WSPC01380

• File Number: 8200.700
• Description: Colorado River Basin General Publications - Augmentation-Weather Modification
• State: CO
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 4/18/1986
• Author: WBLA Inc
• Title: Uses of Increased Flows Originating on the Arapaho National Forest - Final Report
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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1. State water laws

State water laws in the Colorado River Basin, as in other western states,

follow the doctrine of prior appropriation. This doctrine was devised in the

nineteenth century when it became apparent that the riparian doctrine, inherited

from the English Common Law, was unsuitable in an arid environment because it

did not provide clear and secure rights to divert and use water consumptively.

The new western doctrine was based upon the first-come, first-served feature

adopted in the mining camps to settle conflicts over the 'right to exploi t

mineral deposits. Its three essential principles are diversion, beneficial use,

and seniority. A right may be acquired for the quantity of water diverted from

its natural course and put to a beneficial use. The date upon which these

conditions were met establishes the seniority of the right, although that right

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might subsequently be lost if the conditions of diversion and beneficial use

are not maintained. The seniority principle means that whenever a conflict

arose between two diverters from the same body of water the one with the senior

right could divert up to the full amount to which he was entitled before the

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holder of the junior right could divert at all.

Each of the western states has developed its own unique adaptation of

appropriation doctrine, and in some a mixture of appropriation, riparian, and

Spanish water law doctrines prevails. Only Colorado remains a "pure"

appropriation state, in the sense that a water right can be acquired by meeting

the diversion and beneficial use requirements alone. In all other states, a

permit must be obtained from a state ,agency, although the rules governing the

issuance of those permits follow the principles of appropriation doctrine.

Under the doctrine of prior appropriation, water rights in principle may be

freely transferrable, although they are sometimes inseparable from the land upon

which the water was originally used, as in riparian doctrine, and they may not