The Poudre River and Western Water: Rights, Regulations, Costs, and Outcomes for the 21st-Century Arid West

This presentation will trace the Colorado Doctrine of prior appropriation through the eyes of a Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court who authored water opinions of this court for nineteen years and participated in the water decisions of the six other justices.  This rule of law for a water-scare region originated four core principles:  public ownership of the surface and groundwater resource; beneficial use and need as the scope, measure, and limit of water rights; abolishment of the monopoly riparian privilege of land and water ownership; and administration of water rights in order of priority when there is not enough water available to fill all water rights.  These principles, when enforced, allow water markets to move water rights to new and different uses, including agricultural, municipal, commercial, and in-stream flow uses, subject to conditions protecting against material injury to other water rights.  State and federal courts exercise joint authority to integrate Indian and Federal Agency water rights and state prior appropriation rights into a unitary system of water use administration that respects the interstate water allocations made to the states under Interstate Water Compacts and equitable apportionment decrees of the United States Supreme Court.  Contrary to popular misconceptions, Colorado and western water law does not reward water waste, but, instead, fosters stretching the available water supply for multiple optimum benefits.