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<br />su~h legal approaches. <br /> <br />II. GENERAL LEGAL CONTEXT--PRIOR APPROPRIATION SYSTEM <br />The prior appropriation system, prevalent in the western <br />United States, evolved from the customs of the mid-nineteenth <br />century mining communities, and subsequently was adopted by <br />courts and legislatures. The appropriation doctrine operates on <br />the principle of "first in time, first in right." In contrast <br />with the riparian system of water allocation found in the rela- <br />tively humid East, the appropriation doctrine involves no <br />watershed or land-ownership limitations on the use of the water. <br />As was establ ished in the early Colorado case of Coffin v. Left <br />Hand Oi tch Company, 2 water can be removed from the stream and <br />diverted from the watershed of origin for use .elsewhere, even <br />though none of that water returns to the original stream system. <br /> <br />Out-of-watershed transfers are thus recognized as proper, so long <br /> <br />as the water is put to a beneficial use. Future uses are not <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 <br /> <br />an exporting area, county, or watershed <br /> <br />that protection of <br />characteristic of <br /> <br />is not <br /> <br />26 Colo. 443 (1882). <br /> <br />2 <br />