303-776-9900Water in Colorado belongs to the people of the State. The State manages the resource for the benefit of its citizens. Colorado’s system of prior appropriation for managing water rights has its foundations in mining law. This system gives users of surface water a priority based on the date their water right is placed to […]
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Water rights in Colorado are prioritized and administered based on the year of their decree and date of appropriation. The oldest decreed water rights are most senior and are entitled to divert their decreed flow rate when water is in short supply. If there is not enough water in the stream at their diversion point, […]
“Use it or lose it” is often colloquially used to describe the prior appropriation doctrine for water rights in Colorado. Nowhere is that phrase more accurate than when it comes to the decennial abandonment list. CRS § 37-92-401(1)(a) requires the Division Engineer to maintain a tabulation of water rights and priorities in their Water Division, […]
