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Early Transmountain Water Diversions ~ "J lholo I~ If',} ,00 Lare J 9th century irrigators near CJTeeley Colorado's pioneer fanncts learned early that additional water suqplies, in conjunction with storage resetyoirs, must be secured to assure the future of agriculture in northeastern Colorado. A tremendous agricultural expansion during the latter decades of the 19th century fdtced them into action. The idea for impqrting water from western Colorado to the !eastem plains has its roots in an 1882) court decision (Coffin v. Left Hand D,itch Co.), which established the legality of transbasin diversions. This case is one ofJthe most significant in Colorado water law history in that it also upheld the legality of the Colotado Appropriation Doctrlne. However, the issues in the cas~ had their origins some twenty years earli~r. In 1862, fanners along Left Hand Creek in Boulder County had apptopriated all the water their small river 40uld provide, yet there was still mote land to funn. i, They solved the problem bi digging a ditch from South St. Vtain Cr~ek to Left Hand Creek, thus supplementing their irrigation water from outside dieir own basin. ' This appropriation caused pard feelings among South St. Vrairl water users. Although the creek was not then fully appropriated, St. Vrain irrigators believed it was illegal to divert water out of its natural basin. The Left Hand irrigators however, took the position that the Miners~ Law could be applied equally to agricultural water priorities: first in time, first in right, and beneficial use of water were known criteria for the doctrine of- prior appropriation in mining law. Why not apply the same rules to other water uses? The two factions feuded for 20 years, and legends persist about St. Vrain farmers blowing up Left Hand diversion works and Left Hand farmers posting armed guards at their headgates. In 1882, the warring factions took their disagreement to Denver District Court. In the Coffin v. Left Hand Ditch Co. case, the court agreed with the Left Hand irrigators. The court's decision was based on two interlocking findings: First, the Left Hand irrigators had been putting the water to beneficial use, a condition the court said must be met to establish the "first in time" rule. Second, the doctrine of prior appropriation had been recognized and adhered to by water users since the earliest appropriations in Colorado Territory and therefore must be absolute if it was to be applied fairly and in an orderly fushion. By applying those two tests, the court was able to conclude that rransbasin diversions were perfectly legal. By extension, therefore, transmountain diversions would also be legal. This 1882 coutt ruling. establishing the legality of importing water, provided . the framework for future transmountafn- div~rsion projects. State officials had first begun looking at the poSSibilities for transmountain diversion of water during the 1880s. piuing the summer of 1884, E. S. Nettleton, Colorado's second state engineer, conducted surveys in the vicinity of Grand Lake. But, in his annual report, Nettleton stated, "A tunnel of 14 to 17 miles is entirely impracticable to construct. . . . " In 1889, the state legislature passed House Bill 161 authorizing the expenditt.ire . of $25,090 to conduct another survey to" determine the possibilities of diverting water from the Grand (Coiotado) River Basin to augment supplies in South Boulder Creek. In this same year, the Colorado Senate passed a bill appropriating ,up to $13 ,000to study the feasibility of bringing Grand, North Platte ane! Laramie River water to the Front Range areas. While no projects were pursued because of the high CO$,ts involved, no -lo.nger" was it -being suggested "that transmountairi projectS might be illegal. Proponents of diversion continued in their quest. The first attempts at diverting water into the Poudre basin were small~scale. The initial transbasin diversion was constructed by the 4rimer CounryReservoirCompanyin]uly, 1882. This-efforr- brought a small 'amount of Laramie River water-into Chambers Lake and the Cache la Poudre River valley. A- small, half-mile.iong ditch divetting Michigan river water through Cameron Pass into the Poudre River was built later that, same month. Over the next twenty years, four larger transmountain diversion projects were built that brought an additional 40,000 acre~feet of water into the Poudre basin. In 1891, The Water Supply and Storage Company took over the Larimer County Reservoir system and immediately began work on the Sky Line Ditch. The first major source of transbasin water to the Poudre River, the Sky Line Ditch, was built following a break in the company's Chambers Lake dam near the headwaters of the Poudre River. It brought water from the Laramie River into Chambers Like and on into the Poudre River. The Grand River Ditch was originally surveyed in 1890 and brought the first Grand River water into the Poudre basin in 1894. It was the first project to divert water across the Continental Divide to the East Slope. Also constructed by the Water 16 I -.J