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<br /> <br />\ <br />\ <br /> <br />%Jk 77vut &~olt:y'P. C <br /> <br />f\ECE\VEO <br /> <br />~t.R 2. 1 '996 <br />d Waler <br />colola 9 aoard <br />Coosef\latlOO <br /> <br />Attorneys At Law <br />1775 Sherman Street. Suite 1300 <br />Denver. Colorado 80203 <br />(303) 861-1963' Fax: (303) 832-4465 <br /> <br />Ext. 123 <br /> <br />March 24, 1996 <br /> <br />Professor Dan Tyler <br />History Department <br />Colorado state University <br />Fort Collins, Colorado <br /> <br />Dear Dan, <br /> <br />I've just had the great pleasure of reading your essay <br />"Delph E. Carpenter and the Doctrine of Equitable Apportionment." <br />Earlier I read your work on the so-called Pueblo Rights doctrine. <br />Your research and writing is a wonderful contribution to Western <br />History and to water law and policy. <br /> <br />I am e~pecially interested in how concepts of equity and the <br />prior appropriation doctrine exist side by side in the Western <br />law of water, the constant effort being to establish enforceable <br />legal principles which can be relied upon in making water uses. <br /> <br />The Pueblo rights doctrine, if I understand your analysis <br />and conclusions, was an attempt by a few cities to establish that <br />all present and future needs of a growing city would have first <br />priority to a greater share of the available supply as to which <br />all other rights would be subordinate. This now discredited <br />doctrine, if adhered to, would mean that settled agricultural <br />economies a4d expectations which grew up around water use in <br />and [rom community ditches in Northern New Mexico, for example, <br />would be undermined without compensation of lost economic value <br />and the community values dependent on continued utilization <br />of the river diversions. <br /> <br />This type of conflict in Colorado was obviated by the <br />Colorado Supreme Court which construed the domestic preference <br />clause of the Colorado constitution as allowing cities to <br />exercise eminent domain with payment of just compensation as to <br />senior agricultural rights, but otherwise requiring that the <br />available water supply of the natural streams would be allocated <br />and used in order of priority of appropriation. Under Colorado's <br />1969 Adjudication Act growing cities have chosen to pursue <br />junior storage rights, purchase of senior agricultural rights <br />