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r. <br />WATER RIGHTS IN COLORADO <br />Water rights found within the AOI are located in the drainage <br />basin of the North Fork of the Gunnison River and its tributaries. <br />Those water rights were initiated under and are governed by the <br />doctrine of prior appropriation. The scarcity of water in <br />Colorado relative to its demand necessitated that the legal regime <br />for distribution of water protect the first user of water in a <br />stream against subsequent appropriators. The statement "first in <br />time, first in right" illustrates the operation of the doctrine of <br />prior appropriation. <br />Taking water from a stream and applying it to beneficial use <br />• constitutes an appropriation and initiates a water right. <br />Consequently, beneficial use (not land ownership) is the basis of <br />the right to use water in the State of Colorado. The more typical <br />examples of beneficial use of water include irrigation, domestic, <br />industrial, municipal and stockwatering. <br />The taking of water and its application to beneficial use <br />determines the priority of the water right and the amount, place, <br />time, and type of water use made by virtue of the water right, As <br />a result, priority (i,e „ seniority) of the date of initiation of <br />water use is the basis of allocation of water when supply is not <br />sufficient to meet demand. <br />Groundwater is presumed to be hydraulically connected to <br />surface streams (unless proven otherwise) and, hence, is also <br />governed by the doctrine of prior appropriation. An appropriation <br />I-2 <br />