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<br />DRAF:I' <br /> <br />and recommendations. <br /> <br />II. GENERAL LEGAL CONTEXT--PRIOR APPROPRIATION SYSTEM <br /> <br /> <br />The prior appropriation system, prevalent in the western <br /> <br /> <br />United Stat.;s, evolved from the customs of the mid-nineteenth <br /> <br /> <br />century mining communities, and subsequently was adopted by <br /> <br /> <br />courts and legislatures. The appropriation doctrine operates on <br /> <br /> <br />the principle of "first in time, first in right." In contrast <br /> <br /> <br />with the riparian system of water allocation found in the rela- <br /> <br /> <br />tively humid East, the appropriation doctrine involves no <br /> <br /> <br />watershed or land-ownership limitations on the use of the water. <br /> <br /> <br />As was established in the early Colorado case of Coffin v. Left <br /> <br /> <br />Hand Ditch company,2 water can be removed from the stream and <br /> <br /> <br />diverted from the watershed of origin for use elsewhere, even <br /> <br /> <br />though none of that water returns to the original stream system. <br /> <br /> <br />Out-of-watershed transfers are thus recognized as proper, 50 long <br /> <br /> <br />as the water is put to a beneficial use. Future uses are not <br /> <br /> <br />protected--application to a beneficial use is the central feature <br /> <br /> <br />of a final appropriative right. Because an existing beneficial <br /> <br /> <br />use is crucial to the obtaining of a priority, those who have no <br /> <br /> <br />beneficial use requirement at the present time are necessarily <br /> <br /> <br />placed in a position of lower priority compared with those who <br /> <br /> <br />have made an actual appropriation. <br /> <br /> <br />Given this basic principle, it is clear that protection of <br /> <br /> <br />an exporting area, county, or watershed is not theoretically <br /> <br />26 Co 1 o. 443 ( 18 8 2) . <br /> <br />2 <br />