In 1876, Colorado became the first state to officially adopt the prior appropriation doctrine in its Constitution. The doctrine is often described as “first in time, first in right.” Seniority is valuable: the needs of a senior water right holder are always met prior to those of a junior water right holder. Within Colorado, water rights are administered in priority by the State Engineer’s Office. There are division offices, as well as water courts, in each of the seven major river basins. The local work of administering water rights falls to the water commissioners. Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust.
Appropriations are confirmed and the priority of a water right is determined by proceedings in the Colorado Water Court.
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Colorado Water Law for Non-Lawyers by
Why do people fight about water rights? Who decides how much water can be used by a city or irrigator? Does the federal government get involved in state water issues? Why is water in Colorado so controversial? These questions, and others like them, are addressed in Colorado Water Law for Non-Lawyers. This concise and understandable treatment of the complex web of Colorado water laws is the first book of its kind. Legal issues related to water rights in Colorado first surfaced during the gold mining era in the 1800s and continue to be contentious today with the explosive population growth of the twenty-first century. Drawing on geography and history, the authors explore the flashpoints and water wars that have shaped Colorado’s present system of water allocation and management. They also address how this system, developed in the mid-1800s, is standing up to current tests—including the drought of the past decade and the competing interests for scarce water resources—and predict how it will stand up to new demands in the future.
The Colorado Doctrine by
Making extensive use of archival and other primary sources, David Schorr demonstrates that the development of the “appropriation doctrine,” a system of private rights in water, was part of a radical attack on monopoly and corporate power in the arid West. Schorr describes how Colorado miners, irrigators, lawmakers, and judges forged a system of private property in water based on a desire to spread property and its benefits as widely as possible among independent citizens. He demonstrates that ownership was not dictated by concerns for economic efficiency, but by a regard for social justice.
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