Connects Colorado water law, irrigation rights, and resource allocation policy across municipal, agricultural, and environmental stakeholders in western Colorado river basins.
Water is the defining resource of western Colorado, and the rules that govern who may divert, store, use, or sell it shape nearly every aspect of life in the Gunnison Basin. The policy area covered here spans Colorado Water Law, water allocation, water partitioning among users, irrigation deliveries, return flows from irrigated fields, and the federal Clean Water Act that sets minimum standards for water quality. It also encompasses the institutional machinery that makes allocation work in practice: water conservation payments to farmers, interruptible supply arrangements between cities and agriculture, change of use proceedings in water court, conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater, curtailment during dry years, and quantification of historic consumptive use. Layered atop these are physical and engineering questions about pipeline infrastructure, cement mortar lining of conveyance systems, trench excavation, systems integration across providers, drawdown limits on reservoirs, end-member source waters that mix in transbasin projects, and emerging technologies such as microfiltration, pretreatment, and potable reuse.
These topics matter because the Gunnison Basin sits at the headwaters of a heavily allocated river system. Front Range cities, San Luis Valley farmers, Western Slope communities such as Glenwood Springs and Telluride, and downstream states all compete for the same snowmelt. Decisions about transport surcharges, flat rate pricing, salinity loading, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), inorganic phosphorus, and dissolved trace element yields ripple from irrigation headgates to municipal taps. The social utility of water — its value across agricultural, municipal, recreational, and ecological uses — is continually being renegotiated as build out proceeds along the Front Range and as climate stresses test network stability and site abandonment risks in irrigated valleys Water Rights 2001- Part 1 Wise Water Stewardship Through Partnership.
Colorado's prior appropriation doctrine — "first in time, first in right" — was built in the nineteenth century to allocate scarce flows among miners and irrigators, and it remains the legal backbone of allocation today. The Annual Water Law and Water Policy Conferences hosted by the University of Denver College of Law and Stratecon, Inc. in the early 1990s documented how this doctrine has been adapted through reallocation, public interest review, and new transfer mechanisms 1993 Annual Water Law and Water Policy Conference . A parallel legislative review traced how western states were "reinventing" their water rights systems to accommodate transfers, groundwater exports, and conservation , while a survey of public welfare language across seventeen western state codes showed how broadly states define the public interest in appropriation decisions .
Author: Butch E Clark Date: 2001 ? Gunnison, Durango, Colorado Spring, Denver Water, Rocky Ford, Ditches, Allocation, Conservation, Front Range, Weste...
Technical report (1993). Covers Colorado, Denver, La Junta. Topics: water law, water policy, water reallocation, public interest. Agencies: Institute ...
The Institute for Advanced Legal Studies University of Denver College of Law and Stratecon, Inc. November 13, 1993.
A speech given at the 22nd annual Colorado Water Workshop, in Gunnison, 1997. ?As well as an article addressing water as a scarce resource.
Author: Butch E Clark Date: 2001 ? Gunnison, Durango, Colorado Spring, Denver Water, Rocky Ford, Ditches, Allocation, Conservation, Front Range, Weste...
Technical report (1993). Covers Edwards Aquifer, Texas, Balcones Fault Zone. Topics: groundwater regulation, aquifer management, groundwater permits, ...
Author: Butch E Clark Date: 2001 ? Gunnison, Durango, Colorado Spring, Denver Water, Rocky Ford, Ditches, Allocation, Conservation, Front Range, Weste...
Key moments shaped the modern landscape. The defeat of the Two Forks Dam and the rise of water quality protections under the Clean Water Act forced Colorado to reconcile its allocation system with quality standards Controlling Water Use to Protect Water Quality. The Long's Peak Working Group debate clarified the limits of federal authority over Colorado water rights and instream flows Analysis of Colorado and Federal Law. Interstate conflict on the Arkansas River between Kansas and Colorado, ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, illustrated the consequences of well pumping and river depletion across state lines Fighting over the Arkansas. Federal precedents from the Central Valley Project restructuring and the NRDC v. Beard acreage limitation settlement also informed Colorado's evolving approach to subsidized federal water and marketing Aftermath of Congressional Water War Acreage Limitations Revisited, and Texas's regulation of the Edwards Aquifer offered a comparative model for groundwater permitting Texas Regulates the Edwards Aquifer.
Allocation decisions in Colorado involve a dense network of agencies and organizations. The Colorado Water Conservation Board sets state policy, holds instream flow rights, and coordinates drought planning. Denver Water and the City of Thornton are major Front Range municipal providers whose transmountain diversions and change-of-use filings reshape Western Slope flows. The Colorado River Water Conservation District and the Colorado Water Partnership represent West Slope interests in negotiations over transmountain diversions and endangered fish recovery West Slope Water Interests. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the EPA exert federal authority over project operations, environmental review, and quality standards, while Public Service Co. and providers such as the Rocky Point hydroelectric project link water management to energy production.
Management approaches range from traditional decreed diversions to market-based water trades, interruptible supply contracts, and conservation payments to irrigators. The Colorado Water Workshop "Quenching the Urban Giant" laid out systems integration strategies — combining agricultural transfers, conjunctive use, and Combined Service Area arrangements — as alternatives to new dams Quenching the Urban Giant. Economic analyses caution that water trades carry significant upfront and transaction costs that can erode their apparent efficiency The Forgotten Economics of Water Trades. At the local scale, Gunnison County's Planning Commission and Board of Commissioners have used environmental assessments to protect domestic supplies, as in the review of longwall coal mining beneath Minnesota Creek Protection of Minnesota Creek Water Supply.
Drought is the dominant pressure. The Planning for Drought management plan synthesized more than a century of South Platte and Arkansas Basin experience to guide conservation and supply management Planning for Drought, and the 2002 drought — described as the driest year in Colorado history — renewed calls for small-capacity reservoirs distributed across headwaters basins Small-Capacity Reservoirs Are Needed to Thwart Drought. The multi-part Water Rights 2001 series chronicled how Gunnison, Durango, Colorado Springs, and Denver Water continue to negotiate ditch transfers, conservation programs, and Front Range–Western Slope tensions Water Rights 2001- Part 3 Water Rights 2001- Part 4.
Emerging concerns include rising salinity and nutrient loading, the integrity of aging pipeline infrastructure, the viability of potable reuse and microfiltration in growing cities, and the social consequences of agricultural site abandonment when senior rights move permanently to municipal use. Build out along the Front Range, combined with curtailment risk under the Colorado River Compact, is pushing managers toward more flexible, partnership-based stewardship models Wise Water Stewardship Through Partnership.
Policy questions about allocation, return flows, and water quality connect directly to hydrologic and ecological research at RMBL and across the Gunnison Basin. Studies of plant hydraulics, N-limited alpine and subalpine systems, soil organic carbon stabilizing processes, and end-member mixing of source waters provide the physical basis for quantifying consumptive use, transmission rates of contaminants, and the ecological consequences of changed flow regimes. Long-term monitoring of snowmelt timing, streamflow, and nutrient export from headwater catchments gives policymakers the empirical grounding needed to evaluate conservation payments, instream flow protections, and curtailment scenarios under a changing climate.
1993 Annual Legislative Review: Reinventing State Water Rights Systems. →
1993 Annual Water Law and Water Policy Conference. →
Acreage Limitations Revisited: The NRDC v. Beard Settlement. →
Aftermath of Congressional Water War: Restructuring the CVP. →
An Analysis of Colorado and Federal Law in Contrast to the Long's Peak Working Group Report. →
Colorado Water Workshop: Quenching the Urban Giant. →
Controlling Water Use to Protect Water Quality Within Western Allocation Systems. →
Fighting over the Arkansas. →
Planning for Drought. →
Protection of Minnesota Creek Water Supply. →
Public Welfare Language in the Water Codes and Water Laws of 17 Western States. →
Small-Capacity Reservoirs Are Needed to Thwart Drought. →
Texas Regulates the Edwards Aquifer. →
The 1993 Annual Water Law and Water Policy Conference. →
The Forgotten Economics of Water Trades. →
Water Rights 2001- Part 1. →
Water Rights 2001- Part 3. →
Water Rights 2001- Part 4. →
West Slope Water Interests. →
Wise Water Stewardship Through Partnership. →
Technical report. Covers Alaska, Arizona, California. Topics: water appropriation, public interest, public welfare, water rights. Agencies: Department...
Technical report (1993). Covers Colorado, Colorado River, California. Topics: water rights, water appropriation, instream flows, water quality regulat...
News article (1982-1993). Covers California, Idaho, Washington. Topics: acreage limitations, federal project water pricing, water subsidies, subsidize...
Management plan (1880-2000). Covers Colorado, South Platte River Basin, Arkansas River Basin. Topics: drought planning, water conservation, water supp...
News article (2000-2020). Covers Western Slope, Front Range, Glenwood Springs. Topics: transmountain diversions, water rights, endangered fish recover...
Technical report (1991-1994). Covers Colorado, Front Range, San Luis Valley. Topics: water supply planning, water rights transfers, agricultural water...
Technical report (1992-1993). Covers California, western states, Nebraska. Topics: water trades, water marketing, water transactions, upfront costs. A...
Environmental assessment (1981-1993). Covers Minnesota Creek, West Elk Mine, Somerset. Topics: longwall mining, water supply protection, coal extracti...
Small-capacity reservoirs are needed to thwart drought By KEN BAKER The drought of the year 2002, the dri- est of a series of drought years in South- ...
News article (1890s-1996). Covers Arkansas River, Kansas, Colorado. Topics: water rights, well pumping, river depletion, water diversions. Agencies: S...
Statement of Bob Child – Pitkin Commissioner Colorado Water Workshop Gunnison, Colorado. July 31st 1986.
News article. Covers Aurora, Rocky Ford, Arkansas Valley. Topics: water rights, irrigation, farming, water transfer. Agencies: Rocky Ford Ditch Co., C...
Management plan. Covers City and County of Denver, Metro Denver, Metro Denver Area. Topics: Integrated Resource Planning Process, water resource strat...
News article. Covers Snake River, Idaho, Wyoming. Topics: water rights adjudication, species recovery planning, habitat conservation, water conservati...
New water development should solve more problems that it creates. New water development should link water quantity with water quality. Hopefully, new ...
News article (1996). Covers San Luis Valley, Rio Grande, Upper Rio Grande. Topics: trans-basin diversion, water management planning, deep wells. Agenc...
Document. Covers Western Colorado, Colorado River, Front Range. Topics: transmountain water diversions, water conservation, groundwater management, wa...
News article. Covers Arkansas Valley, Arkansas River, Leadville. Topics: soil salinity, water quality, irrigation water. Agencies: Colorado State Univ...
News article. Covers Colorado, Aurora, Arkansas River Basin. Topics: water transfers, Arkansas Valley conduit. Agencies: Colorado Attorney General, Co...
News article. Covers Rocky Ford, Rocky Ford Ditch, Arkansas Valley. Topics: water rights, water sales, consumptive use. Agencies: Colorado State Unive...
News article (1995-2020). Covers California, Colorado River, Palm Springs. Topics: water allocation, water rights. Agencies: Association of California...
News article (2000). Covers Jumbo Reservoir, Julesburg, Prewitt Reservoir. Topics: drought, irrigation, water rights, recreation. Agencies: Colorado D...
News article. Covers Rocky Ford, Aurora, Arkansas Valley. Topics: irrigation rights, water rights sale. Agencies: Rocky Ford Ditch Co., Aurora, Colora...
ing ~ater and shipping it north out of this basin. And being a fast-growing, affluent suburb of Denver, it has deep pockets. . So it is tempting for t...
Correspondence (2002). Covers Colorado, Pueblo, Grand Junction. Topics: drought, water transfers, water conservation, water storage. Agencies: ACTION2...
News article. Covers Aurora, Rocky Ford, Denver. Topics: water rights purchase, out-of-basin water transfer. Agencies: Water Court, Rocky Ford City Co...
News article (late 1970s and early 1980s). Covers Rocky Ford, Arkansas Valley, Bent County. Topics: water rights purchase, interruptible supply, water...
To Build a Better World, Start in Your Own Community Guest Editorial The doom peddlers are exaggerating the issue By Ray Reeb Agency Coordinator, Nort...
News article (mid-1980s to 2001). Covers Rocky Ford, Aurora, Rocky Ford Ditch. Topics: water rights, irrigation ditch, water transfer. Agencies: Color...
S pay i~s fair share, even if ll1e city is making a $270 million profit annual- ly off ll1e federal govenunenl. Dul George Mille r, a California Con- ...
· Ron Riggenbach and) just reiurn ed frorh R~~~~i~g in San Antonio, ·Te·xas. We wi ll elatiorHt~ on' tnat. meeting some other time, but for this colum...
News article. Covers Colorado, University of Colorado, Denver. Topics: western water policy, federal influence on water issues, water rights, national...
Before your hike, study maps of the area, get permits if necessary, and learn the terrain. Be familiar with all options-- time, alternative routes, an...
Colorado Water Conservation Board Board of Directors Department of Natural Resources January 25th 1999
From: Greg Walcher (Executive Director of DNR) To: Senator Campbell (“The Honorable Ben Nighthorse Campbell) February 29th 2000