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'V-~ 00 CO _-I ,:) ,;../ surface irrigation from relatively senior ditches. Surface water users further north on the Rio Grande and in the closed basin area had themselves resorted to large amounts of well pumping to supplement their surface supplies, so they found themselves on both sides of the issue. The agricultural well users throughout the valley had banded together in a voluntary association called the San Luis Valley Well Users Association to resist groundwater regulation and to prepare to meet the requirements of any regulation which did come about. After the proposed Rules and Regulations were promulgated, they were joined by most of the municipal communities of the valley who were dependent on groundwater supplies. C. Rules and Regulations of Groundwater Elsewhere in Colorado 1. The business of regulating groundwater withdrawals in Colorado was not new. They were preceded by the controversy in the Arkansas River Valley which resulted in the landmark case of Fellhauer v. People, 167 Colo. 320, 441 P.2d 986 (1968). In that case, the Division Engineer had selected a handful of wells near the river which were clearly contrib- uting to the depletion of the stream flows, already over-appropriated by the senior surface ditches. The Court, while upholding the application of the prior appropriation doctrine to wells tributary to the stream, disallowed the attempted curtailment effort on Due Process grounds. It held that before such curtailment could be effective, there must be written Rules and Regulations setting out a clear standard of who was to be curtailed, requiring that there must be a reasonable lessening of material injury resulting from the curtailment and providing an affirmative opportunity for the affected wells to propose conditions of operation which would allow their operation without such injury. In Fellhauer, Justice Groves first enunciated the now familiar doctrine calling for the maximum utilization of the combined ground and surface water resources. 2. The Colorado legislature addressed the problem in 1969 with the adoption of the comprehensive Water Rights Determination and Administration Act of 1969. That act called for the regulation of wells in the priority system, but simultaneously called for the conjunctive use of groundwater and surfa~e water. It specifical1y provided the authority and framework for the State Engineer to adopt rules and regula- tions regarding groundwater (1973 C.R.S., ~37-92-501) . -8-