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. . . . The Colorado Water Conservation Board Page 4 CONFIDENTIAL RESPONSE 5: In Colorado, an easement is an interest in real property. It is revocable only under the conditions specified in the easement. A license is generally a personal and ordinarily revocable privilege to perform some act on land without possessing any interest in the land. Any attempt to assign the license without such consent terminates the license. Unlike a lease or an easement, a license does not constitute an interest in land, nor does it create a vested right unless it is coupled with an interest, upon which it becomes an assignable property right and cannot be revoked. One example of a license coupled with an interest is the right of an owner of personal property (such as a volleyball net) to remove it when it has been placed on the land with the licensor's permission. In addition, once a licensee spends money making improvements (such as a deck) on the lands in reliance on the license and with the knowledge of the licensor, under some circumstances, the courts treat the license as a lease and do not permit the termination without good cause. Although the license can be called a revocable license and additional language can be drafted to attempt to avoid this result, its success cannot be guaranteed. "Revocable Permits" do not appear to be any different from revocable licenses.6 It is possible that regardless of whether the conveyance document was called a revocable license or a revocable permit, once certain facilities which the private individuals and entities have indicated that they would like to construct on CWCB land were constructed, a court might treat the conveyance as an easement. QUESTION 6: What stormwater discharge private entities? is the Board's authority to grant the easements which have been requested by RESPONSE 6: Colorado has adopted the "civil law rule" on drainage which provides that the owner of higher land ("domi- nant estate") has an easement for the drainage of the histori- cal amount of surface waters from his lands to flow through the natural drainage course on lower lands (" servient es- tate"). The dominant estate owner may alter the natural drainage conditions on his lands so long as the water does not flow over the servient estate in a quantity or in a manner which would cause additional harm to the servient estate. If 6 The term "permit" appears to be preferable since it sounds less permanent.