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Show 482 ADJUDICATION OF WATER RIGHTS IN WATERCOURSES The judgment and decree of the water judge are subject to appellate review except for that part of the judgment or decree which confirms a part of a ruling with respect to which no protest was filed.230 Clerical mistakes in said judgment and decree may be corrected by the water judge on his own initiative or on the petition of any person, and substantive errors therein may be corrected by the water judge on the petition of any person whose rights have been adversely affected thereby and a showing satisfactory to the water judge that such person, due to mistake, inadvertence, or excusable neglect, failed to file a protest with the water clerk within the time specified in this section. Any petition referred to in the preceding sentence shall be filed with the water clerk within two years after the date of the entry of said judgment and decree.231 The act provides that "In the determination of a water right the priority date awarded shall be that date on which the appropriation was initiated if the appropriation was completed with reasonable diligence."232 Within each water division, the "priorities awarded in any year for water rights or conditional water rights shall be junior to all priorities awarded in previous years and junior to all priorities awarded in decrees entered prior to the effective date of this article or in decrees entered in proceedings which are pending on such date * * *."233 220Id. § 148-21-20(9). 231 Id. § 148-21-20(10). As amended by Colo. Laws 1970, ch. 103, § 4, the time allowed for filing petitions was changed from 2 years to 3 years. 232Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 148-21-21(1) (Supp. 1969). "If the appropriation was not completed with reasonable diligence following the initiation thereof, then the priority date thereof shall be that date from which the appropriation was completed with reasonable diligence." Id. With respect to conditional water rights (which are discussed at the end of chapter 8), in every second calendar year following the year in which a conditional water right has been determined, the owner or user of the right, if he wishes to maintain the right, must obtain a finding by the referee of reasonable diligence in the development of the appropriation; failure to do so shall be considered an abandonment of the conditional water right. Id. § 148-21-17(4). 2iiId. § 148-21-22. Certain exceptions are made in this section with respect to waters diverted by means of wells. As amended in 1971, this section was reenacted so as to provide: "With respect to each division described in section 148-21-8, the priority date awarded for water rights or conditional water rights adjudged and decreed on applications for a determination of the amount and priority thereof filed in such division during each calendar year shall establish the relative priority among other water rights or conditional water rights awarded on such applications filed in that calendar year; provided that such water rights or conditional water rights shall be junior to all water rights or conditional water rights awarded on such applications filed in any previous calendar year and shall also be junior to all priorities awarded in decrees entered prior to June 7, 1969, or decrees entered in proceedings which were pending on such date * * *." Colo. Laws 1971, ch. 373, § 1. The exceptions with respect to wells were retained. June 7, 1969, was the ~wwj,,o ^otp nf the. 1969 act. |