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<br />short supply, the junior is curtailed until the senior rights are <br />fully satisfied, C.R.S. S 37-92-502(2). The "domestic <br />preference" provision of the Colorado Constitution operates to <br />allow municipalities to condemn water for domestic use, but it <br />does not allow cities in times of short supply to leapfrog the <br />priority system, in the absence of consent by those holding <br />senior priorities, City of Thornton v. the Farmers Reservoir and <br />Irriqation Co., 194 Colo. 526, 575 P.2d 382 (1978); Nevius v. <br />Smith, 86 Colo. 178, 181, 279 P. 44 (1929). <br /> <br />Given its junior status, a municipality or special water <br />district wishing to develop an additional water supply in <br />Colorado today has eight basic alternatives: (1) to capture and <br />store axcess runoff during the spring snowmelt in a basin where <br />such flows have not been fully appropriated, (2) to purchase <br />water rights owned by others, generally mining or agricultural <br />water rights, and change them to municipal use, (3) to divert or <br />store water out-of-priority and provide replacement water through <br />an exchange or augmentation plan under C.R.S., SS 37-92-103(9) <br />and 37-92-302, (4) to develop non-tributary water wells under <br />land within its boundaries under C.R.S. SS 37-90-137(4) and <br />37-90-137(8), (5) to purchase raw or treated water from another <br />municipality or special district, (6) to perfect conditional <br />water rights which have been previously obtained, (7) to condemn <br />water rights, or (8) to pursue any combination of these <br />alternatives. Though the City of Thornton in the late 1970's <br />succeeded in establishing the authority of cities to condemn <br />agricultural water, the uproar which resulted in the State <br />Legislature led to abandonment of the condemnation proceeding. <br /> <br />Increasingly, cities are looking to acquiring water <br />rights of others as a major part of their inventory to fill <br />future needs. Several cities in Northern Colorado have <br />annexation policies which require developers to dedicate water <br />rights to the city as a condition of annexation. For example, <br />the City of Greeley requires three acre feet of water to be <br /> <br />-3- <br />