~'v