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<br />of the purchaser to finance acquisition of the water right and <br />the facilities necessary to take the water to its new place of <br />use. <br /> <br />Renewed interest in water markets as an allocation <br />device has arisen in the West, largely due to withdrawal of the <br />federal government from new water project financing. The <br />Colorado experience in reallocation of water through the <br />marketplace illustrates both the opportunities and the need for <br />caution in relying for future municipal water supply primarily on <br />agricultural water transfers. <br /> <br />THE PUBLIC SECTOR IS THE SINGLE GREATEST MARKET <br />FORCE IN COLORADO TODAY <br /> <br />The single greatest force in the colorado water rights <br />market today is not the private sector, but, rather, the public <br />sector in the form of municipalities and special water districts <br />which have need to develop or acquire additional water in order <br />to supply growing demand in their service areas. Municipalities <br />and special water districts purvey raw or treated water to end <br />users, normally businesses and households, as a service for the <br />purpose of meeting water needs and promoting economic development <br />within their service areas. <br /> <br />Because Colorado's municipal economy has largely <br />developed later in time to the State's mining and agricultural <br />economies, municipal water rights obtained through new <br />appropriations from natural streams have a relatively junior <br />status. <br /> <br />Under Colorado water law a junior takes the stream as he <br />finds it, after the available supply is used by seniors according <br />to their priorities on the river,_,Shawcroft v. Terrace Irriqation <br />~, 138 Colo. 343, 349, 333 P.2d 1043, 1046 (1958). When a <br />"call" is placed with the State Engineer by seniors in times of <br /> <br />-2- <br />