As the General Manager of the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District perhaps the most asked water question involves irrigation ditches and the appurtenant water rights.  There are important concepts to understand before one can benefit from a dialogue of the potential impacts from changes of use of these water rights.

To establish an irrigation water right, the claimant must demonstrate the act of appropriation.  He must show a diversion of a specific amount of water from a natural water course and place this water to an irrigation use.  The use is the basis, the measure, and the limit of the water right.  Typically, one cubic foot per second or 450 gallons per minute is sufficient to irrigate 50 acres of ground, however there are other ratios in some decrees.  The annual amount of use can be quantified and is called the historic consumptive use.  The amount not consumed by plant growth is referred to as the return flow.  Return flows either runoff the surface of the ground and immediately return to a natural water course or percolate below the root zone and over time return to a natural water course.  Except during rare periods of time there are water right claims on all waters of the Arkansas Basin.  Because of this scarcity, decrees for ownership of water rights all have a priority date.  Simply, first in time is first in right.

When an owner of a water right seeks a change of use, for example a new location or type, or manner of use, he is obligated to adjudicate this change through a water court process, first giving notice so other owners of water rights can ascertain the potential impact to their water rights from this change.  The party changing their water right must demonstrate lack of injury to other water rights. Historic practice becomes important at this juncture.  Some of the questions that arise involve the amount, location, and timing of return flows.  Return flows may accrue through the conveyance canal seepage, runoff from the irrigated fields, and underground percolation.  There is no lack of rules, regulations, statutes, and water court cases on this subject.  There are however some basic concepts. 

Return flows are appropriated by downstream water rights.  A change of one’s water right can impact other’s rights.  The owner of a water right must demonstrate dominion and control over his water right to maintain a claim.  Simply, if a water right owner is unable to demonstrate dominion and control over a portion of his water another appropriator can claim this water subject to the priority system.  Affecting the availability of water through a change may be injury.

​Changing a water right is a tricky procedure and fraught with potential pitfalls.  A change of a water right may be as simple as moving the point of diversion on a natural stream, lining or piping a conveyance canal, irrigating an adjacent parcel of land, changing the method of irrigation from flood and furrow to sprinkler or drip.  Each of these have the potential to impact return flows and thus someone else’s water right.  Before embarking on these seemingly innocuous ventures one needs to fully evaluate the potential impacts from a change of use.  Perhaps undertaking one of these changes may mean a trip to water court to adjudicate the change.

The misreading of Section 5, Article 16 of the Colorado Constitution has led many citizens to mistakenly assume that all the water of the state belongs exclusively to the public.  This section states:

“The water of every natural stream, not heretofore appropriated, within the state of Colorado, is hereby declared to be the property of the public, and the same is dedicated to the use of the people of the state, subject to appropriation as hereinafter provided.”

Essentially the waters are the property of the public for appropriation to beneficial use.  The ownership of the water by the public is conditioned upon it not being appropriated.  Further the water is dedicated to the people for appropriation for beneficial use.  In the Arkansas Basin every drop of water in the natural streams is appropriated and thereby owned by individual entities, private and public.

Due to the above misreading and misunderstanding of ownership a tension between private rights and public rights to water has existed.  Importantly, Colorado is not a public trust state.  Thus, the waters of the state are not “held in trust” for the public, rather, they are dedicated to the people of the state for appropriation and use.  The statute therein creates the ability for individuals to acquire a private ownership of water—a water right confirmed by court decree through a priority of use date. 

Some incorrectly argue that a water right is a usufructuary right, which is technically correct.  A usufructuary right refers to one individual’s right to use the property of another provided that the right is not altered or impaired.  A Colorado water right is different, it is alienable.  That is, it may be changed and transferred to another type of use, place of use, or manner of use.  The priority of use has historically been viewed as a private property right that can be separated from the land upon which it is used.  The water right itself can be separated and transferred from the land upon which it was historically used and may be purchased separately from the land.  Although water rights are property rights and are considered realty, they can be abandoned, thus they are a possessory right.

For nearly 150 years water in Colorado has been allocated by prior appropriation.  Especially in the arid Western half of the USA this system that establishes these property rights is called the “Colorado Doctrine”.  When the interior of the Western United States was developed Colorado was the trailblazer on water appropriation.  The West needed miners, ranchers, and farmers to develop its resources and build a viable economy through hard work.  During this early development period the average citizen mistrusted government and large monopolistic enterprises and feared the creation of a system that would facilitate collusion between government and these corporations.  To best use the water resources of Colorado the prior appropriation doctrine was adopted to create the incentive for resourceful individuals to divert waters of the state and place them to uses that would develop vibrant economies.  The system that was adopted prevented wealth speculators from hoarding water and creating a windfall profit.  The language in the Colorado Constitution does just that.  Public refers to the people individually given the right to appropriate water and place it to beneficial use and thereby creating a private property right. 
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By law the amount of water so appropriated must be beneficially used without waste.  Irrigation water rights are allocated by a ratio of a volume or rate of water to a specific amount of acreage.  This is termed the “duty of the water right”.  From this ratio and historic practice is derived the specific amount of water that an individual water right owner owns, stated in acre feet.  The number of acre feet owned is what can be transferred for use in different locations or transferred to a different type or manner of use.  In order to protect other vested water rights a transfer must be confirmed by the water court and a new or a change decree issued.  Through the water allocation and use mechanisms developed in the Colorado Doctrine, Colorado citizens have been able to optimize the use of incalculable value in an arid region of the United States.

This is part one of a two-part series by General Manager, Ralph "Terry" Scanga

Most discussions involving water supply or quality require a good examination of historical perspective of water development.  For this reason, understanding the system by which water is and has been allocated in Colorado since statehood is a good starting point.  

Water in Colorado is allocated as a private property right through a system referred to as the Appropriation Doctrine.  It is the only arid Western state that utilizes a pure form of this doctrine called the “Colorado Doctrine”.  This doctrine is enshrined in the State’s constitution.  It is a constitutional right for the citizens of Colorado to an appropriation of water based on its beneficial use.  Although many legislative statutes deal with water appropriation and use these all rely upon and must comport with the basic constitutional right granted the citizens of the state.  This article is not intended to delve into the Doctrine except to point out that water rights and decrees are granted as a private property right.  In fact, this system is automatically designed to apportion available water supply without undue interference from government except for the administration of the existing water decrees or through the water court.
 
In 2005 legislation was passed creating the inter-basin compact committee and the nine basin roundtables.  The basins utilized the Statewide Water Supply Initiative (A project to calculate the available water supply compared to demand --a needs assessment) to identify the projects and processes needed to address any water supply gap out to the year 2050 for all uses- municipal, industrial, irrigation (agricultural), environmental and recreational.  Water entities and individuals were involved in each basin throughout the state to develop these plans.  Projects were identified and some were funded in part with grants from the state’s Colorado Water Conservation Board.  The Colorado Water Plan was developed from these plans and processes.  These projects have gone a long way to make available the necessary water supplies for the future.  Many of the projects are ongoing and more will be needed to meet future needs.
 
Colorado is an arid state with future shortages forecast in the higher growth regions.  In the Arkansas Basin many junior water rights were established during high precipitation periods.  Due to this the Arkansas Basin today is considered an over-appropriated basin; meaning that on average there are more decreed water rights than water available.  Most of these junior water rights are decreed for irrigation use in agriculture.  In the Arkansas Basin shortages are forecast for all water uses.
 
The Colorado Water Plan is a collection of the ideas and projects on how we can meet future water demands. Meeting the future need revolves around developing new Colorado River Supplies and Alternative Agricultural Transfers coupled with storage.  The Colorado River normally has water that is unused and could be utilized to fill the gaps in the higher growth regions.  Presently Colorado is well ahead in meeting its Compact obligations on the Colorado River despite unsubstantiated claims from some state politicians and the administration that Colorado may be unable to meet its obligations.  Agricultural irrigation uses 80 percent or more of the available supply statewide.  Some of these uses could be temporarily interrupted through court approved Lease-Fallowing agreements, and the water owner compensated, to meet shortages in drier years.  In wet years existing storage and new storage could be utilized to save the excess for drier times.  Storage projects including alluvial storage need to be built to meet the future needs.  Through the existing Appropriation System, the above plans and others are underway to meet this future need.  Water storage operations could be adapted to meet multiple uses for stream management to meet increased demands for the environment and recreation.  All this can and should be completed through the Colorado Doctrine of Appropriation, a strong legal framework to guarantee the security, reliability and flexibility in the development and protection of water resources.
 
In our next “Water Talks” article we will explore the various threats to our water supply.

In 2017, the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District developed a comprehensive education plan to help us expand our outreach and education efforts. We, as your local water district, want to better engage the public through well-informed discourse regarding local water management and to offer educational programming and resources in the Upper Arkansas Basin. The Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District has served your communities for over 40 years andwe would like the opportunity to share with you what we have learned. We believe that education is the key to building successful projects for the future to effectively and efficiently manage our most precious resource - water. 

In the last year, following the development of our education plan, the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District has built various education programs to assist in the education on water-relatedtopics in the community. We now offer a monthly educational column in regional newspapers. It is there that we talk about new projects, essentialfunding sources, and potential solutions to our water challenges. We’ve also created educational literature available at our office for pick-up and hosted water education events throughout the area including documentaries and our annual Water Fest, a family-friendly water education event in Buena Vista and Salida. 
 
Most recently, we have launched a new educational website full of information.  We provide many resources on the site including a water resource data section where visitors may view information related to stream discharge, reservoir contents, water temperature, and weather conditions. We also have a comprehensive listing of links and resources, a blog where we will continue to feature news related to local water issues, and information regarding water administration and storage projects.
 
You may view our new website at www.uawcd.com
 
In 2019, the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District will continue to build upon our water education programs and opportunities. An understanding of water history, law, and administration are essential to developing solutions to our future water challenges. We strive to provide the groundwork for this type of water education, in turn, building a more informed community. If you have any questions or if there is something, you’d like to learn more about, please contact Chelsey at 719.539.5425 and let us know.

​We’d enjoy hearing from you.