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The Colorado Supreme Court held that nontrlbutary groundwater ls not subject to the same legal reglme as tributary groundwater. Thus the 1957 Act dld not authorlze adjud1catlon or admlnlstrat10n of r1ghts ln nontr1butary water. Whltten v Colt, 153 Colo. 157, 385 P. 2d 131 (1963). The Colorado leglslature then enacted the Colorado Groundwater Management Act of 1965. The Act dealt spec1flcally wlth nontr1butary groundwater, author1z1ng the creatlon of des1gnated groundwater bas1ns to allow the planned deplet10n and use of nontr1butary groundwater. The Act has been used largely 1n Eastern Colorado and the area under1a1n by the Ogallala Aquifer. Under the 1965 Act, statutory r1ghts may be acqu1red to nontrlbutary groundwater under a mod1fled form of pr10r appropr1at1on. The Act's stated purpose ls to perm1t the full econom1c development of des1gnated groundwc~~r. Rlghts under the 1965 Act may be acqu1red only lf water 1s ava1lable that has not been appropr1ated by others and the appropriatlon w1l1 not unreasonably 1mpa1r ex1st1ng water r1ghts or create unreasonable waste. After the 1965 Act, nontr1butary water outs1de des1gnated bas1ns was subject only to a well perm1t requ1rement--the same requlrement that app11es to tr1butary water. The only restr1ctlons 1n granting such a permlt were that the state Eng1neer determ1ne that there w111 be no mater1al 1njury to vested water r1ghts of others and that unappropr1ated water 1s ava11able. In 1973, the leg1s1ature added a provls1on, still known as "S.8. 213," whlch added the requ1rement that only the quant1ty of water underly1ng "the land owned by the applicant or by the owners of the area, by the1r consent, to be served 1s consldered to be unappropr1ated." The amendment also st1pulated that the m1n1mum useful 11fe of the aqu1fer 1s to be 100 years. -5-