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The language of 537-84-113, C.R.S., acknowledges that a natural stream may be used <br />as a conduit for owners of water rights to use the stream to deliver their water.3 In <br />order to effect such delivery, water users seeking to use the natural stream to deliver <br />water "shall construct suitable and proper measuring flumes or weirs, equipped with <br />self -registering devices if required by the state engineer, for the proper and accurate <br />determination of the amount and flow of water turned into, carried through, and <br />diverted out al` said natural stream"' (underline emphasis added). <br />Noncompliance with the provisions of sections 37-84-112 or 37-84-113, C.R.S., "shalt, <br />during such noncompliance, forfeit the right to divert water into any canal or to <br />impound water in or deliver water from any reservoir. "5 Under section 37-42- <br />502(5)(a), C.R.S., the State and Division Engineers are also authorized "to order any <br />owner or user of a water right to install and maintain at such owner's or user's <br />expense Necessary meters, gauges, or outer measuring devices and to report at <br />reasonable times to the appropriate division engineer the readings of such meters, <br />,gouges, or other measuring devices. " <br />The construction of headgates and related structures for the diversion of water from a <br />stream is also subject to Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, which is administered by <br />the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. When erecting headgates and measuring devices, <br />water users are responsible for ensuring compliance with all state and federal laws <br />and nothing in these guidelines affects that responsibility. <br />Past Practice <br />Many headgates and related diversion structures for senior water rights were built <br />when there were few or no needs or requirements to deliver, or bypass, water past <br />senior diversion structures that were historically entitled to divert or "sweep" the <br />entire flow of the steam. Today, an increasing number of water users need to deliver <br />water past senior diversion structures for augmentation and other purposes. <br />As delineated in statute, the state engineer has required the owners of water rights <br />who want to use the stream as a conduit to build the measurement flurries, weirs or <br />devices required to administer their water deliveries, including the delivery of water <br />past intervening water rights that are drying or "sweeping„ the river. While the <br />practice of compelling water users to provide the necessary bypass structures and <br />measurement devices required to administer their water is considered an equitable <br />way to address new deliveries of water past existing structures, the administrative <br />need can also be effectively addressed when new or replacement headgates and <br />measuring devices are constructed. <br />3 Trail's End Ranch, LLC Y. C4, D IR, 91 P.3d 1058 (Colo. 2004). <br />4 937-84-113, C.R.S. <br />5 537-$4-116, C.R.S. <br />6 537-84-113, C.R.S. <br />Administrative Protocol and Functional Standards <br />surface Water Headgates and Measuring Devices <br />