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Show 700 GROUND WATER RIGHTS IN SELECTED STATES Water Right Determination and Administration Act of 1969 This 1969 legislation provides, among other things, that any appropriator who desires a determination of his water right and its amount and priority shall file an application for such determination with the water clerk. Jurisdiction to hear and adjudicate such questions is vested exclusively in the water judges and their designated referees. This procedure is augmented by statutory proceed- ings in which the division engineer in each division, with the approval of the State Engineer, provides the water clerk in his division with tabulations of all decreed water rights and conditional water rights in the division, in order of seniority. Following prescribed proceedings, considered to be general adjudica- tion proceedings, the water judge enters a decree incorporating or modifying such tabulations. In administering and distributing water, the State Engineer and division engineers are to be governed by priorities for water rights and conditional water rights established by adjudication decrees.190 Included in this 1969 legislation are significant provisions for integrating the determination and administration of surface and physically interconnected ground waters.191 The provisions of the 1969 act, as they pertain to surface watercourses, are discussed in chapters 15 and 16.192 With certain exceptions, these provisions are also applicable to tributary ground waters.193 In addition, the act includes a number of provisions relating specifically to tributary ground waters. The following discussion deals primarily with these provisions. The legislature declared:194 (1) it * * * shall be the policy of this state to integrate the appropriation, use and administration of underground water tributary to a stream with the use of surface water, in such a way as to maximize the beneficial use of all of the waters of this state. (2Xa) Recognizing that previous and existing laws have given 190Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 148-21-1 et seq. (Supp. 1969). 191 The legislature had previously attempted, in a less significant manner, to integrate the administration of these waters in 1965. See Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 148-11-22 (Supp. 1965), discussed above. 192 For a summary description of the 1969 act as it relates to water rights determinations, see chapter 15 at notes 46-58. A more detailed discussion of the act, in this regard, appears in chapter 15 at notes 212-254. Its provisions with respect to water rights administration are discussed in chapter 16 at notes 42-51. 193The act exempts from its provisions waters of any designated ground water areas, discussed at notes 210-222 infra, and wells constructed for household or other specified limited purposes. Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 148-21-45 (Supp. 1969), as amended, Laws 1971, ch. 378, p. 1341. However, §§ 148-21-8 and 148-21-9, which divide the State into seven water divisions and provide for the appointment and general duties of division engineers, do apply to these waters. The construction of wells for household and other limited purposes are regulated by permit by the State Engineer. Colo. Laws 1972, ch. 105, § 2, p. 629 [amending Rev. Stat. Ann. § 148-21-45 (Supp. 1969), as amended, Laws 1971, ch. 378, p. 1341]. 194Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 148-21-2 (Supp. 1969). |