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Show COLORADO 169 3.5 Storage Waters, Artificial Lakes, and Ponds. As noted above, Colorado law recognizes and makes provision for appropriation by storage of water for future application to bene- ficial use under the same system of priorities as that by which direct flow rights are administered.156 Eeservoirs to store water may be constructed either in the channel or bed of a natural stream or elsewhere.167 Storage decrees authorize one annual reservoir filling, although more than one priority may be obtained so as to permit more than one annual filling.158 The State engineer's approval of plans for construction and completion of reservoirs is required by law.159 Reservoir owners are held strictly liable for damages arising from leakage, overflow, or floods caused by the breaking of embank- ments of their reservoirs.160 3.6 /Springs Spring water, like other water, is subject to appropriation and use.161 The Colorado Supreme Court has thus upheld an injunction against a landowner preventing his interference with the appropria- tive use of spring water tributary to a natural stream even though the water arose on the landowner's land and a statute specifically gives landowners the right to use spring water arising on their lands.162 Landowners, too, must acquire an appropriative right to use tributary spring water.163 Spring water that is not tributary to a natural stream may also be appropriated, in which case the pri- orities are determined just among the users of the spring water rather than among all water users in the drainage basin.164 3.7 Diffused Surface Waters Rainwater and other water following no defined course or channel is appropriable in Colorado as part of the waters of natural streams of the State "whether found on the surface or underground." 165 4. Ground Water The Colorado Constitution dedicates to the people and applies the appropriation doctrine to the unappropriated "waters of any natural stream." 166 The treatment of ground water in the State has historic- ally involved the characterization of the ground water involved as 188 See notes 119, 120, and 121, and accompanying text. ^See Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann., sec. 148-7-17 (supp. 1969). ma Windsor Res. & Canal Co. v. Lake Supply Ditch Co., 44 Colo. 214, 98 Pac. 729 (1908) ; Orchard City Irr. Dist. v. Whitten, 146 Colo. 127, 361 P. 2d 130 (1961). 189 Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann., Sec. 148-5-5 (1963). laoColo. Rev. Stat. Ann., sec. 148-5-4 (1963) ; Barr v. Game, Fish & Parks Gomm'n, 497 P. 2d 340 (Colo. app. 1972). 181 Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann., sec. 148-2-1 (supp. 1969) ; Hehl v. Hubbell, 132 Colo. 96, 285 P. 2d 593 (1955). ™*Neviu8 v. Smith, 86 Colo. 178, 279 Pack. 44 (1928). See Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann., sec. 148-2-2 (1963). **Oline v. Whitten, 150 Colo. 179, 372 P. 2d 145 (1962). 1MColo. Rev. Stat. Ann., sec. 148-2-3 (supp. 1969). 186 Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann., sec. 148-2-1 (supp. 1969) ; In re German Ditch dRes. Co., 56 Colo. 252, 139 P. 2d 2 (1914). See note, A Survey of Colorado Water Law, 47 Denver L.J. 226, 296 (1970). 166 Colo. Const., art. XVI, sees. 5 and 6. |
