C.R.S. § 37-31-124 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 31 / Section 37-31-124
37-31-124. Directors may contract - with whom
Status: in_force

37-31-124. Directors may contract - with whom. The board of directors has the power, without advertising for bids, to enter into a contract upon such terms as the board may regard as equitable, with any individual, partnership, corporation, or governmental entity or an irrigation or drainage district organized under the laws of this state or with more than one or with all of said parties, for the making of any surveys, plans, and specifications for a proposed drainage ditch, system, or works, or for the construction in whole or in part of such drainage ditch, system, or works, or for the joint use of any drainage ditch or drainage facilities; but no such contract involving an expenditure by said district of an amount in excess of twenty-five percent of the district's budget shall become effective and binding unless the question of making such contract has been submitted to and authorized at a general or special election of the qualified electors of the district.
C.R.S. § 37-42-121 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 42 / Section 37-42-121
37-42-121. Sale of bonds - notice
Status: in_force

37-42-121. Sale of bonds - notice. The board of directors may sell bonds so authorized and issued from time to time as may be necessary for district purposes, having first by resolution declared its intention to do so and having appointed a day and hour therefor. Notice of such sale shall be given by publishing the same for twenty days in a daily newspaper published in the city of Denver, Colorado, and in such other newspapers as the board may designate. The notice shall state the time and place at which sealed bids shall be received to purchase such bonds as shall be offered, and sale shall be made to the highest responsible bidder; except that the board may reject all offers and refuse to sell in case no responsible bid is received for ninety-five cents or more on the dollar.
C.R.S. § 37-31-120 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 31 / Section 37-31-120
37-31-120. Meetings of directors
Status: in_force

37-31-120. Meetings of directors. The board of directors shall hold its regular meetings in the office of the drainage district on the first Tuesday in January, April, July, and October and such special meetings as may be required for the proper transaction of business. Special meetings shall be called by the president of the board or by any director. All special meetings of the board shall be held at locations which are within the boundaries of the district or which are within the boundaries of any county in which the district is located, in whole or in part, or in any county so long as the meeting location does not exceed twenty miles from the district boundaries. The provisions of this section governing the location of meetings may be waived only if the proposed change of location of a meeting of the board appears on the agenda of a regular or special meeting of the board and if a resolution is adopted by the board stating the reason for which a meeting of the board is to be held in a location other than under the provisions of this section and further stating the date, time, and place of such meeting.
C.R.S. § 37-46-135 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 46 / Section 37-46-135
37-46-135. Elections
Status: in_force

37-46-135. Elections. Whenever in this article an election of the electors of the district or a subdistrict therein is permitted or required, the election may be held separately at a special election or may be held concurrently with any primary or general election held under the laws of this state; but no election shall be held at the same time as any regular election of any city, town, or school district if any part of the area thereof is located within the boundaries of the district.
C.R.S. § 37-5-117 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 5 / Section 37-5-117
37-5-117. Duties of officers of public corporations as to assessments
Status: in_force

37-5-117. Duties of officers of public corporations as to assessments. (1) Whenever, under the provisions of articles 1 to 8 of this title, an assessment is levied against a public corporation, as defined in said articles, and is finally determined, it is the duty of the governing or taxing body of such public corporation immediately to take all the legal and necessary steps to provide for the payment of the same. It is the duty of the said governing or taxing body of such public corporation in its next annual levy succeeding said determination to levy and assess a tax by a uniform rate upon all the taxable property within the boundaries of said public corporation and certify the same to the treasurer of the county in which such corporation is located, whose duty it is to receive and collect the same for the benefit of the conservancy district, in like manner and with like remedies and penalties as provided in this article for collection of other assessments.

(2) Nothing in this section shall prevent the assessment of the real estate of other corporations or persons situated within the corporate limits of such public corporation which may be subject to assessment for special benefits to be received.

(3) In the event of any dissolution or disincorporation of any conservancy district organized pursuant to the provisions of articles 1 to 8 of this title, such dissolution or disincorporation shall not affect the lien of any assessment for benefits imposed pursuant to the provisions of articles 1 to 8 of this title, or the liability of any lands in such district to the levy of any future assessments for the purpose of paying the principal of and interest upon any bonds issued under this article, and in that event, or in the event of any failure on the part of the officers of any district to qualify and act, or in the event of any resignations or vacancies in office which prevent action by the said district or by its proper officers, it is the duty of the county treasurer and of all other officers charged in any manner with the duty of assessing, levying, and collecting taxes for public purposes in any county, municipality, or political subdivision in which such land shall be situated to perform all acts which may be necessary and requisite to the collection of any such assessment which may have been imposed and to the levying, imposing, and collecting of any assessment which it may be necessary to make for the purpose of paying the principal and interest of said bonds.

(4) Any holder of any bonds issued pursuant to the provisions of articles 1 to 8 of this title, or any person or officer being a party in interest, may either at law or in equity by suit, action, or mandamus, enforce and compel performance of the duties required by articles 1 to 8 of this title of any of the officers or persons mentioned in articles 1 to 8 of this title.
C.R.S. § 37-47-124 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 47 / Section 37-47-124
37-47-124. Defects in notice perfected
Status: in_force

37-47-124. Defects in notice perfected. Whenever notice is provided for in this article, if the court finds that due notice was not given, jurisdiction shall not thereby be lost or the proceedings abated or held void, but the court shall continue the hearing until such time as proper notice may be given and shall thereupon proceed as though proper notice had been given in the first instance. If any appraisement, assessment, levy, or other proceeding relating to said district is held defective, then the board of directors may file a motion in the cause in which said district was organized to perfect any such defect, and the court shall set a time for hearing thereon. If the original notice as a whole is held to be sufficient but faulty only with reference to publication as to certain particular lands or as to service as to certain persons, publication of the defective notice may be ordered as to the particular lands, or service may be made on the persons not properly served, and said notice is thereby corrected without invalidating the original notice as to other lands or persons.
C.R.S. § 37-42-108 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 42 / Section 37-42-108
37-42-108. Directors - election
Status: in_force

37-42-108. Directors - election. (1) The board of directors consists of three landowners of the district who are qualified to vote at district elections pursuant to section 37-42-112 (2), including authorized agents, and who reside within the district. Directors hold their respective offices for the period of three years and until their successors are elected and qualified. They shall be elected by ballot upon public nominations made at the meeting at which they are elected, and each ballot must contain the name of the person for whom it is cast, the name of the voter or, if by proxy, the name of both landowner and proxy, and the number of votes cast. Each landowner may cast as many votes as he or she has acres of land within the district for each of three persons voted for.

(2) At the first election to choose the first board of directors, the person having the highest number of votes shall continue in office for the full term of three years; the next highest two years; the next highest one year; but, if two or more persons have the same number of votes, their terms shall be determined by lot, under the direction of the county judge of the county wherein the organization of said district has been effected; and the person receiving the highest number of votes for any office to be filled at any such election is elected thereto. In case a vacancy occurs in the membership of the board of directors by death, resignation, or otherwise, the remaining members shall select a successor to serve out the unexpired term. If vacancies occur in the membership of all the places upon the board or if the board fails, neglects, or refuses at any regular meeting to fill a vacancy existing at such time, the board of county commissioners of the county wherein is situated the office of such district may fill such vacancies for the unexpired terms from the landowners of such district.
C.R.S. § 37-3-108 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 3 / Section 37-3-108
37-3-108. Plans
Status: in_force

37-3-108. Plans. (1) Upon its qualification, the board of directors shall prepare or cause to be prepared a plan for the improvements for which the district was created. Such plan shall include such maps, profiles, plans, and other data and descriptions as may be necessary to set forth properly the location and character of the work, and of the property benefited or taken or damaged, with estimates of cost and specifications for doing the work.

(2) In case the board of directors finds that any former survey made by any other district or in any other manner is useful for the purposes of the district, it may take over the data secured by such survey or such other proceedings as may be useful to it and may pay therefor an amount equal to the value of such data to said district.

(3) Upon the completion of such plan, the board of directors shall cause notice thereof to be given by publication in each county in which said district may be located, in whole or in part, and shall permit the inspection thereof at the office of the district by all persons interested. Said notice shall fix the time and place for the hearing of all objections to said plan not less than twenty days nor more than thirty days after the last publication of said notice. All objections to said plan shall be in writing and filed with the secretary of the district at his office not more than ten days after the last publication of said notice. After said hearing before the board of directors, the board shall adopt a plan as the official plan of the said district. If, however, any person objects to said official plan, so adopted, then such person may, within ten days from the adoption of said official plan, file in the office of the clerk of the court in the original case establishing the district his objections in writing, specifying the features of the plan to which objection is made, and thereupon the court shall fix a day for the hearing thereof before the court, not less than ten days nor more than twenty days after the time fixed for filing objections, at which time the court shall hear said objections and adopt, reject, or refer back said plan to said board of directors.

(4) If the court should reject said plan, then the board shall proceed as in the first instance under this section to prepare another plan. If the court should refer back said plan to the board for amendment, then the court shall continue the hearing to a day certain without publication of notice. If the court approves the said plan as the official plan of the district, then a certified copy of the order of the court approving the same shall be filed with the secretary of the district and by him incorporated into the records of the district. The official plan may be altered in detail from time to time until the assessment record is filed, and of all such alterations the appraisers shall take notice. After the assessment record has been filed in court, no alterations of the official plan shall be made except as provided in section 37-4-113.
C.R.S. § 37-48-192 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 48 / Section 37-48-192
37-48-192. Joint action entity
Status: in_force

37-48-192. Joint action entity. (1) The district or subdistrict and any other cooperating entity or entities relating to any project or facilities in which the district or the subdistrict is a party in interest may create a joint action entity, a separate body corporate, for the planning, construction, lease, other acquisition, improvement, equipment, operation, maintenance, disposal, and financing of any enterprise or properties relating to such project or such facilities.

(2) A joint action entity may exercise the powers granted to the district or the subdistrict by this article, other than the levy or fixing and collection of taxes, assessments, and service charges and the making and revising of rules and regulations under the police power.
C.R.S. § 37-48-150 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 48 / Section 37-48-150
37-48-150. Manner of collection - tax sale - certificate of purchase - tax deed
Status: in_force

37-48-150. Manner of collection - tax sale - certificate of purchase - tax deed. (1) Before July 1, 2024, lands sold for delinquent special improvement assessments, special assessments, service charges, or user fees under this article 48 shall be struck off to the district, or bid in for the district, in like manner and effect, including issuance of a deed therefor, as provided by law with respect to lands struck off to, or bid in for, counties, cities, or towns, as the case may be; but, when a certificate of purchase has been issued to the district with respect to any lands, no certificate of purchase for subsequent special improvement assessments, special assessments, service charges, or user fees shall be issued with respect to the same lands, except to the district, until all special improvement assessments, special assessments, service charges, or user fees represented by certificates of purchase held by the district have been redeemed or paid.

(2) Before July 1, 2024, no holder of such certificate of purchase, other than the district, shall be entitled to a tax deed thereon, except upon payment of all special improvement assessments, special assessments, service charges, or user fees subsequent to such certificate of purchase that are due and unpaid or unredeemed, at the time of issuance of the tax deed; and the tax deed so issued to such holder shall be subject to future unpaid special improvement assessments, special assessments, service charges, or user fees. Any such holder of a certificate of purchase may, at any time after three years after issuance thereof, present the same to the county treasurer, together with all subsequent certificates held by the holder, as evidence of subsequent payment of special improvement assessments, special assessments, service charges, or user fees, and request the county treasurer to issue one tax deed thereon; and one tax deed shall be issued accordingly in the same manner as other tax deeds.

(3) Before July 1, 2024, the district may, at any time after three years after issuance of any such certificate of purchase held by the district, present the same to the county treasurer, together with all subsequent certificates of purchase held by it, as evidence of unpaid subsequent special improvement assessments, special assessments, service charges, or user fees, and request the county treasurer to issue one tax deed thereon, and one deed shall be issued accordingly in the same manner as other tax deeds; but such tax deeds shall not prejudice the parity of any existing lien for general taxes. Upon the delivery of the tax deed, the conservation district shall have and enjoy all the rights of an owner in fee simple to the lands described therein; but no sale of such land shall be made by the district, except one subject to the lien of special improvement assessments, special assessments, service charges, or user fees due and unpaid subsequent to the issuance of the tax deed to the district as well as to future unpaid special improvement assessments, special assessments, service charges, or user fees, nor shall the district convey such property by deed with covenants of warranty, nor shall any sale of such property be made for less than the principal amount of the original special improvement assessments, special assessments, service charges, or user fees thereon remaining due and unpaid, unless such sale is approved by an order of the district court in which the organization proceedings of the district are filed.

(4) Before July 1, 2024, the district, by resolution of its board of directors, may sell, assign, and deliver any such certificates held by the district for such sum as the board of directors may determine and authorize; but no such sale or assignment shall be made that does not include all certificates held by the district with respect to the same land. Upon presentation and surrender of such certificates by the assignee thereof to the county treasurer, such officer shall accept the same in payment of the special improvement assessments, special assessments, service charges, or user fees represented thereby, unless such purchaser requests a tax deed thereon as provided in this section. No such assignment shall be made by the district for less than the principal sum represented by the certificate assigned, except upon order approving the assignment made by the district court wherein the organization proceedings of the district are pending.

(5) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, on or after July 1, 2024, the district, a holder of a certificate of purchase, or a county treasurer shall follow the procedures established in article 11.5 of title 39 and shall not follow the procedures established in this section or article 11 of title 39 concerning the issuance of a tax deed. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, on or after July 1, 2024, a lot or parcel of land shall not be struck off to the district and a county treasurer shall not issue a certificate of purchase or tax deed pursuant to this section or article 11 of title 39 to the extent such actions would be inconsistent with the requirements of article 11.5 of title 39.
C.R.S. § 37-85-102 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 85 / Section 37-85-102
37-85-102. Right to continue purchasing water
Status: in_force

37-85-102. Right to continue purchasing water. Any persons, acting jointly or severally, who have purchased and used water for irrigation for lands occupied by them from any ditch or reservoir, and have not ceased to do so for the purpose or with intent to procure water from some other source of supply, have the right to continue to purchase water to the same amount for their lands, on paying or tendering the price thereof fixed by the board of county commissioners as provided in sections 37-85-103 to 37-85-106 or, if no price has been fixed by them, the price at which the owners of such ditch or reservoir may be then selling water or did sell water during the then last preceding year. This section shall not apply to the case of those who may have taken water as stockholders or shareholders after they have sold or forfeited their shares or stock, unless they have retained a right to procure such water by contract, agreement, or understanding and use between themselves and the owners of such ditch and not then to the injury of other purchasers of water from or shareholders in the same ditch.
C.R.S. § 37-90-141 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 90 / Section 37-90-141
37-90-141. Exclusion of lands
Status: in_force

37-90-141. Exclusion of lands. (1) (a) The boundaries of any district organized under the provisions of this article may be changed in the manner prescribed in this section, but the change of boundaries of the district shall not impair or affect its organization or its rights in or to property or any of its rights and privileges whatsoever, nor shall it affect or impair or discharge any contract, obligation, lien, or charge for or upon which it might be liable or chargeable had any such change of boundaries not been made. An election for the exclusion of real property in the district may be initiated by a petition, in writing, filed with the secretary of the board.

(b) The petition shall describe the boundaries of the territory proposed for exclusion with such certainty as to enable a property owner to determine whether or not his property is within the district and shall contain a prayer for the exclusion of such territory. Such petition shall be signed by not less than fifteen percent of the taxpaying electors within the territory proposed for exclusion, and such petition must be acknowledged in the same manner that conveyances of land are required to be acknowledged.

(c) If lands proposed for exclusion from a district, duly organized under the provisions of this article, are located outside the water basin or aquifer within which the district lies, as determined by the commission, such lands are eligible to be excluded under the provisions of this article and not otherwise.

(d) Within twenty days after the filing of the petition, the board shall examine the petition, and, if it finds that it bears the requisite number of signatures and otherwise meets the stated requirements, it shall accept the petition and shall fix a time and place, not less than thirty days nor more than fifty days after the date of such acceptance, for a hearing thereon. The secretary of the board shall publish a notice of such hearing by one publication in a newspaper of general circulation in every county in which any portion of the district and the proposed territory for exclusion are located. Such notice shall state the nature of the petition, the description of the territories proposed for exclusion, and that any person owning any interest in real property within such territories or within the district encompassing such territories may appear at the hearing and show cause in writing why the petition should not be granted.

(2) The board, at the time and place fixed, or at such times to which the hearing may be continued, shall proceed to hear the petition and all objections thereto presented in writing. The failure of any person to object in writing shall be deemed an assent on his part to the exclusion of the lands as prayed for in the petition. Upon completion of the hearing, the board may order changes in the boundaries of the lands proposed for exclusion from the district by the inclusion or exclusion of land therefrom upon finding that such change in boundaries would be hydrologically, geologically, and geographically sound. The board, in its discretion, and on conditions to be determined by the board and accepted by the petitioners, may grant the petition, deny it, or grant it as to part of the proposed exclusion of territory and deny it as to the remaining portion.

(3) Any action of the board with respect to the exclusion of territory from an existing district may be reviewed by the district court in appeal proceedings filed within ten days after the board's decision has been announced.

(4) If the district within which lands are excluded has incurred any prior bonded indebtedness, outstanding at the time of such exclusion, such excluded lands shall continue to be liable for the proportionate share of any such bonded indebtedness which they were under obligation to pay at the time of exclusion.
C.R.S. § 37-46-126.6 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 46 / Section 37-46-126.6
37-46-126.6. Delinquent taxes
Status: in_force

37-46-126.6. Delinquent taxes. (1) Before July 1, 2024, if the taxes levied are not paid, then delinquent real property shall be sold at the regular tax sale for the payment of such taxes, interest, and penalties in the manner provided by statute for selling real property for the nonpayment of taxes. If there are no bids at such tax sale for the property so offered, the property shall be struck off to the county, and the county shall account to the district or the subdistrict levying the taxes in the same manner as provided by law for accounting for school, town, and city taxes.

(2) Delinquent personal property shall be distrained and sold as provided by law.

(3) Nothing in this article, neither the tax limitations in sections 37-46-109 (1) and 37-46-126.3 (1) nor otherwise, shall be construed as preventing the collection in full of the proceeds of all levies of taxes by the district or subdistrict levying the taxes authorized by this article, including, without limitation, any delinquencies, interest, penalties, and costs.

(4) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, on or after July 1, 2024, a district, subdistrict, or county treasurer shall follow the procedures established in article 11.5 of title 39 and shall not follow the procedures established in this section or article 11 of title 39 concerning the sale or striking off of property to a county or the issuance of a tax deed. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, on or after July 1, 2024, a lot or parcel of land shall not be struck off to a county for nonpayment of taxes pursuant to this section or article 11 of title 39 to the extent such actions would be inconsistent with the requirements of article 11.5 of title 39.
C.R.S. § 37-60-101 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 60 / Part 1 / Section 37-60-101
37-60-101. Definitions
Status: in_force

37-60-101. Definitions. As used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "Board" means the Colorado water conservation board.
C.R.S. § 37-43-163 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 43 / Part 1 / Section 37-43-163
37-43-163. Decree of court
Status: in_force

37-43-163. Decree of court. (1) The court in its decree shall have power to make the orders necessary to carry out said proposition or plan for the liquidation of the indebtedness and distribution of the property of said district, including the right to apportion any indebtedness found due, and to declare said portions of any said indebtedness liens upon the various parcels and lots of land within the district, and may decree a sale or exchange of its assets in such manner as may effectuate said proposition, as the said court may judge best, and as, in the opinion of the court, provides an adequate security for the ultimate payment or complete liquidation of all the indebtedness of said district. Said sale or exchange of said assets may be made either in one lot or in such parcels as may be provided, and the decree may provide for conveyance of said irrigation system, including the dams, reservoirs, canals, franchises, and water rights, and also of all of the other assets of the district and for the exchange thereof for outstanding indebtedness and the cancellation of such indebtedness. Said court may also provide by decree for the ultimate payment of all or any part of the indebtedness of said district by directing a continuance of the levy and assessment of taxes upon the lands included in said district in the manner provided by the laws of this state in relation to irrigation districts.

(2) At any time prior to the actual execution of the proposed plan for dissolution, whether before or after entry of the decree, the proceeding for approval of such plan may be dismissed by the court and such dissolution may be abandoned when it is made to appear to the court that a majority of the qualified electors of the irrigation district have voted for the dismissal of such proceeding and abandonment of such proposed dissolution at an election regularly held for the purpose of voting on such question and that such dissolution plan and proceeding can feasibly and equitably be abandoned and dismissed at that time. Notice of such election shall be given in the same manner and for the same time as notice of election of directors of an irrigation district under the laws of the state of Colorado, and such notice shall specify the time of holding the election and the matter to be voted upon. Such election shall be held and the result thereof determined and declared in all respects as nearly as practicable in conformity with the provisions governing the election of directors in irrigation districts. The court in its decree dismissing any such proceeding under the provisions of this subsection (2) has the power to make all orders necessary to effectuate the abandonment of such dissolution plan and the continuation of such irrigation district.
C.R.S. § 37-33-102 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 33 / Section 37-33-102
37-33-102. Lists of lands affected
Status: in_force

37-33-102. Lists of lands affected. Said petition shall set forth the necessity and probable benefits of such drainage ditch or drain, together with a list of the lands affected by the proposed improvement and the names and addresses of the owners of such lands, and there shall be attached to said petition a plat showing the approximate direction, size, and length of said drainage ditch or drain.
C.R.S. § 37-26-102 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 26 / Section 37-26-102
37-26-102. Refunding bonds issued - when
Status: in_force

37-26-102. Refunding bonds issued - when. Such refunding bonds shall be issued in lieu of the bonds and interest refunded; shall evidence the same indebtedness; shall be supported by the same liens, assessments, appraised benefits, and levies; and, except as to time of payments, amounts, and rates of interest, shall be payable therefrom in the same manner as the bonds refunded, but said refunding bonds shall not constitute a blanket indebtedness or lien on lands within such drainage district unless provided for on the face of the bonds.
C.R.S. § 37-46-144 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 46 / Section 37-46-144
37-46-144. Liens on pledged revenues
Status: in_force

37-46-144. Liens on pledged revenues. (1) Revenues pledged for the payment of any bonds, as received by or otherwise credited to the district or subdistrict issuing bonds under this article, shall immediately be subject to the lien of each such pledge without any physical delivery thereof, any filing, or any further act.

(2) The lien of each such pledge and the obligation to perform the contractual provisions made in the authorizing resolution or other instrument pertaining thereto shall have priority over any or all other obligations or liabilities of the district or subdistrict, except as may be otherwise provided in this article or in the resolution or other instrument, and subject to any prior pledges and liens theretofore created.

(3) The lien of each such pledge shall be valid and binding as against all persons having claims of any kind in tort, in contract, or otherwise against the district or subdistrict, irrespective of whether or not such persons have notice thereof.
C.R.S. § 37-87-124 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 87 / Section 37-87-124
37-87-124. Restriction of facilities within reservoirs
Status: in_force

37-87-124. Restriction of facilities within reservoirs. (1) The general assembly hereby declares that the prevention of seasonal flooding which causes destruction of property and crops, loss of livestock, and risk or loss of human life is manifestly of greater concern and benefit to this state than the availability of recreational facilities and other facilities, not functionally related to the operation of the reservoir, constructed below the high water level of a reservoir.

(2) In order to achieve the purposes of subsection (1) of this section, no person, including any state or federal agency, quasi-municipal corporation, or political subdivision, shall construct any permanent recreational structure within a reservoir below the elevation at the crest of the spillway of the reservoir unless such facility is constructed in such a manner as to withstand partial or complete inundation and sustain minimal or no damage thereby or unless such facility is necessary to the operation of the reservoir. Said facility should be capable of being restored to full recreational use with a minimum amount of cleaning or expense. This subsection (2) and subsection (3) of this section shall not apply to facilities completed before July 1, 1984, but shall apply to any enlargement or remodeling of such facilities.

(3) The state engineer shall order the removal of any facilities constructed, enlarged, or remodeled in violation of this section. Such order may be appealed by the affected person or enforced by the state engineer pursuant to article 4 of title 24, C.R.S.
C.R.S. § 37-30-103 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 30 / Section 37-30-103
37-30-103. Board or purchaser as freeholder
Status: in_force

37-30-103. Board or purchaser as freeholder. If any such land is included in any drainage project, the state board of land commissioners shall be considered in all respects a freeholder so long as the lands remain unsold, but as soon as any of such land is sold, whether occurring before or after the time such land is included in such drainage project, the purchaser shall from the time of his purchase be considered as such freeholder and entitled to all the rights of the freeholder whether or not he has completed his payments to the state board of land commissioners. In no case shall any interest or title of the state to lands be made liable or subjected to any claim for any drainage assessment by reason of the including of any such state land in any drainage project.
C.R.S. § 37-46-121 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 46 / Section 37-46-121
37-46-121. Assessments perpetual lien
Status: in_force

37-46-121. Assessments perpetual lien. All assessments on account of special improvements against appraised benefits and interest thereon and penalties for default of payment thereof, together with costs of collecting the same, from the date of the filing of the "construction fund assessment" record and the "maintenance fund assessment" record in the office of the county treasurer of the county wherein the lands and property are situate, shall constitute a perpetual lien in an amount not in excess of the benefits severally appraised upon the land and other property against which said assessments have been levied and such benefits appraised to which only the lien of the general, state, county, city, town, or school district taxes shall be paramount, and any sale of such property and the issuance of a tax deed conveying title thereto, to enforce any general, state, county, city, town, or school district tax, or any other lien, shall extinguish the perpetual lien of said assessment. Any landowner at any time may pay the full amount of said assessment, and thereafter the property of any such landowner shall be clear and free from said lien and shall not be subject to assessment for and on account of benefits appraised against any other land or default in the payment of assessments made against any other land.
C.R.S. § 37-64-101 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 64 / Section 37-64-101
37-64-101. Animas-La Plata project compact
Status: in_force

37-64-101. Animas-La Plata project compact. The general assembly hereby ratifies the compact designated as the "Animas-La Plata Project Compact" to which the consent of congress was given by Public Law 90-537, section 501 (c), approved September 30, 1968, by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America. Said compact is as follows:

ANIMAS-LA PLATA PROJECT COMPACT

The State of Colorado and the State of New Mexico, in order to implement the operation of the Animas-La Plata Federal Reclamation Project, Colorado-New Mexico, a proposed participating project under the Colorado River Storage Project Act (70 Stat. 105; 43 U.S.C. 620) and being moved by considerations of interstate comity, have resolved to conclude a compact for these purposes and have agreed upon the following articles:

ARTICLE I

A. The right to store and divert water in Colorado and New Mexico from the La Plata and Animas River systems, including return flow to the La Plata River from Animas River diversions, for uses in New Mexico under the Animas-La Plata Federal Reclamation Project shall be valid and of equal priority with those rights granted by decree of the Colorado state courts for the uses of water in Colorado for that project providing such uses in New Mexico are within the allocation of water made to that state by articles III and XIV of the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact (63 Stat. 31).

B. The restrictions of the last sentence of Section (a) of Article IX of the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact shall not be construed to vitiate paragraph A of this article.

ARTICLE II

This Compact shall become binding and obligatory when it shall have been ratified by the legislatures of each of the signatory States.
C.R.S. § 37-47-112 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 47 / Section 37-47-112
37-47-112. Procedure for establishment of subdistricts
Status: in_force

37-47-112. Procedure for establishment of subdistricts. (1) Before any subdistrict is established under this article, a petition shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the district court of the county in which the territory to be embraced in said subdistrict or the greater part thereof is situate, signed by the board of directors of the district or by a majority of the owners of land situate within the limits of the territory proposed to be organized into a subdistrict.

(2) The petition shall set forth:

(a) The proposed name of said subdistrict, whether it shall be designated "Water Users' Association No. .... in the Southwestern Water Conservation District", or "Special Improvement District No. .... in the Southwestern Water Conservation District";

(b) That property within the proposed subdistrict will be benefited by the proposed reservoirs, ditches, canals, works, or other improvements and shall set forth in a general way the nature and estimated cost thereof, together with a general statement of the nature of the anticipated benefits to be derived therefrom;

(c) A full description of the territory to be included in the proposed subdistrict. Said description need not be given by metes and bounds or by legal subdivision, but it shall be sufficient to enable a property owner to ascertain whether his property is within the territory proposed to be organized in a subdistrict. Such territory need not be contiguous, if it is so situated that the organization as a single subdistrict of the territory described is such as to promote or tend to promote one or more of the objectives of this article as to all parts of the area proposed to be included.

(d) A general description of the methods proposed to finance the proposed works or other improvements, whether by revenue warrants pledging the income from the proposed works, special improvement bonds to be paid by special assessments on the property benefited in an amount on each tract of land not in excess of the appraised benefits, contracts of water users or water users' associations creating liens or mortgages on lands within the subdistrict, or general obligation bonds constituting a lien against the real property embraced in such subdistrict and which indebtedness shall never be an obligation of the district. If general obligations are proposed, the petition shall allege and show that all lands in the subdistrict will be benefited in an amount not less than the total amount of general obligation bonds to be issued exclusive of interest.

(e) If such a petition is filed by the board of directors of the district, it shall contain a statement to the effect that a majority of the landowners of the territory in the proposed subdistrict petitioned the board of directors to organize said subdistrict, and a copy of the petition of said landowners shall be attached as an exhibit to the petition for organization of the subdistrict;

(f) Said petition shall pray for the organization of a subdistrict by the name proposed.

(3) To determine whether a majority of landowners in said district have signed the petition, in the event the petition is signed by landowners, or have petitioned the board of directors of the district, in the event the petition is filed by the board of directors, the court may require the county treasurer of each county in which territory proposed to be included in said subdistrict is situated to furnish a certified list of names of landowners within said area, and the court shall be governed by the names as they appear upon said copy of the tax roll, and the same shall be prima facie evidence of ownership, and, if said tax roll shows a majority of the landowners have signed the main petition or petitioned the district for said organization, the same shall be considered as prima facie evidence that a majority of said landowners are in favor of the organization of said proposed subdistrict.
C.R.S. § 37-60-122.5 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 60 / Part 1 / Section 37-60-122.5
37-60-122.5. Emergency dam repair cash fund
Status: in_force

37-60-122.5. Emergency dam repair cash fund. There is hereby created in the state treasury the emergency dam repair cash fund. The state treasurer is hereby authorized and directed to transfer money from the Colorado water conservation board construction fund to the emergency dam repair cash fund in such amounts and at such times as determined by the Colorado water conservation board. Such transfers must not exceed five hundred thousand dollars. The money in the emergency dam repair cash fund is continuously appropriated to the Colorado water conservation board and the division of water resources for the emergency repair of dams pursuant to section 37-87-108.5. All money collected by the state engineer pursuant to section 37-87-108.5 shall be transmitted to the state treasurer, who shall credit the money to the Colorado water conservation board construction fund. All interest derived from the investment of money in the emergency dam repair cash fund shall be credited to the Colorado water conservation board construction fund. Any balance remaining in the emergency dam repair cash fund at the end of any fiscal year remains in the fund.
C.R.S. § 37-44-106 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 44 / Section 37-44-106
37-44-106. Canvass of votes
Status: in_force

37-44-106. Canvass of votes. The district judge, within ten days after the returns of said election have been filed with the clerk of said district court by the judges of election in the various precincts of said district, shall proceed to canvass the returns of the votes cast thereat and if it is proven to said court that at least a majority of the legal electors in said district who are also the owners of more than one-half the total acreage included in said district have voted "Internal Improvement - Yes", the said judge, by an order duly entered in said court, shall declare such territory duly organized into an internal improvement district under the name and style theretofore designated and in said order declare the persons receiving respectively the highest number of votes in each election precinct for such several offices to be duly elected to such office. Said board shall cause a copy of such order, including a plat of said district, duly certified by the clerk of said district court, to be filed for record in the office of the county clerk and recorder of each county into which any portion of the lands situated in said internal improvement district extends and, after the date of filing such order, no portion of such district shall be included in or form a part of any other internal improvement district. From and after the date of such filing, the organization of such district shall be complete, and the officers thereof shall immediately enter upon the duties of their respective offices, upon qualifying in accordance with law, and shall hold such offices respectively until their successors are elected and qualified.
C.R.S. § 37-23-101 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 23 / Section 37-23-101
37-23-101. Assessments according to benefits
Status: in_force

37-23-101. Assessments according to benefits. (1) As soon as the plans for a drainage system have been determined and before the actual work of drainage is begun or bonds voted, the board of directors shall proceed to make special assessments for benefits by classifying the lands in the district in tracts of forty acres, more or less, according to the legal or recognized subdivisions on a graduated scale to be numbered according to the benefits to be received by the contemplated drainage. The tracts of land which will receive most and about equal benefits shall be marked one hundred, and such as are adjudged to receive less benefits shall be marked with a lesser number denoting its percent of benefit. This classification when established shall remain as a basis for the levy of taxes as may be needed for the lawful and proper purposes of the drainage district.

(2) In any district where a classification has once been made and the board of directors believes from experience and results that such former classification is not fairly adjusted on the several tracts of land according to benefits which may be adjusted by new or additional assessments, then the board of directors shall disregard such former classification and make a new classification in accordance with justice and right. When the classification is completed it shall be properly tabulated or shown by a map, or both, and filed in the office of the secretary of the district for inspection.
C.R.S. § 37-60-106.5 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 60 / Part 1 / Section 37-60-106.5
37-60-106.5. Study of water salvage
Status: repealed

37-60-106.5. Study of water salvage. (Repealed)
C.R.S. § 37-46-126.2 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 46 / Section 37-46-126.2
37-46-126.2. Subdistrict's levy of taxes
Status: in_force

37-46-126.2. Subdistrict's levy of taxes. In addition to other means of providing revenue for a subdistrict, the board of directors, in the name of the subdistrict, has the power to levy and collect general ad valorem taxes on or against all taxable property within the subdistrict, subject to the limitations provided in section 37-46-126.3 (1), in part 3 of article 1 of title 29, C.R.S., and in any other law which by its terms is applicable to the subdistrict and which imposes tax limitations or expenditure limitations thereon.
C.R.S. § 37-31-144 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 31 / Section 37-31-144
37-31-144. Election on bonds
Status: in_force

37-31-144. Election on bonds. For the purpose of constructing a drainage system and necessary works for the drainage district and acquiring the necessary property and rights-of-way therefor, of paying the first year's interest on the bonds authorized in this article, and of otherwise carrying out the provisions of this article, the board of directors of the drainage district may estimate and determine the amount of money necessary to be raised for such purposes and is empowered to call a special election, at which election shall be submitted to the qualified taxpaying electors of the drainage district the question of whether or not the bonds of said district shall be issued in the amount so determined.
C.R.S. § 37-1-105 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 1 / Section 37-1-105
37-1-105. Remedy by mandamus
Status: in_force

37-1-105. Remedy by mandamus. The performance of all duties prescribed in articles 1 to 8 of this title concerning the organization and administration or operation of a conservancy district may be enforced against any officer thereof or against any person or corporation refusing to comply with any order of the board of directors, by mandamus, at the instance of the board or of any person or corporation interested in any way in such district or proposed district. Such proceedings shall be instituted in the district court having jurisdiction of the original case.
C.R.S. § 37-45-117 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 45 / Section 37-45-117
37-45-117. Employment of agents
Status: in_force

37-45-117. Employment of agents. The secretary shall be custodian of the records of the district and of its corporate seal, and shall assist the board in such particulars as it may direct in the performance of its duties. The secretary shall attest, under the corporate seal of the district, all certified copies of the official records and files of the district that may be required of him by this article, or by any person ordering the same and paying the reasonable cost of transcription, and any portion of the record so certified and attested shall prima facie import verity. The secretary shall serve as treasurer of the district, unless a treasurer is otherwise provided for by the board. The board may also employ a chief engineer who may be an individual, partnership, or corporation; an attorney, and such other engineers, attorneys, and other agents and assistants as may be necessary; and may provide for their compensation which, with all other necessary expenditures, shall be taken as a part of the cost or maintenance of the improvement. The chief engineer shall be superintendent of all the works and improvements, and shall make a full report to the board each year, or oftener if required by the board, and may make such suggestions and recommendations to the board as he may deem proper. The secretary and treasurer and such other agents or employees of the district as the court may direct, shall furnish corporate surety bonds, at the expense of the district, in amount and form fixed and approved by the court, conditioned upon the faithful performance of their respective duties.
C.R.S. § 37-48-159 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 48 / Section 37-48-159
37-48-159. Sinking fund
Status: in_force

37-48-159. Sinking fund. Said district may provide for a sinking fund for the ultimate payment of any of the obligations of any subdistrict. Such sinking fund may be invested as provided in section 37-48-111.
C.R.S. § 37-60-134 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 60 / Part 1 / Section 37-60-134
37-60-134. Groundwater compact compliance and sustainability fund - creation - conservation
Status: repealed

37-60-134. Groundwater compact compliance and sustainability fund - creation - conservation district recommendations for expenditures - state engineer approval - legislative declaration - transfer - definitions - reports - notice to revisor of statutes - repeal. (1) The general assembly hereby:

(a) Finds and determines that:

(I) Groundwater well pumping in certain areas of the state provides the principal source of irrigation water supply but consequently may reduce the quantity of groundwater in the aquifers and may impact the hydrogeology of connected surface streams, resulting in reduced streamflows that threaten senior water rights and the state's compliance with interstate compacts;

(II) Groundwater use is extensive in four of the eight major river basins in Colorado, namely the Rio Grande, Republican, Arkansas, and South Platte river basins, and such groundwater use is closely tied to the agricultural economy in those areas;

(III) Previous United States supreme court litigation initiated in neighboring states regarding compact compliance by the Rio Grande, Arkansas, and Republican river basins have involved complaints regarding the extent of groundwater use in those areas. Settlements of the lawsuits in the Rio Grande and Republican river basins resulted in the creation of water conservation districts to address groundwater management and conservation.

(IV) Despite the conservation districts' and the state's diligent efforts to implement strategies to reduce groundwater use, including the creation of six groundwater management subdistricts in the Rio Grande river basin and the use of various federal, state, and local funding sources to incentivize the purchase and retirement of irrigated acreage, extensive groundwater use in the Rio Grande and Republican river basins continues to threaten aquifer sustainability, senior water rights, and compact compliance;

(V) As part of the efforts to reduce groundwater use, the state entered into a stipulation with Kansas and Nebraska in 2016 in which the state agreed to retire twenty-five thousand acres of irrigated acreage in the Republican river basin by 2029, and, pursuant to standards for groundwater management set forth in section 37-92-501 (4), the groundwater management subdistrict number 1 created in the Rio Grande water conservation district is required to retire forty thousand acres of irrigated acreage by 2029;

(VI) To date, only about three thousand acres have been retired in the Republican river basin and only about thirteen thousand acres have been retired in the Rio Grande river basin; and

(VII) If the acreage retirement requirements in the Rio Grande and Republican river basins are not met, the state might be required to mandate groundwater use reductions for productive farmland in the basins to achieve compact compliance, thus threatening the agricultural economies in the river basins; and

(b) Declares that:

(I) Greater funding is needed to incentivize the retirement of irrigation wells and irrigated acreage to comply with the groundwater use reduction requirements;

(II) To accelerate the state's progress in retiring irrigated acreage in the Republican and Rio Grande river basins in order to meet state-mandated deadlines, a state fund should be created to provide financial incentives and assistance for the buying and retiring of irrigation wells and irrigated acreage in the basins;

(III) Such use of state money would also help promote conservation and sustainability of groundwater resources in furtherance of the state water plan developed pursuant to section 37-60-106.3; and

(IV) The board should administer the fund and distribute money from the fund based on recommendations of the board of directors of the Rio Grande water conservation district appointed pursuant to section 37-48-103 or the board of directors of the Republican river water conservation district appointed pursuant to section 37-50-104, which recommendations the state engineer should first review.

(2) The general assembly further finds and declares that:

(a) This section is intended to respond to the negative economic impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting public health emergency by providing financial incentives for the voluntary retirement of irrigated acreage and wells in order to maintain interstate compact compliance and for the promotion of conservation and sustainability of groundwater resources in furtherance of the state water plan;

(b) Money allocated to the state pursuant to the "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021" and transferred to the groundwater compact compliance and sustainability fund created in subsection (3)(a) of this section may be used for the purposes of this section; and

(c) The compact compliance, groundwater resource sustainability, and groundwater conservation purposes described in this section are important government services.

(3) (a) The groundwater compact compliance and sustainability fund is hereby created in the state treasury and consists of money that the general assembly may appropriate or transfer to the fund; money that the state may receive from federal sources, including federal sources of stimulus funding or recovery funding; and any gifts, grants, or donations that the board seeks, accepts, and expends for the purposes set forth in this section. The money in the fund is subject to annual appropriation by the general assembly.

(b) The board shall administer the fund to implement the groundwater compact compliance and sustainability purposes established in accordance with this section. The board may use up to five percent of the money annually appropriated to the fund to pay the board's direct and indirect costs, as well as the direct and indirect costs incurred by the Rio Grande water conservation district, the Republican river water conservation district, and the state engineer in implementing this section.

(4) The board may disburse money from the fund for purposes related to compact compliance and groundwater resource sustainability and conservation, including the financing of programs directed at buying and retiring irrigated acreage to reduce groundwater use. The board of directors of the Rio Grande water conservation district and the board of directors of the Republican river water conservation district, in collaboration with the board and the state engineer, may each establish eligibility and application criteria for disbursement of money from the fund. Each board of directors shall post on its website any criteria established pursuant to this subsection (4).

(5) The board shall disburse money from the fund based on recommendations from the board of directors of either the Rio Grande water conservation district or the Republican river water conservation district, which recommendations must first be approved by the state engineer.

(6) If all groundwater reduction requirements established by federal or state court order or stipulation have been met and all statutorily mandated groundwater reduction standards have been achieved, this section will be repealed; except that this section shall not be repealed before January 1, 2025. The board shall notify the revisor of statutes in writing of the date when the conditions specified in this subsection (6) have occurred by emailing the notice to revisorofstatutes.ga@coleg.gov. The board shall also send a copy of the notice to the state treasurer who, within three days after receiving the notice, shall transfer any money remaining in the fund to the general fund. This section is repealed, effective upon the date identified in the notice or, if the notice does not specify that date, upon the date of the notice to the revisor of statutes.

(7) (a) For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, the general assembly shall appropriate to the fund sixty million dollars from the economic recovery and relief cash fund created in section 24-75-228 (2)(a). The board may use the money appropriated for the purposes set forth in this section. Except as provided in subsection (7)(b) of this section, any money appropriated to the fund in the 2022-23 state fiscal year that is unobligated or unexpended at the end of the state fiscal year remains available for expenditure by the board in subsequent state fiscal years without further appropriation, subject to the requirements for obligating and expending money received under the "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021", as specified in section 24-75-226 (4)(d).

(b) On August 15, 2024, if there is unobligated or unencumbered money in the fund, the state treasurer shall:

(I) If the amount of unobligated or unencumbered money is twenty million dollars or less, transfer all of the unobligated money to the water plan implementation account; or

(II) If the amount of unobligated or unencumbered money is greater than twenty million dollars, transfer to the water plan implementation account twenty million dollars.

(8) (a) The board and any person that receives money from the board pursuant to this section or section 37-60-123.3 (3) shall comply with the compliance, reporting, record-keeping, and program evaluation requirements established by the office of state planning and budgeting and the state controller in accordance with section 24-75-226 (5).

(b) Commencing in 2023, and for each year thereafter through 2027, as part of its annual presentations to the general assembly under the "State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act", part 2 of article 7 of title 2, the department of natural resources shall report on how much money the board has expended under this section and if the board expects to expend the full sixty million dollars for the purposes set forth in this section or, if money is transferred to the water plan implementation account in 2024, if the board is on track to expend the full sixty million dollars for the purposes set forth in this section and the purposes set forth in section 37-60-123.3 (3).

(9) As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires:

(a) "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021" means the federal "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021", Pub.L. 117-2, as the act may be subsequently amended.

(b) "COVID-19" means the coronavirus disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, also known as SARS-CoV-2.

(c) "Fund" means the groundwater compact compliance and sustainability fund created in subsection (3)(a) of this section.

(d) "Water plan implementation account" means the water plan implementation account created in section 37-60-123.3 (3)(b).
C.R.S. § 37-43-150 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 43 / Part 1 / Section 37-43-150
37-43-150. Validity of bonds examined
Status: in_force

37-43-150. Validity of bonds examined. The validity of refunding bonds issued pursuant to sections 37-43-144 to 37-43-151 may be judicially examined, approved, and confirmed in the same manner as an original issue of bonds of such district.
C.R.S. § 37-20-105 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 20 / Section 37-20-105
37-20-105. Expenses reimbursed - when
Status: in_force

37-20-105. Expenses reimbursed - when. In case the district is organized, the expenses incurred by the county shall be paid to the county by said district, and all advances made by the petitioners to the county treasurer shall be refunded by the county to the petitioners, who shall have advanced the same.
C.R.S. § 37-1-109 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 1 / Section 37-1-109
37-1-109. Repeal - saving clause
Status: in_force

37-1-109. Repeal - saving clause. All laws or parts of laws conflicting in any way with any of the provisions of articles 1 to 8 of this title, in regard to improvements of the character contemplated by said articles, or regulating or limiting the power of taxation or assessment, or otherwise interfering with the execution of articles 1 to 8 of this title according to their terms, are declared inoperative and ineffective as to said articles, as completely as if they did not exist. But all such laws and parts of laws shall not be otherwise affected by said articles.
C.R.S. § 37-44-146 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 44 / Section 37-44-146
37-44-146. Petition for confirmation
Status: in_force

37-44-146. Petition for confirmation. The board of directors shall present to the district court in which the organization of the district was elected, a petition, praying, in effect, that the proceedings may be examined, approved, and confirmed by the court. The petition shall state the facts showing the proceedings had for the issue and sale of said bonds and shall state generally that the internal improvement district was duly organized and that the first board of directors was duly elected; but the petition need not state the facts showing such organization of the district or the election of said first board of directors.
C.R.S. § 37-92-204 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 92 / Part 2 / Section 37-92-204
37-92-204. Water clerks - duties
Status: in_force

37-92-204. Water clerks - duties. (1) (a) There is established in each water division the office of water clerk, who shall be an associate clerk of the district court and shall be appointed in the same manner as clerks of the various district courts. The water clerk may be a part-time employee, or an existing clerk of the district court may be assigned additional duties as water clerk. Any reference in this article to a filing with the water clerk means a filing in the district court where such clerk serves.

(b) The water clerk shall maintain his office in the offices of the clerk of the district court of the county in each division as follows:

Division 1 Weld

Division 2 Pueblo

Division 3 Alamosa

Division 4 Montrose

Division 5 Garfield

Division 6 Routt

Division 7 La Plata

(2) The water clerk shall maintain the records of all proceedings related to appropriations, determinations of water rights and conditional water rights and the amount and priority thereof, changes of water rights, plans for augmentation, abandonment of water rights and conditional water rights, and the records of all proceedings of the water judge and of all rulings and actions of the referee required by this article to be filed with the water clerk. The clerks of the various district courts in each division, if requested by the water clerk of that division, shall transfer to the water clerk duplicate copies of any of the files, or parts thereof, of cases relating to water rights. The water clerk shall perform such other duties as may be prescribed by the water judge or the supreme court.

(3) Subject to the approval of the water judge, the water clerk in each division shall employ such assistants and deputies as may be necessary for him or her to carry out his or her duties. The water clerk, assistants, and deputies shall take an oath or affirmation in accordance with section 24-12-101 and file such bond as may be prescribed by the supreme court.

(4) The expense of the office and staff of the water clerk shall be provided for out of state funds appropriated to the supreme court, and each county in which a water clerk's office is located shall be reimbursed for the cost thereof to the county.
C.R.S. § 37-46-149 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 46 / Section 37-46-149
37-46-149. Cooperative powers
Status: in_force

37-46-149. Cooperative powers. (1) The district and any subdistrict have the power to utilize and may utilize private industry, by contract, to carry out the design, construction, operation, management, manufacturing, marketing, planning, and research and development functions of the district or any subdistrict proceeding under this article, unless the district or subdistrict determines that it is in the public interest to adopt another course of action. The district or subdistrict, or both, may enter into long-term contracts with private persons, not exceeding a term of seventy-five years, without an election, for the performance of any such functions of the district or subdistrict, which, in the opinion of the district or subdistrict, can desirably and conveniently be carried out by a private person under contract; but any such contract shall contain such terms and conditions as shall enable the district or subdistrict to retain reasonable supervision and control of such functions to be carried out or performed by such private persons pursuant to such contract.

(2) Subject to the provisions of section 37-46-133, the district and any subdistrict have the following powers:

(a) To accept contributions, grants, or loans from the state and the federal government for the purpose of financing the planning, acquisition, improvement, equipment, maintenance, and operation of any enterprise in which the district or subdistrict, or both, are authorized to engage, and to enter into contracts and cooperate with, and accept cooperation from, the federal government, the state, the subdistrict or the district, respectively, any political subdivision, any private firm, and any other person, or any combination thereof, in the planning, acquisition, improvement, equipment, maintenance, and operation and in financing the planning, acquisition, improvement, equipment, maintenance, and operation of any such enterprise in accordance with any legislation which the general assembly, congress, the governing body of any political subdivision, the board of directors or other governing body of any private firm, any other person, or any combination thereof may have adopted prior to the adoption of this article or may thereafter adopt, under which aid, assistance, and cooperation may be furnished by such cooperating entity or entities or other persons in the planning, acquisition, improvement, equipment, maintenance, and operation or in financing the planning, acquisition, improvement, equipment, maintenance, and operation of any such enterprise, including, without limitation, costs of engineering, architectural, and economic investigations and studies, surveys, designs, plans, working drawings, specifications, procedures, and other action preliminary to the acquisition, improvement, or equipment of any facilities, or any part thereof, and to do any and all things necessary in order to avail itself of such aid, assistance, and cooperation under any state, federal, or other legislation;

(b) To enter into, without any election, joint operating or service contracts and agreements; acquisition, improvement, equipment, or disposal contracts; contracts for the purchase, sale, rental, lease, as lessor or lessee, or exchange of water or the purchase, sale, or exchange of water rights or electricity (or any combination thereof) but not to acquire any electricity for sale by the district or any subdistrict as a public utility either to the public or to any other user (other than any sale to any subdistrict or the district, respectively, or to any water conservancy district located wholly or in part within the Colorado river water conservation district and other than any sale of electricity by the district or any subdistrict thereof at wholesale to any person or governmental entity); or other arrangements, for any term not exceeding seventy-five years, with the federal government, the state, the subdistrict or the district, respectively, any political subdivision, any private firm, or any other person, or any combination thereof, concerning the facilities and any project or property pertaining thereto, whether acquired or undertaken by the district, by the subdistrict, by the federal government, by any political subdivision of this state or any other state, or by any person, and to accept contributions, grants, or loans from the cooperating entity or entities or other persons in connection therewith;

(c) To enter into and perform without any election, when determined by the board of directors to be in the public interest, contracts and agreements, for any term not exceeding seventy-five years, with the federal government, the subdistrict or the district, respectively, any political subdivision, or any person, or any combination thereof, for the provision and operation by the subdistrict or the district, respectively, of any facilities pertaining to such facilities of the district or subdistrict, as the case may be, any part thereof, or any project relating thereto, and the payment periodically thereby to the district or subdistrict of amounts at least sufficient, if any, in the determination of the board, to compensate the district or subdistrict for the cost of providing, operating, and maintaining such facilities serving the federal government, the subdistrict or the district, respectively, any political subdivision, or such other person, or any combination thereof, or otherwise;

(d) To enter into and perform, without any election, contracts and agreements, for any term not exceeding seventy-five years, on a public bid basis, a competitive basis, or a negotiated basis, as the board of directors may determine, with the federal government, the subdistrict or the district, respectively, any political subdivision, any private firm, or any other person, or any combination thereof, for or concerning the planning, construction, lease, other acquisition, improvement, equipment, operation, maintenance, lease, other disposal, and financing, or any other combination thereof, of any property pertaining to the facilities of the district or subdistrict or to any project of the district or subdistrict, including, without limitation, any contract or agreement, for any term not exceeding seventy-five years, pertaining to the joint ownership of the facilities as tenants in common thereamong or providing for the exchange of water or electric power for backup water or power, the pooling of resources, or the designation of a manager for any such project or facilities supervised by an engineering and operating committee of co-owners or otherwise supervised, and otherwise to contract with water or power producers or users, or any combination thereof;

(e) To cooperate with and act in conjunction with the federal government or any of its engineers, officers, boards, commissions, or departments, or with the state or any of its engineers, officers, boards, commissions, or departments, or with any political subdivision or any person in the acquisition, improvement, and equipment of any facilities or any part thereof authorized for the district or subdistrict or for any other works, acts, or purposes provided for in this article and to adopt and carry out any definite plan or system of work for any such purpose;

(f) To cooperate with the federal government, the subdistrict or district, respectively, any political subdivision, or any person, or any combination thereof, by an agreement therewith by which the district or the subdistrict may:

(I) Acquire and provide, without cost to the cooperating entity or entities, the land, easements, and rights-of-way necessary for the acquisition, improvement, and equipment of any properties;

(II) Hold the cooperating entity or entities free from and save it or them harmless from any claim for damages arising from the acquisition, improvement, equipment, maintenance, and operation of any facilities;

(III) Maintain and operate any facilities in accordance with regulations prescribed by the cooperating entity or entities; and

(IV) Establish and enforce regulations, if any, concerning the facilities which are satisfactory to the cooperating entity or entities;

(g) To provide, by any contract for any term not exceeding seventy-five years, or otherwise, without an election:

(I) For the joint use of personnel, equipment, and facilities of the district, the subdistrict, any political subdivision, or any person, or any combination thereof, including, without limitation, public buildings constructed by or under the supervision of the board of directors, the governing body of the political subdivision, or the board of directors or other governing body of a private firm or other person concerned, upon such terms and agreements and within such areas within the district or subdistrict, or otherwise, as may be determined, for the promotion and protection of health, comfort, safety, life, welfare, and property of the inhabitants of the district or subdistrict and any such political subdivision and any other persons of interest, and for water or electric services;

(II) For the joint employment of clerks, stenographers, and other employees pertaining to the facilities or any project, now existing or hereafter established, upon such terms and conditions as may be determined for the equitable apportionment of the expenses resulting therefrom;

(h) To provide for comprehensive planning and, where possible, coordinate operations of the district or subdistrict with the subdistrict or district, respectively, any and all such political subdivisions, private firms, and other persons, or any combination thereof, pertaining to water conservation and use and to the generation and use of electricity.
C.R.S. § 37-44-104 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 44 / Section 37-44-104
37-44-104. Presentation and allowance of petitions
Status: in_force

37-44-104. Presentation and allowance of petitions. (1) (a) When such petition is presented and it appears that the notice of presentation of said petition has been given, as required by section 37-44-102, and that said petition has been signed by the requisite number of petitioners, the district court in which said petition is presented shall proceed to define the boundaries of such proposed district, from the petition and from such application for the exclusion of lands from and inclusions of lands therein as may be made in accordance with the provisions of this article.

(b) Any owner of land included in the proposed district who is not a signer of said petition may file with said court, on or before the day fixed by said notice for the presentation of said petition, a protest against the inclusion of lands so owned by him in the proposed district and petition for its exclusion. Said protest and petition shall set out the facts and conditions by reason of which such owner seeks to have his lands excluded from said proposed district. As many different owners as desire to do so may join in the same petition.

(c) Owners of lands not included in said proposed district, in like manner, may petition for the inclusion of their lands therein.

(2) On the day fixed for such hearing, the court shall proceed to examine the petition for the formation of said district and shall determine whether the same is in proper form and signed by the requisite number of petitioners. Certificates from several county assessors as to the ownership of lands in said proposed district, if the same appear upon the last assessment rolls of their respective counties, shall be prima facie evidence of the ownership of the lands therein mentioned; but strict proof of such ownership may be required by the court in regard to any lands, the ownership of which is called in question by any interested parties.

(3) When it appears to the court that the required notice of such hearing has been given, and that such petition is in proper form and signed by the required number of landowners, the court shall proceed to hear the same and all applications for inclusion and exclusion of lands theretofore filed with the clerk of said court. In such hearing, the court may consider:

(a) The physical condition and location of any lands for the inclusion or exclusion of which a petition has been filed;

(b) Its adaptability for agricultural use; and the sufficiency of any water supply already available for its irrigation and the need for any additional supply;

(c) The location and condition of said land with reference to other lands to be included in the proposed district;

(d) The cost and practicability of applying the proposed water supply to the irrigation of said lands, and the necessity and practicability of flood protection for said lands, if the same is sought to be included for flood protection purposes;

(e) The necessity and practicability of draining lands, either within or without the boundaries of said district;

(f) In general, any other matters which will enable the court to determine the question of whether such land should be included or excluded from said district. Lands which will not be benefited by the works of any such proposed district or lands already provided with adequate water supply for irrigation, where it is proposed to irrigate such lands, in whole or in part, from the works of such proposed district, or lands already provided with drainage, where it is proposed to drain such lands, in whole or in part, by the works to be constructed by such proposed district, shall not be included in said district or assessed for district purposes, except upon the written consent of the owner thereof, including all encumbrances, duly acknowledged in the manner provided by law for the acknowledgment of deeds.

(4) If, in the judgment of the court, the matters to be heard in connection with said petition can best be determined by reference of such matters, or any thereof to a magistrate, reference thereof may be ordered by said court and such order of reference shall expressly state what question shall be heard by said magistrate, when and where such hearing will be held, and the date on which the magistrate's report and findings shall be received and considered by the court. Said court may adjourn such hearing from time to time. If the court finds and determines that the organization of the proposed district is not in the best interests of the lands proposed to be included therein, the petition shall be denied and the proceedings dismissed. If the court finds that the formation of the district is meritorious and in the best interests of the lands to be included therein, the court by final order duly entered, shall define and establish the boundaries of such proposed district. When the boundaries of any proposed district have been examined and defined, the district court shall forthwith make an order allowing the prayer of said petitions defining and establishing the boundaries and designating the name of such proposed district.

(5) Thereupon said district court by order duly entered in said court shall call an election of all qualified electors of said district to be held for the purpose of determining whether such district shall be organized under provisions of this article and by such order shall submit the names of two or more persons from each of the five divisions of said district, who may be voted for as directors therein. For the purposes of said election the court shall divide said district into five divisions as nearly equal in size as may be practicable and shall provide that a qualified elector of each of said five divisions shall be elected as a member of the board of directors of said district by the qualified electors of the whole district. Each of said divisions shall constitute an election precinct and three qualified electors shall be appointed in each of said precincts, who shall act as judges to conduct the election in said precinct, one of whom shall act as clerk of said election.
C.R.S. § 37-46-131 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 46 / Section 37-46-131
37-46-131. Court confirmation
Status: in_force

37-46-131. Court confirmation. (1) (a) In its discretion, the board of directors, on the behalf and in the name of the district or any subdistrict which is a party in interest, may file a petition at any time in the district court in and for the county in which the district's principal office is maintained or, if both the district and one or more subdistricts are parties to the petition, in the district court in and for the county in which any such subdistrict was organized, praying for a judicial examination and determination of any power conferred or of any taxes or rates or other charges levied, or of any act, proceeding, or contract of the district, the subdistrict, or the subdistricts, or any combination thereof, as the case may be, whether or not said contract has been executed, including, without limitation, proposed contracts for the acquisition, improvement, equipment, maintenance, operation, or disposal of any properties or facilities for the benefit of the district, the subdistrict, or the subdistricts, as the case may be, and so including a proposed issue of revenue warrants, revenue bonds, special assessment bonds, or general obligation bonds, issued or to be issued on behalf of any such entity. Such petition shall set forth the facts whereon the validity of such power, tax, assessment, charge, act, proceeding, or contract is founded and shall be verified by the president of the board of directors.

(b) Such action shall be in the nature of a proceeding in rem, and jurisdiction of all parties interested may be had by publication, mail, and posting, as provided in this article. Notice of the filing of the petition shall be given by the clerk of the court, under the seal thereof, stating in brief outline the contents of the petition and also stating where a full copy of any contract therein mentioned may be examined. The notice shall be served by publication at least once a week for five consecutive weeks in a daily or a weekly newspaper of general circulation published in the county in which the principal office of the district is located, by mailing copies of the notice by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, to the boards of county commissioners of the several counties in which the parties in interest in such action are located wholly or in part, and by posting the same in the office of the district at least thirty days prior to the date fixed in said notice for the hearing on said petition. Jurisdiction shall be complete after such publication, mailing, and posting.

(c) Any owner of property in the district or any subdistrict filing the petition or any person interested in the contract or proposed contract or in the premises may appear and move to dismiss or answer the petition at any time prior to the date fixed for the hearing or within such further time as may be allowed by the court; and the petition shall be taken as confessed by all persons who fail to appear.

(2) The petition and notice shall be sufficient to give the court jurisdiction; and, upon hearing, the court shall examine into and determine all matters and things affecting the question submitted and shall make such findings with reference thereto and render such judgment and decree thereon as the case warrants. Costs may be divided or apportioned among any contesting parties in the discretion of the trial court. Review of the judgment of the court may be had as in other similar cases; except that such review must be applied for within thirty days after the time of the rendition of such judgment or within such additional time as may be allowed by the court within thirty days. The Colorado rules of civil procedure shall govern in matters of pleadings and practice where not otherwise specified in this article. The court shall disregard any error, irregularity, or omission which does not affect the substantial rights of the parties.
C.R.S. § 37-3-117 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 3 / Section 37-3-117
37-3-117. Dominant right of eminent domain
Status: in_force

37-3-117. Dominant right of eminent domain. (1) The district, when necessary for the purposes of articles 1 to 8 of this title, has a dominant right of eminent domain over the right of eminent domain of railroad, telegraph, telephone, gas, water power, and other companies and corporations and over towns, cities, counties, and other public corporations.

(2) In the exercise of this right, due care shall be taken to do no unnecessary damage to other public utilities and, in case of failure to agree upon the mode and terms of interference, not to interfere with their operations or usefulness beyond the actual necessities of the case, due regard being given to the other public interests involved.
C.R.S. § 37-85-109 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 85 / Section 37-85-109
37-85-109. Penalty for collecting excessive rate
Status: in_force

37-85-109. Penalty for collecting excessive rate. Every person owning or controlling, or claiming to own or control, any ditch, canal, or reservoir, who, after demand in writing made upon the person for the supply or delivery of water for irrigation, mining, milling, or domestic purposes, to be delivered from the canal, ditch, or reservoir, owned, possessed, or controlled by the person, and after tender of the lawful rate of compensation therefor in lawful money, shall demand, require, bargain for, accept, receive, or retain from the party making such application any money or other thing of value, or any promise or contract, or any valuable consideration whatever, as such royalty, bonus, or premium prerequisite or condition precedent, as is prohibited by section 37-85-108, commits a class 2 misdemeanor.
C.R.S. § 37-33-103 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 33 / Section 37-33-103
37-33-103. Bond
Status: in_force

37-33-103. Bond. The petitioner shall give good and sufficient bond, payable to the irrigation district in which such lands are included and approved by the board of directors of such district, conditioned in case said drainage ditch or drain, from any cause whatsoever, is not constructed, to pay all expenses incurred by the irrigation district on account of said proposed improvement.
C.R.S. § 37-41-136 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 41 / Section 37-41-136
37-41-136. Payment of pro rata assessments
Status: in_force

37-41-136. Payment of pro rata assessments. The board of directors to whom such petition is presented may require, as a condition precedent to the granting of the same, that the petitioners shall severally pay to such district such respective sums, as nearly as the same can be estimated by the board, as petitioners or their grantors would have been required to pay to such district as assessments for the payment of its pro rata share of all bonds and the interest thereon, which may have previously thereto been issued by said district, or for the payment of the pro rata share of the cost of construction under any contract between the district and the United States accompanying which bonds of the district have not been deposited with the United States as provided in this article, had such lands been included in such district at the time the same was originally formed, or when said bonds were so issued, or when said contract with the United States was executed. In case unentered public land is proposed to be annexed to the district, the board of directors of the district, instead of requiring such payment as a condition precedent, may assess such charge against such unentered public land upon the records of the district to be collected in the manner authorized by the act of congress of August 11, 1916.
C.R.S. § 37-90-127 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 90 / Section 37-90-127
37-90-127. Management district - directors - election - term of office
Status: in_force

37-90-127. Management district - directors - election - term of office. As the terms of the members of the board of directors expire, their successors shall be nominated by petitions containing the signatures of not less than fifteen percent of the number of qualified taxpaying electors of the division who voted at the last preceding district election, to be filed with the secretary of the district not less than thirty-five days before the election; thereafter, the members shall be elected for terms of four years by the plurality vote of the taxpaying electors of the division of the district which they represent. Such elections shall be held on the first Tuesday in February preceding the expiration of such terms and shall be conducted by the district board in the general manner prescribed in section 37-90-124.
C.R.S. § 37-95-104 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 95 / Section 37-95-104
37-95-104. Establishment of authority - board of directors - removal - organization - compe
Status: in_force

37-95-104. Establishment of authority - board of directors - removal - organization - compensation - dissolution. (1) There is hereby created the Colorado water resources and power development authority, which shall be a body corporate and a political subdivision of the state. The authority shall not be an agency of state government, nor shall it be subject to administrative direction by any department, commission, board, bureau, or agency of the state, except to the extent provided by this article.

(2) (a) The powers of the authority shall be vested in the governing body of the authority which shall be a board of directors consisting of nine members who shall be appointed by the governor, with the consent of the senate, as follows:

(I) One member from the Rio Grande drainage basin;

(II) One member from the North Platte drainage basin;

(III) One member from the Arkansas drainage basin;

(IV) One member from the South Platte drainage basin outside the city and county of Denver;

(V) One member from the city and county of Denver who is familiar with its water problems;

(VI) One member from the Yampa-White drainage basins;

(VII) One member from the main Colorado drainage basin;

(VIII) One member from the Gunnison-Uncompahgre drainage basins;

(IX) One member from the San Miguel-Dolores-San Juan drainage basins.

(b) Appointments to the board shall be made so as to include one member who shall be experienced in water project financing, one member who shall be experienced in the engineering aspects of water projects, one member who shall be experienced in the planning and developing of water projects, one member who shall be experienced in public health issues related to drinking water or water quality matters, and one member who shall be experienced in water law. Members of the board shall be representative of the water districts from which they are appointed.

(c) No more than five members of the board shall be members of the same major political party.

(3) Members of the board shall be appointed for terms of four years; except that the terms shall be staggered so that no more than three members' terms expire in the same year. Each member shall hold office for the term of the member's appointment and until a successor has been appointed. A member shall be eligible for reappointment. Any vacancy in the membership occurring other than by expiration of term shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment but for the unexpired term only.

(4) Each member may be removed from office by the governor for cause. Each member shall take an oath or affirmation in accordance with section 24-12-101.

(5) The members of the board shall elect a chairman and a vice-chairman. The members of the board shall also elect a secretary and a treasurer who need not be members, and the same person may be elected to serve as both secretary and treasurer. The powers of the board shall be vested in the members thereof in office from time to time, and five members of the board shall constitute a quorum at any meeting thereof. Action may be taken and motions and resolutions adopted by the board at any meeting thereof by the affirmative vote of at least five members of the authority. No vacancy in the membership of the board shall impair the right of a quorum of the members to exercise all the powers and perform all the duties of the board.

(6) Each member of the board not otherwise in full-time employment of the state shall receive a per diem of one hundred dollars for each day actually and necessarily spent in the discharge of official duties, and all members shall receive traveling and other necessary expenses actually incurred in the performance of official duties.

(7) The authority may be dissolved by an act passed by the general assembly on condition that the authority has no debts or obligations outstanding or that provision has been made for the payment or retirement of such debts or obligations. Upon any such dissolution of the authority, all property, funds, and assets thereof shall be vested in the state.
C.R.S. § 37-91-108 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 91 / Section 37-91-108
37-91-108. Denial, revocation, or suspension of license
Status: in_force

37-91-108. Denial, revocation, or suspension of license. (1) The board, by an affirmative vote of three of its five members, may withhold, deny, revoke, or suspend any license issued or applied for in accordance with the provisions of this article, upon proof that the licensee or applicant:

(a) Has used fraud or deception in applying for a license or in taking an examination provided for in this article;

(b) Has willfully or negligently violated any of the provisions of this article or of the "Colorado Groundwater Management Act";

(c) Has failed to comply with minimum standards prescribed by section 37-91-110 or the rules of the board promulgated with respect to this article;

(d) Has knowingly constructed a well or installed pumping equipment without a valid permit;

(e) Has knowingly filed with the division of water resources a document containing untrue statements;

(f) Has used fraud or deception in collecting fees from persons with whom he has contracted for well construction or pump installation;

(g) Has failed to submit a well completion report or a pump installation report pursuant to the requirement therefor in the rules and regulations of the board;

(h) Has authorized a person, not directly employed or directly supervised by the licensee, to construct wells or install pumping equipment under the authority of the licensee's license; or

(i) Has failed to complete the continuing education requirement established in section 37-91-107 within one year after the establishment of such requirement.

(2) No license shall be withheld, denied, revoked, or suspended except in conformity with article 4 of title 24, C.R.S.

(3) A hearing upon a complaint may be initiated only if the complaint was filed with the board within two years of the filing of the completion report for the well or pumping equipment, the construction or installation of which formed the basis of the complaint. If no completion report was filed, a hearing upon the complaint may be initiated only if the complaint was filed with the board within two years of the discovery of the violation or defect that constituted the grounds for the complaint.

(4) The board may order the nondestructive investigation, abandonment, repair, drilling, redrilling, casing, recasing, deepening, or excavation of a well to protect groundwater resources and the public health if the board finds such action to be necessary to correct violations of article 90 of this title, this article, or the rules promulgated by the board pursuant to this article.

(5) The board may assess fines of not less than fifty dollars nor more than one thousand dollars for violations of article 90 of this title, this article, or the rules promulgated by the board pursuant to this article for each such violation. Such fines shall be transmitted to the state treasurer, who shall credit them to the well inspection cash fund created in section 37-80-111.5.
C.R.S. § 37-43-177 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 43 / Part 1 / Section 37-43-177
37-43-177. Indebtedness of inactive districts
Status: in_force

37-43-177. Indebtedness of inactive districts. (1) In addition to the methods provided in sections 37-43-169 to 37-43-178, the following method of providing for the naming of directors and ascertaining and providing for the payment and discharge of the indebtedness of inactive or abandoned irrigation districts may be followed:

(a) Whenever any irrigation district organized prior to April 7, 1921, in this state has no duly elected or appointed and acting board of directors, by reason of the death, resignation, expiration of the terms of office of its former directors, or from any other cause, and no action has been taken by the electors of said district to fill such vacancies in its directorate by election or appointment as provided by law, upon petition filed and presented by any landowner, creditor, or bondholder of the irrigation district and upon notice given as provided in this section, the district court in and for the county in which the office of said district is located, by order, shall appoint not less than two nor more than three persons to act as directors of said district until their successors have been elected by the district and qualified as provided by law. Such directors so appointed by the district court shall be selected either from electors of said district or from owners of lands therein, although not otherwise qualified as electors of said district. If any person so appointed refuses to qualify as such, the court may appoint others in the place of those so refusing. The persons so appointed who qualify as directors shall file a certified copy of such order of court with the county clerk and recorder of said county in lieu of the statement of the results of election of directors required to be filed by the secretary of the district by section 37-41-112, and said directors so appointed shall have all the powers of, and shall otherwise qualify in the same manner provided by law for, directors elected by the district.

(b) If it appears to the court, upon the hearing, that there are not two or more electors or owners of land in said district who are ready and willing to accept such appointment and to qualify as such directors, the court, by order duly entered, shall direct the county assessor of the county in which the office of the district is located and it is thereupon his official duty to forthwith ascertain and certify to the court and thereafter certify to the board of county commissioners of said county, on or before October 15 of that year and succeeding years until directors of said district are elected or appointed, the amount and maturities of the outstanding bonds of said district, the amount of the unpaid interest thereon, the amounts and payees of the several outstanding warrants of said district, and the number of acres of land in said district which are burdened and obligated for the payment of bonded indebtedness and the number of acres subject to taxation for the payment of the general indebtedness of such district. Such certificate by the assessor shall have the same force and effect as the annual appropriation resolution required by law to be certified to the board of county commissioners by the directors of the irrigation district.

(c) The petitioners may submit to the court in any such proceeding any offer, proposition, or contract of compromise with holders of outstanding bonds and interest coupons of said district, wherein it is proposed to issue warrants of said district in exchange for said bonds and coupons and providing for the amounts to be levied from year to year to pay such warrants; and, if it appears to the court that said proposition or contract of compromise affords an equitable method of paying off said outstanding indebtedness, the court shall enter an order directing an election to be held at some convenient point at or near the location of the last office of the district for the purpose of submitting the question of the approval or rejection of such offer, proposition, or contract of compromise to a vote of the electors of the district. The election shall be conducted, and returns thereof made to the court, by the clerk of the court upon four weeks' published notice in the newspaper published nearest the place of holding said election. If a majority of the electors voting at said election vote in favor of said offer, proposition, or contract, or, in event no votes are cast, upon returns by the clerk, the court shall enter an order directing the carrying out of said offer, proposition, or the execution of said contract.

(d) If there are no directors of said district, the board of county commissioners of the county in which the office of the irrigation district is located, or should be located according to law, is hereby given the powers of directors of such district and shall act in the name of the district for the purpose of carrying out such offer or proposition or executing such contract and any warrants necessary to fulfill the terms of said offer, proposition, or contract, upon filing with the county clerk and recorder of said county a certified copy of said order of the court, and said board shall thereupon notify the county assessor of the amount of money to be collected from year to year as fixed and determined by said proposition or contract and the warrants so issued, which said certificate shall be followed by the county assessor in making certificate to the board of county commissioners. If the electors of the district reject such offer, proposition, or contract, the court may in like manner submit other or different propositions or contracts that may be proposed, and the proceedings shall be held open by the court for such purpose.

(e) All such proceedings before the district court shall be proceedings in rem and shall be entitled "In the matter of the .............. irrigation district, for appointment of directors and other purposes", and notice of the hearing upon such petition shall be given by publication in a newspaper of general circulation published nearest the office of the district for the time required for publication of summons as provided by the Colorado rules of civil procedure, and copies of such printed notice shall be mailed by the clerk of the court to the last-known directors and secretary of said district, as shown by the records of the county clerk and recorder of the county in which the office of the district is or was last located, and to all creditors, bondholders, or owners of warrants of said irrigation district, as nearly as the court and county assessor may be able to ascertain, at least three weeks prior to the date of such hearing. Any landowner or creditor of said district may appear and plead to or answer said petition and may offer testimony at said hearing. The court shall liberally construe sections 37-43-169 to 37-43-178 in carrying out the provisions of this section and shall retain jurisdiction of such proceedings until final provision has been made to pay off the indebtedness of any such irrigation district.
C.R.S. § 37-90.5-106 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 90.5 / Section 37-90.5-106
37-90.5-106. Regulation of geothermal resource operations - reinjection - fees - rules
Status: in_force

37-90.5-106. Regulation of geothermal resource operations - reinjection - fees - rules. (1) (a) (I) The state engineer has the exclusive authority to regulate shallow geothermal operations and may adopt rules that regulate shallow geothermal operations.

(II) Prior to constructing a test bore, monitoring well, or production well or reworking an existing well associated with shallow geothermal operations, an operations permit must be obtained from the state engineer.

(III) The state engineer may adopt rules for the assessment of reasonable fees for the processing and issuance of a permit pursuant to subsection (1)(a)(II) of this section.

(b) (I) The commission has the exclusive authority to regulate deep geothermal operations and may adopt rules that regulate deep geothermal operations.

(II) Prior to constructing a well associated with deep geothermal operations, the owner or operator of the well shall obtain an operations permit from the commission.

(III) In issuing an operations permit pursuant to subsection (1)(b)(II) of this section, the commission may allow for the use of groundwater as part of nonconsumptive geothermal operations as a material medium for allocated geothermal resources that have been determined to be nontributary pursuant to section 37-90.5-107 (1)(b).

(IV) The commission may adopt rules for the assessment of reasonable fees for the processing and issuance of a permit pursuant to subsection (1)(b)(II) of this section.

(2) (a) In exercising its regulatory authority pursuant to subsection (1)(b) of this section, the commission shall adopt rules that:

(I) Protect public health, safety, and welfare, including the protection of the environment and wildlife resources; and

(II) Avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse impacts on disproportionately impacted communities.

(b) (I) The commission shall not issue an operations permit pursuant to subsection (1)(b)(II) of this section unless the applicant provides evidence to the commission that:

(A) The applicant has filed an application with the local government with jurisdiction to approve the siting of the proposed deep geothermal operations, including the local government's disposition of the application; or

(B) The local government with jurisdiction to approve the siting of the proposed deep geothermal operations does not regulate the siting of deep geothermal operations.

(II) Upon request by a local government, the commission shall provide technical support to the local government concerning the implementation of the commission's rules pursuant to this section or the implementation by the local government of the commission's rules.

(3) Where the maintenance of underground pressures, the prevention of subsidence, or the disposal of brines is necessary, reinjection of geothermal fluid may be required by the state engineer or the commission.

(4) The commission shall transfer all fees collected for permits issued by the commission pursuant to subsection (1)(b)(IV) of this section to the state treasurer, who shall credit the fees to the energy and carbon management cash fund created in section 34-60-122 (5).

(5) Notwithstanding any provision of this section to the contrary, nothing in this section affects the ownership, administration, or determination of water rights or rights to nontributary groundwater.

(6) (a) On and after July 1, 2023, except as set forth in subsection (6)(b)(II) of this section, the commission is responsible for administering and enforcing any permits issued by the state engineer pursuant to this section that cover deep geothermal operations.

(b) The powers, duties, functions, and obligations concerning permits issued by the state engineer pursuant to this section that cover deep geothermal operations are transferred, effective July 1, 2023, to the commission. The state engineer retains any powers, duties, functions, and obligations necessary to issue, administer, and enforce any permits that cover:

(I) Shallow geothermal operations; and

(II) The use of geothermal fluid in deep geothermal operations pursuant to section 37-90.5-107, except for nonconsumptive geothermal operations.

(c) The rules of the state engineer pertaining to the powers, duties, functions, and obligations transferred to the commission pursuant to subsection (6)(b) of this section continue in effect and apply to the commission until the rules are replaced by rules adopted by the commission pursuant to subsection (1)(b)(I) of this section.

(d) The commission and the state engineer shall enter into memoranda of understanding, interagency agreements, or both, as appropriate, to provide for the timely transfer of the powers, duties, functions, and obligations transferred to the commission pursuant to subsection (6)(b) of this section.
C.R.S. § 37-47-130 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 47 / Section 37-47-130
37-47-130. Sinking fund
Status: in_force

37-47-130. Sinking fund. Said district may provide for a sinking fund for the ultimate payment of any of the obligations of any subdistrict. Such sinking fund may be invested as provided in section 37-47-129.
C.R.S. § 37-48-123 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 48 / Section 37-48-123
37-48-123. Procedure for establishment of subdistricts
Status: in_force

37-48-123. Procedure for establishment of subdistricts. (1) Before any subdistrict is established under this article, a petition shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the district court of the county in which the territory to be embraced in said subdistrict or the greater part thereof is situate, signed by the board of directors of the district or by a majority of the owners representing a majority of the land situate within the limits of the territory proposed to be organized into a subdistrict.

(2) (a) The petition shall set forth the matters specified in this subsection (2).

(b) The proposed name of said subdistrict shall be set forth, whether it is designated "Water Users' Association No. ..... in the Rio Grande Water Conservation District" or "Special Improvement District No. ..... in the Rio Grande Water Conservation District".

(c) The petition shall recite that property within the proposed subdistrict will be benefited by the proposed reservoirs, ditches, canals, works, improvements, or plan of augmentation or plan of water management or combination thereof and shall set forth in a general way the nature and estimated cost thereof, together with a general statement of the nature of the anticipated benefits to be derived therefrom.

(d) A full description of the territory to be included in the proposed subdistrict shall be included in the petition. Said description need not be given by metes and bounds or by legal subdivision, but it shall be sufficient to enable a property owner to ascertain whether his property is within the territory proposed to be organized in a subdistrict. Such territory need not be contiguous if it is so situated that the organization as a single subdistrict of the territory described is such as to promote or tend to promote one or more of the objectives of this article as to all parts of the area proposed to be included.

(e) (I) The petition shall include a general description of the methods proposed to finance the proposed works and plans, including the acquisition, construction, maintenance, and operation thereof, with sufficient detail to enable a property owner within the proposed subdistrict to know whether the proposed methods of financing would result in the imposition of a lien or charge upon the taxable or assessable property within the subdistrict and the amount thereof and to know further that such proposed methods of financing would be authorized without further election by the signing of the petition by the requisite number of petitioners to authorize the creation of the subdistrict. Such methods of financing the acquisition, construction, and improvement of needed property, including planning and development, may include any one or more, or any combination, of the following:

(A) Revenue warrants pledging the income or other revenues from the proposed works, improvements, or plans;

(B) Special improvement bonds to be paid by special assessments on the property benefited and in an amount on each tract of land not in excess of the appraised benefits;

(C) Contracts of water users, mutual ditch or reservoir companies, or water users' associations creating liens upon lands within the subdistrict;

(D) The imposition of reasonable service charges or user fees by the district for the conferring by the subdistrict of any benefits upon or providing any service to any person or property;

(E) Contracts for the purchase of existing water rights or other property providing for payment of the purchase price on a deferred basis by installments or otherwise and which may provide further for pledging general or specific revenues of the subdistrict to the payment thereof or which may create a lien to secure the payment thereof against the real property embraced in the subdistrict in the same manner as general obligation bonds;

(F) Acquisition of the use of water rights or other property by long- or short-term leases with or without a pledge of general or specific revenues of the subdistrict;

(G) General obligation bonds constituting a lien against the real property embraced in the subdistrict;

(H) The imposition of an ad valorem mill levy upon all taxable property within the subdistrict sufficient in amount to raise the funds necessary to pay any amount due on any contract, lease, or general obligation bond installment, including interest and other debt service requirement, which is entered into or issued pursuant to sub-subparagraph (E), (F), or (G) of this subparagraph (I) and the provisions of the petition and order creating the subdistrict, as general obligations of the subdistrict.

(II) None of the methods of financing or borrowing referred to in subparagraph (I) of this paragraph (e), including exercise of the authority to issue general obligation bonds, shall ever constitute or result in the creation of an indebtedness or obligation of the district or a lien or charge upon any property of the district. If general obligations are proposed, the petition shall allege and show that the benefit to the lands in the subdistrict will be not less than the total amount of general obligation bonds to be issued exclusive of interest.

(f) If such a petition is filed by the board of directors of the district, it shall contain a statement to the effect that a majority of the landowners owning a majority of the land of the territory in the proposed subdistrict petitioned the board of directors to organize said subdistrict, and a copy of the petition of said landowners shall be attached as an exhibit to the petition for organization of the subdistrict.

(g) If it is anticipated that a plan of water management, plan of augmentation, or both will be adopted for the subdistrict, the petition shall describe such plan or plans in general terms and may also request establishment of a board of managers of the subdistrict, to be made up of landowners within the subdistrict, which shall have the authority and responsibility of devising and carrying out such plan or plans. Where a board of managers is requested, the petition shall set forth in detail the qualifications, manner of selection, and terms of office of board members and may also define, in terms consistent with the requirements of this article, the scope of the responsibility of the board of managers and the functional relationship between such board and the board of directors of the district. Every such petition, when filed with the court, must be approved by the board of directors of the district, which approval shall be noted on the petition over the signature of the president or some other authorized officer thereof, unless the petition is signed and filed by the board of directors of the district.

(h) Said petition shall pray for the organization of a subdistrict by the name proposed.

(3) To determine whether a majority of landowners in said district have signed the petition, in the event the petition is signed by landowners, or have petitioned the board of directors of the district, in the event the petition is filed by the board of directors, the court may require the county treasurer of each county in which territory proposed to be included in said subdistrict is situated to furnish a certified list of names of landowners within said area, and the court shall be governed by the names as they appear upon said copy of the tax roll, and the same shall be prima facie evidence of ownership. If said tax roll shows a majority of the landowners have signed the main petition or petitioned the district for said organization, the same shall be considered as prima facie evidence that a majority of said landowners are in favor of the organization of said proposed subdistrict.
C.R.S. § 37-45-138 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 45 / Section 37-45-138
37-45-138. Board to execute contracts - issue bonds
Status: in_force

37-45-138. Board to execute contracts - issue bonds. To pay for construction, operation, and maintenance of said works, and expenses preliminary and incidental thereto, the board is authorized to enter into a contract with the United States or any agency thereof, providing for payment in installments or to issue negotiable bonds of the district. If bonds are authorized, the board shall set a maximum net effective interest rate, and such bonds shall bear interest at a rate such that the net effective interest rate of the issue of bonds does not exceed the maximum net effective interest rate authorized. Interest shall be payable annually or semiannually and shall be due and payable not more than fifty years from their dates. The form, terms, and provisions of said bonds, provisions for their payment, and conditions for their retirement and calling, not inconsistent with law, shall be determined by the board, and they shall be issued in payment of the works, equipment, expenses, and interest during the period of construction. When any bonded indebtedness has been authorized pursuant to section 37-45-139, and when the board has entered into a contract with the United States or any agency thereof whereby the United States or any agency thereof has agreed to purchase such bonds, at an interest rate established in such contract, the board may issue interim notes bearing interest at a net effective interest rate not exceeding the maximum net effective interest rate authorized for the bonds, the interim notes to be payable at the termination of such contract, or at such time not exceeding three years after the date of their issuance and on such terms and conditions as the board may determine. No interim note may be extended or funded except by the issuance of bonds. Bonds also may be issued to pay interim notes as they become due or may be exchanged for the interim notes as the board may determine. Said bonds or interim notes shall be executed in the name of and on behalf of the district and signed by the president of the board with the seal of the district affixed thereto and attested by the secretary of the board. Said bonds or interim notes shall be in such denominations as the board shall determine and shall be payable to bearer and may be registered in the office of the county treasurer of the county wherein the organization of the district has been effected, with the interest coupons payable to bearer, which coupons shall bear the facsimile signature of the president of the board. Such bonds and interim notes shall be exempt from all state, county, municipal, school, and other taxes imposed by any taxing authority of the state of Colorado. Such bonds or interim notes may be sold at par, above par, or below par, but the net effective interest rate to the district, including any discount, but exclusive of any discount payable for costs of the issue, shall not exceed the maximum net effective interest rate authorized for such issue of bonds. Such bonds or interim notes may be used as security for any depository bond or obligation where any kind of bonds or other securities must or may, by law, be deposited as security. Any resolution authorizing, or other instrument appertaining to, any bonds or interim notes under this article may provide that each bond or interim note therein authorized shall recite that it is issued under authority of this article. Such recital shall be conclusive evidence of full compliance with all of the provisions of this article, and all bonds and interim notes issued containing such recital shall be incontestable for any cause whatsoever after their delivery for value.
C.R.S. § 37-75-104 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 75 / Section 37-75-104
37-75-104. Basin roundtables
Status: in_force

37-75-104. Basin roundtables. (1) (a) To facilitate continued discussions within and between basins on water management issues, and to encourage locally driven collaborative solutions to water supply challenges, permanent basin roundtables are hereby created in Colorado's eight water basins and in a demographically unique subregion within water division 1 as specified in subsection (3) of this section.

(b) The executive director of the department of natural resources shall take such actions as may be necessary to ensure proper integration and nonduplication of activities occurring pursuant to the statewide water supply initiative and this article.

(2) Each basin roundtable shall have the following powers and responsibilities:

(a) (I) As soon as practicable following June 7, 2005, each basin roundtable shall establish bylaws, operating procedures, goals, and objectives to govern the actions and decisions of the applicable roundtable. Basin roundtables and their representatives on the interbasin compact committee may opt out of the procedures established in this article at any time.

(II) As deemed appropriate by the executive director, the roundtables established pursuant to this section may take on the duties and functions of the roundtables created pursuant to the statewide water supply initiative.

(b) Select two basin representatives to represent the views and interests of the basin on the interbasin compact committee established pursuant to section 37-75-105. Basin representatives need not be members of the basin roundtable.

(c) Using data and information from the statewide water supply initiative and other appropriate sources and in cooperation with the on-going statewide water supply initiative, develop a basin-wide consumptive and nonconsumptive water supply needs assessment, conduct an analysis of available unappropriated waters within the basin, and propose projects or methods, both structural and nonstructural, for meeting those needs and utilizing those unappropriated waters where appropriate. Basin roundtables shall actively seek the input and advice of affected local governments, water providers, and other interested stakeholders and persons in establishing its needs assessment, and shall propose projects or methods for meeting those needs. Recommendations from this assessment shall be forwarded to the interbasin compact committee and other basin roundtables for analysis and consideration after the general assembly has approved the interbasin compact charter.

(d) Serve as a forum for education and debate regarding methods for meeting water supply needs; and

(e) As needed, establish roundtable subcommittees or other mechanisms to facilitate dialogue and resolution of issues and conflicts within the basin.

(3) (a) As used in this subsection (3), unless the context otherwise requires:

(I) "Water division" has the same meaning as set forth in section 37-92-201.

(II) "Water management district" means those districts established by the division of water resources and depicted on maps published by the division.

(b) The following basin roundtables are hereby created:

(I) The South Platte basin roundtable, consisting of water division 1 excepting those portions of water division 1 listed in subparagraphs (VIII) and (IX) of this paragraph (b);

(II) The Arkansas basin roundtable, consisting of water division 2;

(III) The Rio Grande basin roundtable, consisting of water division 3;

(IV) The Gunnison basin roundtable, consisting of water division 4 excepting water management districts 60, 61, and 63;

(V) The Colorado basin roundtable, consisting of water division 5;

(VI) The Yampa-White roundtable, consisting of water division 6 excepting water management district 47;

(VII) The Dolores, San Miguel, and San Juan basins roundtable, consisting of water division 7 and water management districts 60, 61, and 63;

(VIII) The metro roundtable, consisting of the following areas in water division 1: Those portions of water management districts 7 to 9 that lie east of the boundary between ranges 71 and 72 west and that portion of water management district 2 that lies south of the boundary between township 1 north and township 1 south; and

(IX) The North Platte roundtable, consisting of water management districts 47, 48, and 76.

(4) (a) Each basin roundtable shall consist of the following members, each of whom shall reside within the borders of the roundtable, except as otherwise provided in this paragraph (a):

(I) One member appointed by the governing body of each county or city and county within the borders of the basin roundtable. A county or city and county shall be entitled to a member on each basin roundtable that overlaps its boundaries.

(II) One municipal member for each county located in whole or in part within the basin roundtable, who shall be appointed jointly by the governing bodies of all municipalities within that portion of the county that is located within the roundtable;

(III) One member appointed by the board of directors of each water conservancy and water conservation district within the borders of the roundtable. A water conservancy or water conservation district shall be entitled to one member on each basin roundtable that overlaps its jurisdiction.

(IV) One member appointed by mutual agreement of the chairperson of the house agriculture, livestock, and natural resources committee and the chairperson of the senate agriculture, natural resources, and energy committee;

(V) Ten at large members appointed by the roundtable members appointed pursuant to subparagraphs (I) to (IV) of this paragraph (a) in consultation with the director of compact negotiations, one of whom shall represent environmental interests and who shall be selected from nominees submitted by one or more regionally, statewide, or nationally recognized environmental conservation organizations that have operated in Colorado for at least five years, one of whom shall represent agricultural interests, one of whom shall represent recreation interests, one of whom shall represent local domestic water provider interests, one of whom shall represent industrial interests, and at least five of whom shall own adjudicated water rights, including owners of shares in a ditch or reservoir company or their agents, or shall have a contract for water with the federal bureau of reclamation or their agents. Any such agent shall be appointed by the member the agent represents and shall reside within the borders of the member's roundtable.

(VI) (A) Three nonvoting members shall be selected by the roundtable members appointed pursuant to subparagraphs (I) to (V) of this paragraph (a), who shall represent entities outside of the basin that own water rights within the basin. Members appointed pursuant to this subparagraph (VI) shall not be required to reside within the borders of the roundtable.

(B) If no one qualifies for selection pursuant to sub-subparagraph (A) of this subparagraph (VI), three nonvoting members shall be selected from outside the basin who have interests in and are knowledgeable about water matters.

(b) Members shall serve for a term of five years; except that initial terms shall be staggered pursuant to each roundtable's bylaws. Vacancies shall be filled pursuant to the same criteria as the original appointment.

(c) The member of the Colorado water conservation board who resides within the borders of the basin roundtable shall act as the board's liaison to the basin roundtable and to the interbasin compact committee for the purpose of ensuring the proper coordination of Colorado water conservation board information, policies, and resources. Such coordination shall be subject to available staff resources as determined by the director of the board and the executive director of the department of natural resources.

(5) A basin roundtable shall be deemed to be a local public body for purposes of the open meetings law, part 4 of article 6 of title 24, C.R.S.
C.R.S. § 37-84-122 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 84 / Section 37-84-122
37-84-122. Division engineer to measure water
Status: in_force

37-84-122. Division engineer to measure water. Any division engineer, or the division engineer's deputy or assistant, who willfully neglects or refuses, after being called upon, to promptly measure water from the stream or other source of supply into the irrigating canals or ditches, in the division engineer's division, according to their respective priorities, to the extent to which water may be actually necessary for the irrigation of lands under such canals or ditches commits a petty offense.
C.R.S. § 37-42-128 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 42 / Section 37-42-128
37-42-128. Collection of assessments
Status: repealed

37-42-128. Collection of assessments. (1) Repealed.

(2) It is the duty of the county treasurer of any county wherein is located the whole or any part of an irrigation district to collect and receipt for all irrigation district assessments levied. The revenue laws of this state for the assessment, levying, and collection of taxes on real estate for county purposes, except as modified in this article, shall be applicable for the purposes of this article, including the enforcement of penalties and forfeitures for delinquent assessments, and, in the collection and enforcement of irrigation district assessments, the county treasurer is authorized to issue such instruments and do such acts at such times, in the same manner and with like effect, as authorized by the general revenue laws concerning such taxes upon real estate for county purposes.

(3) Repealed.

(4) The county treasurer of each county comprising all or a portion only of an irrigation district shall remit to the district treasurer all money collected or received by him or her on account of the district.

(5) Repealed.

(6) The district treasurer shall report monthly to the board of directors of the district the amount of money in the district accounts, the amount of money paid from the district accounts during the previous month, and an account of bonds retired or United States contract payments made, if any.

(7) The county treasurer shall receive in the county treasurer's official capacity all district assessments collected and paid to the county treasurer, and the county treasurer is responsible for the safekeeping, disbursement, and payment of such assessments as well as other money collected by the county treasurer. The county treasurer shall receive for the collection of such assessments such amount as provided in section 30-1-102; except that the treasurer shall receive five dollars per tract assessed pursuant to section 37-42-125 (3) for loans issued to landowners pursuant to section 37-42-113 (5), and this five dollars shall be assessed against each participating tract. Any assessment collected and paid to the county treasurer for districts that are defunct or have not been in operation for five or more years shall be transferred by the county treasurer to the county general fund.
C.R.S. § 37-60-103 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 60 / Part 1 / Section 37-60-103
37-60-103. Organization
Status: in_force

37-60-103. Organization. The board shall elect from the appointed members a chairman and a vice-chairman to serve at the pleasure of the board. The director of the board shall serve as secretary.
C.R.S. § 37-75-106 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 75 / Section 37-75-106
37-75-106. Public education - outreach
Status: in_force

37-75-106. Public education - outreach. (1) The interbasin compact committee shall develop a public education, participation, and outreach working group.

(2) The public education, participation, and outreach working group shall:

(a) Create a process to inform, involve, and educate the public on the interbasin compact committee's activities and progress of the interbasin compact negotiations; and

(b) Create a mechanism by which public input and feedback can be relayed to the interbasin compact committee and compact negotiators.
C.R.S. § 37-41-110 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 41 / Section 37-41-110
37-41-110. Duties of election officers
Status: in_force

37-41-110. Duties of election officers. (1) One of the judges shall be chairman of the election board and may:

(a) Administer all oaths required in the progress of an election;

(b) Appoint judges and clerks if during the progress of the election any judge or clerk ceases to act. Any member of the board of election, or any clerk thereof, may administer and certify oaths required to be administered during the progress of an election.

(2) Before opening the polls, each member of the board must take and subscribe an oath to faithfully perform the duties imposed upon him by law. Any elector of the precinct may administer and certify such oath. The polls must be opened at 9 a.m. on the day of election and be kept open until 7 p.m. on the same day. It is the duty of the clerk of the board of election to forthwith deliver the returns duly certified to the board of directors of the district.
C.R.S. § 37-3-101 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 3 / Section 37-3-101
37-3-101. Appointment or election of directors
Status: in_force

37-3-101. Appointment or election of directors. (1) (a) Except as specified in subsection (2) of this section:

(I) Within thirty days after entering the decree incorporating the district, the court shall appoint as a board of directors of the district three persons who are residents of the county or counties in which the conservancy district is situated, at least two of whom shall own real property in the district, one for a term of two years, one for a term of three years, and one for a term of five years. When a director no longer resides within the district or no longer owns property within the district, a vacancy is created on the district's board of directors.

(II) At the expiration of the directors' respective terms of office, the court shall make appointments for terms of five years.

(III) The court shall fill all vacancies that occur on the board.

(IV) Each director shall hold office during the term for which he or she is appointed and until his or her successor is duly appointed and has qualified and shall furnish a corporate surety bond, at the expense of the district, in an amount and form fixed and approved by the court, conditioned upon the faithful performance of his or her duties as director.

(b) All special and regular meetings of the board shall be held at locations that are within the boundaries of the district or that are within the boundaries of any county in which the district is located, in whole or in part, or in any county so long as the meeting location does not exceed twenty miles from the district boundaries. The provisions of this section governing the location of meetings may be waived only if the proposed change of location of a meeting of the board appears on the agenda of a regular or special meeting of the board and if a resolution is adopted by the board stating the reason for which a meeting of the board is to be held in a location other than under the provisions of this section and further stating the date, time, and place of the meeting.

(2) On and after August 6, 2014, with regard only to the board of directors of the Pueblo conservancy district:

(a) The directors who held office on August 6, 2014, referred to in this subsection (2) as the holdover directors, continue to hold office until the expiration of their terms. Upon expiration of their terms, pursuant to subparagraph (I) of paragraph (b) of this subsection (2), the governing body of the city of Pueblo shall fill the two vacancies for the holdover directors who resided within the city of Pueblo, and pursuant to subparagraph (II) of paragraph (b) of this subsection (2), the board of county commissioners of Pueblo county shall fill the vacancy for the holdover director who resided within the county of Pueblo.

(b) The board consists of nine directors, who are appointed and represent areas within the district as follows:

(I) The governing body of the city of Pueblo shall appoint four of the directors, with initial terms of three years, who must represent and be residents of the city of Pueblo;

(II) The board of county commissioners of Pueblo county shall appoint four of the directors with initial terms of four years. Three of the directors represent and must be residents of those portions of Pueblo county not located within the city of Pueblo. One director must represent and reside within the Pueblo West metropolitan district and be a member or designee of the board of directors of the Pueblo West metropolitan district.

(III) The board of county commissioners of Pueblo county and the governing body of the city of Pueblo shall jointly appoint one at-large director, whose initial term is five years.

(c) Directors serve at the pleasure of the respective appointing authorities. The respective appointing authorities shall fill vacancies on the board, whether by expiration of a term of office, increase in the number of directors, or otherwise.

(d) The board shall comply with the open meetings law, section 24-6-402, C.R.S., with regard to all official board actions, including those related to all proposed increases in fees assessed by the board.
C.R.S. § 37-31-114 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 31 / Section 37-31-114
37-31-114. No registration of voters
Status: in_force

37-31-114. No registration of voters. No registration shall be required for any election, but no person shall be entitled to vote without the qualifications prescribed in section 37-31-109. Any judge of election or any voter at the polls has the right of challenging anyone seeking to vote at said election on the ground of said person's disqualification; and, before such challenged person is entitled to vote, he shall take an oath, to be administered by one of the judges of election, to the effect that he is a qualified elector to vote at said election. Anyone making a false oath at said election is guilty of perjury in the second degree. The polls for said election shall be open in each of the precincts from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and, after said polls are closed, the judges of said election shall canvass the votes and make returns thereof, one copy to be retained by said judges and the other certified to the board of directors.
C.R.S. § 37-89-104 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 89 / Section 37-89-104
37-89-104. Jurisdiction of county court
Status: in_force

37-89-104. Jurisdiction of county court. The county court has jurisdiction to hear, try, and determine actions brought for violations of section 37-89-103.
C.R.S. § 37-41-102 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 41 / Section 37-41-102
37-41-102. Petition
Status: in_force

37-41-102. Petition. (1) For the purpose of the establishment of an irrigation district as provided by this article, a petition shall be filed with the board of county commissioners of the county which embraces the largest acreage of the proposed district. The petition shall state:

(a) That it is the purpose of petitioners to organize an irrigation district under the provisions of this article;

(b) A general description of the boundaries of such proposed district;

(c) The means proposed to supply water for the irrigation of the lands embraced therein;

(d) The name proposed for such district; and

(e) A prayer that the board of county commissioners define and establish the boundaries of said proposed district and submit the question of the final organization of the same to the vote of the qualified electors of said proposed district.

(2) The petition shall be signed by a majority of the owners of said lands, whether residents or nonresidents, as well as by the owners in the aggregate of a majority of the total number of acres of land sought to be enclosed in said proposed district. The petitioners shall elect from their number a committee of three to present such petition to the board of county commissioners. The petition shall also be accompanied by a good and sufficient bond, to be approved by the board of county commissioners, in double the amount of the probable cost of organizing such district, conditioned for the payment of all costs incurred in said proceedings in case said organization shall not be effected, but in case such district is so effected, then said expenses incurred by the board of county commissioners shall be paid back to said county by said district.

(3) Such petition shall be published for at least four weeks before the time at which the same is to be presented, in some newspaper of general circulation published in the county where the petition is to be presented, together with a notice signed by the committee of said petitioners giving the time and place of the presentation of the same to the board of county commissioners.
C.R.S. § 37-1-103 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 1 / Section 37-1-103
37-1-103. Liberal construction
Status: in_force

37-1-103. Liberal construction. Articles 1 to 8 of this title, being necessary to secure and preserve the public health, safety, convenience, and welfare, and being necessary for the prevention of great loss of life and for the security of public and private property from floods and other uncontrolled waters, shall be liberally construed to effect the purposes of said articles.
C.R.S. § 37-97-102 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 97 / Section 37-97-102
37-97-102. Definitions
Status: in_force

37-97-102. Definitions. As used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "Water service supplier" means any person who, for compensation, provides water for human consumption or for household use through a system of pipes, structures, or other facilities if such system has at least six hundred unmetered taps.
C.R.S. § 37-31-154 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 31 / Section 37-31-154
37-31-154. Contractor's bond - engineer to supervise
Status: in_force

37-31-154. Contractor's bond - engineer to supervise. The person to whom the contract may be awarded shall execute a bond in the penal sum of not less than twenty percent of the contract price, with surety to be approved by the board of directors, payable to the drainage district and conditioned upon the faithful performance of the contract. All work shall be done under the direction and to the satisfaction of the engineer employed by the drainage district and subject to approval by the board of directors.
C.R.S. § 37-27-102 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 27 / Section 37-27-102
37-27-102. Cities and towns included
Status: in_force

37-27-102. Cities and towns included. The lands within the boundaries of any city or town organized and existing under the general laws of this state or under article XX of the state constitution requiring drainage in whole or in part and susceptible of drainage by the drainage ditch, system, or works of any drainage district or proposed drainage district organized or proposed to be organized pursuant to the laws of the state of Colorado relating to the formation of drainage districts may be included within and made a part of any such drainage district upon the presentation to the board of directors of such district, or to the proper board of county commissioners, in case such district has not been organized, of a petition for such inclusion signed by a majority of the owners of such lands, whether residents or nonresidents of such city or town, as well as by the owners in the aggregate of the majority of the total number of acres of such land to be included, exclusive of the land occupied by public streets and alleys, public parks, and any other lands owned by any municipality. Such city or town shall bear the expense of the drainage of all area included with the streets, alleys, public parks, or other lands owned by it. It is the duty of the city council or board of trustees of such city or town to annually certify the amount necessary to pay the drainage assessments as authorized by said drainage district to the taxing tribunal, with instructions to such taxing tribunal to make a levy against the taxable property within such city or town for such purpose as provided by law in other cases of special assessment. Any inclusion of the lands within any city or town shall be subject to all of the provisions and conditions of articles 20 to 30 of this title.
C.R.S. § 37-80-108 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 80 / Section 37-80-108
37-80-108. Appoint deputy for special work
Status: in_force

37-80-108. Appoint deputy for special work. The state engineer, on request of any party interested and on payment of his or her per diem charges and reasonable expenses, may appoint a deputy to measure, compute, and ascertain all necessary data of any canal, dam, reservoir, or other construction, as required or as may be desired to establish court decrees, or for filing statements in compliance with law in the county clerk and recorder's records.
C.R.S. § 37-20-119 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 20 / Section 37-20-119
37-20-119. Officers to qualify
Status: in_force

37-20-119. Officers to qualify. On and after the date of such filing, the organization of said district shall be complete, and the officers thereof shall forthwith enter upon the duties of their respective offices, upon qualifying according to law, and shall hold their respective offices until their successors are elected and qualified.
C.R.S. § 37-90.5-107 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 90.5 / Section 37-90.5-107
37-90.5-107. Permits for the use of geothermal resources - rules
Status: in_force

37-90.5-107. Permits for the use of geothermal resources - rules. (1) (a) After receipt of the necessary application, the state engineer shall issue a use permit to use distributed geothermal resources consistent with the requirements described in section 37-90-137.

(b) After receipt of the necessary application, the state engineer shall issue a use permit to use allocated geothermal resources consistent with the requirements described in section 37-90-137 and after a determination that any associated geothermal fluid is nontributary groundwater. For the purposes of this section, this determination must rely on the definition of nontributary groundwater pursuant to section 37-90-103 (10.5) as determined by:

(I) A decree of the water court;

(II) A permit to construct a well to withdraw nontributary groundwater issued by the state engineer pursuant to section 37-90-137;

(III) Rules adopted by the state engineer pursuant to section 37-90-137 (7)(c) for produced water that apply to use permits that are limited to the use of water as a material medium as the only beneficial use of water; or

(IV) Rules adopted by the state engineer pursuant to subsection (6)(a) of this section.

(2) The use of water as a material medium is recognized as a beneficial use.

(3) (a) Nondiversionary utilization methods do not require a use permit pursuant to subsection (1) of this section but are subject to the rules adopted pursuant to section 37-90.5-106 (1)(a)(I) and (1)(b)(I); however, nothing in this subsection (3)(a) prevents the developer of a geothermal resource from establishing a water right based on the developer's actual utilization.

(b) The requirement to issue a use permit pursuant to subsection (1)(b) of this section does not apply to operations that are solely nonconsumptive geothermal operations using allocated geothermal resources.

(c) The use permit issued pursuant to subsection (1) of this section may be waived by the state engineer for a diversionary utilization method that does not impair valid, prior water rights.

(d) The use permit issued pursuant to subsection (1) of this section may allow for nonconsumptive secondary uses of geothermal fluid, including the recovery of geothermal by-products, and may allow for consumptive secondary uses of geothermal fluid, including sale, which do not impair valid, prior water rights.

(e) Notwithstanding any provision of this subsection (3) to the contrary, a water right to use a distributed geothermal resource associated with tributary groundwater may be obtained only in water court and is subject to article 92 of this title 37. The beneficial use of energy extracted from geothermal fluid associated with a distributed geothermal resource is the basis, measure, and limit of the water right, and efficient application methods must be used for the use of energy to qualify as a beneficial use.

(4) Notwithstanding any provision of this section to the contrary, section 37-90-137 (4) applies to any consumptive use of allocated geothermal resources.

(5) The provisions of articles 90 and 92 of this title 37 relating to notice, hearings, appeals, and the administration of water rights apply to all permitting actions by the state engineer pursuant to this section.

(6) (a) (I) The state engineer may adopt rules for the administration of this section, including rules and procedures for the determinations described in subsection (1)(b) of this section.

(II) The state engineer's rule-making authority pursuant to subsection (6)(a)(I) of this section includes the authority to adopt rules:

(A) Pursuant to which geothermal fluid, in whole or in part, is determined to be nontributary pursuant to subsection (1)(b) of this section; and

(B) That provide rule-making and adjudicatory procedures for the determinations described in subsection (6)(a)(II)(A) of this section that are made after the initial rule-making conducted pursuant to subsection (1)(b) of this section.

(b) In any rule-making proceeding conducted pursuant to this section, any interested person has the right of cross-examination. Judicial review of any rules adopted pursuant to this section and any nontributary groundwater determinations made pursuant to subsection (1)(b) of this section must be in accordance with section 24-4-106; except that venue must be exclusively in the water court for the water division or divisions where the groundwater that is the subject of any applicable rule or determination is located.

(c) In any judicial action seeking to curtail or declare unlawful the withdrawal, use, or disposal of groundwater pursuant to this section, there is a rebuttable presumption that any determination made by the state engineer pursuant to subsection (1)(b) of this section is valid.

(d) Any rules adopted pursuant to this section must not conflict with existing laws and do not affect the validity of groundwater well permits existing prior to the adoption of the rules.
C.R.S. § 37-45-125 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 45 / Section 37-45-125
37-45-125. Levy and collection under class D
Status: in_force

37-45-125. Levy and collection under class D. (1) To levy and collect special assessments upon lands under class D, the board shall make an allotment of water or of capacity of specified works to petitioning owners of lands in the district, upon which water may be beneficially used in the manner as provided in this article, in such amount as will in the judgment of the board, together with the present supply of water for such lands in the case of an allotment of water, or when added to the then present supply of capacity of all other works in the case of an allotment of capacity of specified works, make an adequate water supply for such lands and shall fix and determine the rate and the terms at which water or capacity of works shall be sold, leased, contracted for, or otherwise disposed of, for use on said lands.

(2) In the event that any person or private corporation elects to purchase, lease, contract for, or otherwise obtain the beneficial use of waters or capacity of works of the district, such person or corporation shall petition the board for an allotment of water or of capacity of specified works, upon terms prescribed by the board, which petition shall contain, inter alia, the following:

(a) Name of applicant;

(b) Quantity of water or capacity of works for which allotment is sought;

(c) Descriptions of lands upon which the water or capacity of works will be used and attached;

(d) Rate to be paid;

(e) Whether payment will be made in cash or annual installments;

(f) Agreement that the annual installments and the charges for maintenance and operating shall become a tax lien upon the lands for which such water or capacity of works is petitioned and allotted and to be bound by the provision of this article and the rules and regulations of the board.

(3) (a) In its discretion the board may accept or reject said petition, but, if it deems it for the best interest of the district that said petition be granted, the board shall enter an order granting said petition, and from and after such order, said petitioner shall be deemed to have agreed to the purchase, lease, contract, or other means of acquiring the beneficial use of water or capacity of works under the terms set forth in said petition and order. Such order shall provide for payment on the basis of rate per unit of measure of water allotted in the case of an allotment of water, or on the basis of rate per unit of capacity allotted in the case of an allotment of works to said lands within the district; except that the board may divide the district into units and fix a different rate in the respective units; and further except that such rates shall be equitable although not necessarily equal or uniform for like classes of services throughout the district.

(b) The board shall examine all rates charged for like classes of service throughout the district and shall by rule and regulation adjust such rates periodically as needed to make such rates within any such class of service equitable.

(4) The secretary of the board shall cause notice of the filing of such petition to be given and published, which notice shall state the filing of such petition and give notice to all persons interested to appear at the office of the board at a time named in said notice and show cause in writing why the petition should not be granted. The board at the time and place mentioned in said notice, or at such time to which the hearing on said petition may be adjourned, shall proceed to hear the petition and objections thereto, presented in writing, by any person showing cause why said petition should not be granted. The failure of any person interested to show cause shall be deemed an assent on such person's part to the granting of said petition. At its discretion, the board may accept or reject said petition; but, if it deems it for the best interest of the district that said petition be granted, the board shall enter an order to that effect granting said petition, and, from and after such order, the petitioner or persons interested therein shall be deemed to have purchased, leased, contracted for, or otherwise acquired the beneficial use of water or capacity of works as set forth in said order.

(5) If such petition is granted, the board shall cause a certified copy of the order granting said petition to be recorded in the county in which said lands are located, and, thereafter, the annual installments and annual operating and maintenance charges shall be a perpetual tax lien upon such lands. On or before October 1 of each year, the board shall certify to the county assessor of the county within the district in which such lands are located the amount of the annual installments, plus a fair proportionate amount of the estimated operating and maintenance charges apportioned to said lands for the next succeeding year, and such county assessor shall extend the amount so certified on the tax roll as a flat special assessment against the lands for which such water is petitioned and allotted.
C.R.S. § 37-26-119 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 26 / Section 37-26-119
37-26-119. District may change classification
Status: in_force

37-26-119. District may change classification. Any district intending to issue bonds pursuant to this article may revise, reduce, or cancel classifications of land, assessments, or assessments of or for benefits in substantially the same manner as provided by the laws existing at the time of the original classification or assessments; but no parcel of land shall ever be liable for the payment of an amount greater than the amount for which the land was liable under its original classification or assessment, and the total assessments levied shall not be less than the principal amount of refunding bonds to be issued. Thereafter the qualified voters of the district may vote refunding bonds based upon such reclassification or reassessment of or for benefits. Refunding bonds so authorized may be exchanged on a compromise basis for outstanding bonds and unpaid matured interest thereon, with such owners thereof as may be willing to make such exchange. The rate of interest on such refunding bonds shall not exceed the rate on the bonds refunded, and in no event shall such rate exceed six percent per annum. Refunding bonds issued in accordance with this section shall be secured only by their proportionate share of such new classifications or assessments, and that fact shall be set forth on the face of each refunding bond issued.
C.R.S. § 37-48-103 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 48 / Section 37-48-103
37-48-103. Board of directors
Status: in_force

37-48-103. Board of directors. (1) The district shall be managed and controlled by a board of nine directors. The members of said board shall hold their offices for terms of three years and until their successors are appointed and qualified. Two members of such board shall be appointed from each of the counties of Conejos, Alamosa, Rio Grande, and Saguache, and one such member shall be appointed from Mineral county. At the time of his appointment each director shall be a resident and freeholder of the county from which he is appointed or, if only a part of the county is included within the boundaries of said district, a resident and freeholder of such included part. Each director shall be appointed by the board of county commissioners of the county in which such director resides. He may be a member of the board of county commissioners of such county. The members of said board shall annually select one of their number to act as president and one of their number to act as vice-president, each to hold office for one year or until his successor is duly selected.

(2) The office of a director shall become vacant when any director ceases to reside in the county from which the director was appointed or when declared vacant by a majority vote of all of the members of the board when any director has failed to attend two consecutive regular meetings without having been excused from attendance by the president. In the event a vacancy occurs in said office by reason of death, resignation, removal, or otherwise, it shall be filled for the remainder of the unexpired term by the board of county commissioners of the county from which said director originally came. Each director shall take an oath or affirmation in accordance with section 24-12-101.

(3) Upon expiration of the terms of the present directors of the district in September, 1970, their successors shall be appointed by the respective boards of county commissioners as provided in this section for the following terms of office: One director from each of the counties of Alamosa, Rio Grande, and Saguache, whose terms of office shall expire on the date of the regular quarterly meeting of said board to be held in April, 1971, or as soon thereafter as their respective successors are appointed and qualified; one director from each of the counties of Conejos, Mineral, and Rio Grande, whose terms of office shall expire on the date of the regular quarterly meeting to be held in April, 1972, or as soon thereafter as their respective successors are appointed and qualified; and one director from each of the counties of Alamosa, Saguache, and Conejos, whose terms of office shall expire on the date of the regular quarterly meeting to be held in April, 1973, or as soon thereafter as their respective successors are appointed and qualified. Thereafter, each director shall be appointed for a term of three years, and his term shall expire on the date of the regular quarterly meeting to be held in April of the year that commences during the third year of his term, or as soon thereafter as his successor is duly appointed and qualified. For the purpose of determining such expiration date, the term of such director shall be taken as having commenced on the date of the first regular April quarterly meeting at which the term of his predecessor would have expired had he then been duly appointed and qualified.
C.R.S. § 37-44-112 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 44 / Section 37-44-112
37-44-112. Bonds
Status: in_force

37-44-112. Bonds. (1) For the purpose of constructing, purchasing, or acquiring necessary reservoir sites, reservoirs, canals, ditches, and works and acquiring the necessary property rights therefor, for the purpose of paying an amount not to exceed the first five years' interest on the bonds authorized in this article, and for the purpose of otherwise carrying out the provisions of this article, the board of directors of any such internal improvement district, as soon after such district has been organized as may be practicable, shall estimate and determine the amount of money necessary to be raised for such purposes and shall forthwith call a special election, at which election there shall be submitted to the electors of such district possessing the qualifications prescribed by this article the question of whether or not the bonds of said district shall be issued in the amount so determined. A notice of such election shall be given by posting notices in three public places in each election precinct in said district for at least twenty days and also by publication of such notice in some newspaper published in the county where the office of the board of directors is required to be kept once a week for at least three successive weeks.

(2) Such notice shall specify the time of holding the election, the amount of bonds proposed to be issued and the amount and rate of interest on such bonds proposed to be issued, and the dates when the percentage of principal or series of said bonds will become due, if serial bonds are contemplated, or the maturity date of the entire issue, as the case may be. At such election the ballots shall contain the words, "Bonds - Yes" or "Bonds - No", or words equivalent thereto, and also such appropriate words as shall enable the electors to indicate whether such bonds shall be redeemable at the option of the district at any time after their date or payable in series, and said election must be held and the result determined and declared in all respects as nearly as possible in conformity with the provisions of this article governing the election of officers, but no informality in conducting such election shall invalidate the same if the election has been otherwise fairly conducted. If a majority of the legal electors who are freeholders and taxpayers who represent a majority of the land within said district have voted "Bonds - Yes", the board of directors shall immediately cause bonds in such amount to be issued.

(3) If bonds are to be payable in series, each series shall consist of a definite percentage of the whole amount and number of said bonds. The time of maturity of the series of bonds and the percentage represented by each series shall be submitted to and approved by the electors at said election; but the last series shall mature in not more than fifty years from the date of said bonds, and the first series or percentage of the principal of said bonds shall become due not more than ten years from the date of said bonds, and the series shall be so arranged that some percentage of the principal of said bonds, never less than one percent, shall become due each year thereafter until the entire principal has been paid. If such bonds are made redeemable at the option of the district, they shall mature at a specific date not more than fifty years from their date of issue. If the optional form of bond is issued, the board of directors of the district, when funds are available for redemption purposes at any time before maturity, shall call for offerings for redemption and, out of the redemption fund provided for the payment of said bonds, shall pay any bonds presented for payment pursuant to such call to any holder thereof who offers the same for payment and redemption for the lowest amount below par, including accrued interest, to the extent of the funds available; otherwise said bonds shall be retired in the order of their issue numerically.

(4) The interest on the bonds is payable semiannually on June 1 and December 1 of each year. The principal and interest is payable at the location the board of directors designates in the bond.

(5) Such bonds shall each be of the denomination of not less than one hundred dollars and nor more than one thousand dollars and shall be negotiable in form, executed in the name of the internal improvement district, and signed by the president and secretary, and the seal of the district shall be affixed thereto.

(6) The bonds must be numbered consecutively as issued and bear the date of their issue. Coupons for the interest shall be attached to each bond bearing the lithographed signatures of the president and secretary. The bonds shall express on their faces that they are issued by the authority of this article 44, stating its title and date of approval. At the time of the issue of the bonds, each bond shall be registered by the treasurer of the internal improvement district, in a book to be kept by the district treasurer for this purpose, and the interest on the bond shall begin to run only from the date of the registry. Coupons evidencing unearned interest must be detached and canceled. Each registered bond must have endorsed thereon the treasurer's certificate of the registration, and only bonds certified in this manner are valid, and the certificate is conclusive evidence that the bond has been duly issued in full conformity with the provisions of this article 44.

(7) When the money provided by any previous issue of bonds has been exhausted by expenditures provided for in this article and it becomes necessary to raise additional money for such purposes, additional bonds may be issued, submitting the question by special election to the qualified voters of said district and otherwise complying with the provisions of this article in respect to an original issue of such bonds, but the lien for assessments for the payment of interest and principal of any bond issue shall be a prior lien to that of any subsequent bond issue.
C.R.S. § 37-48-119 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 48 / Section 37-48-119
37-48-119. Polling places
Status: in_force

37-48-119. Polling places. All polling places designated by the election resolution shall be within the area included within the proposed district.
C.R.S. § 37-48-160 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 48 / Section 37-48-160
37-48-160. Subdistrict budget
Status: in_force

37-48-160. Subdistrict budget. A subdistrict existing pursuant to this article shall be an agency of the district for purposes of compliance with the provisions of the "Local Government Budget Law of Colorado", part 1 of article 1 of title 29, C.R.S.; and the board of managers thereof, if any, shall prepare and submit to the district the budget estimates of its expenditure requirements and its estimated revenues for the ensuing budget year, as provided in section 29-1-105, C.R.S.
C.R.S. § 37-87-101 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 87 / Section 37-87-101
37-87-101. Storage of water
Status: in_force

37-87-101. Storage of water. (1) (a) The right to store water of a natural stream for later application to beneficial use is recognized as a right of appropriation in order of priority under the Colorado constitution. No water storage facility may be operated in such a manner as to cause material injury to the senior appropriative rights of others. Acquisition of those interests in real property reasonably necessary for the construction, maintenance, or operation of any water storage reservoir, together with inlet, outlet, or spillway structures or other facilities necessary to make such reservoir effective to accomplish the beneficial use or uses of water stored or to be stored therein, may be secured under the laws of eminent domain.

(b) State agencies shall, to the maximum extent practicable, cooperate with persons desiring to acquire real property for water storage structures.

(2) Underground aquifers are not reservoirs within the meaning of this section except to the extent such aquifers are filled by other than natural means with water to which the person filling such aquifer has a conditional or decreed right.

(3) (a) Water attributable to a water right for which a previous change of water right has been judicially approved, that has been decreed for storage, and for which the historical consumptive use was previously quantified may be stored in any reservoir that is located on the same ditch or diversion system, including a nontributary aquifer if the requirements of subsection (2) of this section are complied with, as an alternate place of storage if:

(I) The water that is to be stored at the alternate place of storage is diverted from a point of diversion that has already been decreed for that water right;

(II) The owner or operator of the storage water right gives previous notice to the division engineer that identifies the water right, alternate place of storage, decreed point of diversion, and how the storage of the water in the alternate place of storage will be accounted for;

(III) Transit and ditch losses, if applicable, are assessed against the water right from the decreed point of diversion to the alternate place of storage; and

(IV) The division engineer has approved the accounting for the storage of the water in the alternate place of storage.

(b) A person who is entitled to claim injury to a water right has the right to a de novo hearing before the water court to argue that an alternate place of storage injures the person's water right.

(c) Nothing in this subsection (3) allows the storage of water in an alternate place of storage if that water was imported from another water division.

(d) Other than the place of storage, all of the terms and conditions of the previous change of water right decree continue to apply to the water right.
C.R.S. § 37-92-201 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 92 / Part 2 / Section 37-92-201
37-92-201. Water divisions
Status: in_force

37-92-201. Water divisions. (1) For the purposes of this article, the following water divisions are hereby established:

(a) Division 1: Division 1 consists of all lands in the state of Colorado in the drainage basins of the South Platte river, the Big Laramie river, the Arikaree river, the north and south forks of the Republican river, the Smokey Hill river, Sandy and Frenchman creeks, and streams tributary to said rivers and creeks.

(b) Division 2: Division 2 consists of all lands in the state of Colorado in the drainage basins of the Arkansas river and the Dry Cimarron river, and streams tributary to said rivers.

(c) Division 3: Division 3 consists of all lands in the state of Colorado in the drainage basin of the Rio Grande and all of its tributaries, and all lands in the drainage basins of the San Luis creek, Saguache creek, Tuttle creek, Carnero creek, La Garita creek, Sand or Medano creek, Big Spring creek, Little Spring creek, Mosca creek, Sierra Blanca creek, and all of their tributaries, and all lands in the drainage basins of all other creeks between Trinchera creek and Sand or Medano creek, and lands in the drainage basins of all other creeks which have their sources of water supply in the La Garita mountains and flow eastward into the San Luis valley.

(d) Division 4: Division 4 consists of all lands in the state of Colorado in the drainage basins of the Gunnison river and all of its tributaries, the Little Dolores river, the San Miguel river, and that portion of the Dolores river and its tributaries north of the north township line of Township 45 North, New Mexico Principal Meridian.

(e) Division 5: Division 5 consists of all lands in the state of Colorado in the drainage basins of the Colorado river and all of its tributaries arising within Colorado, with the exception of the Gunnison river.

(f) Division 6: Division 6 consists of all lands in the state of Colorado in the drainage basins of the White river, the Yampa or Bear river, the Green river, the North Platte river, and all of their tributaries.

(g) Division 7: Division 7 consists of all lands located in the southwest corner of the state of Colorado and in the drainage basins of the San Juan river, Rio Piedra, Rio Las Animas, Los Pinos river, La Plata river, Rio Mancos and streams tributary to said rivers and creeks as well as that portion of the Dolores river and its tributaries lying south of the north line of Township 45 North, New Mexico Principal Meridian.
C.R.S. § 37-48-133 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 48 / Section 37-48-133
37-48-133. Passing equipment through bridge or grade
Status: in_force

37-48-133. Passing equipment through bridge or grade. In case it is necessary to pass any dredge boat or other equipment through a bridge or grade of any railroad company or other corporation, county, city, town, or other municipality, the board of directors shall give notice to the owner of said bridge or grade that the same shall be removed temporarily to allow the passage of such equipment or that an agreement be immediately entered into with regard thereto. The owner of said bridge or grade shall keep an itemized account of the cost of the removal and, if necessary, of the replacing of said bridge or grade; and the necessary and actual cost shall be paid by the subdistrict. In case the owner of said bridge or grade fails to commence or complete provision for the passage of said equipment within the time specified in the notice, the board of directors may remove such bridge or grade at the subdistrict's expense, interrupting traffic in the least degree consistent with good work and without unnecessary damage or delay. In case said board is hindered or prevented from so doing, the owner of said bridge or grade shall be liable for all damage resulting to the subdistrict therefrom.
C.R.S. § 37-47-133 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 47 / Section 37-47-133
37-47-133. Election to authorize debt
Status: in_force

37-47-133. Election to authorize debt. Except for the issuance of refunding bonds or other funding or refunding of obligations which does not increase the net indebtedness of the district or any subdistrict so proceeding, no indebtedness shall be incurred by the issuance of general obligation bonds of any subdistrict or by any contract by which the district or a subdistrict agrees to repay as general obligations or other obligations constituting a "general obligation debt by loan in any form", as such term is used in section 6 of article XI of the state constitution, of the district or subdistrict, respectively, to the federal government, any political subdivision, or any person over a term not limited to the then current fiscal year any project costs advanced thereby under any contract for the acquisition or improvement of the facilities or any interest therein, or for any project, advanced by the issuance of securities of such a political subdivision or person to defray any cost of the project or of the facilities or an interest therein thereby acquired and becoming a part of the facilities of the district or subdistrict, or otherwise advanced, unless a proposal of issuing the subdistrict's general obligation bonds or of incurring an indebtedness by the district or subdistrict by making such a contract is submitted to the electors of the district or subdistrict, as the case may be, and is approved by a majority of such electors voting on the proposal at an election held for that purpose in accordance with this article and with all laws amendatory thereof and supplemental thereto.
C.R.S. § 37-80-119 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 80 / Section 37-80-119
37-80-119. Interference with recording instruments
Status: in_force

37-80-119. Interference with recording instruments. It is unlawful for any person who does not have charge of any weir, headgate, automatic self-registering device, or other measuring recording device or any canal or reservoir intake or outlet, who does not have authority to install, repair, maintain, or operate any such device or to inspect the same from the owners thereof or from the water officials of the state of Colorado, or who represents any other canal diverting water from the same stream to interfere with or seek to examine or regulate any such instrument or device or structure. Any person who willfully injures or destroys any automatic self-registering device, gauge, or other instrument installed upon any canal or weir for the measuring and recording of the water depths upon such weir, who tampers with or falsifies any record made or being made by any such instrument or device, or who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars for the first offense and not more than one thousand dollars for the second and succeeding offenses.
C.R.S. § 37-1-108 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 1 / Section 37-1-108
37-1-108. Short forms and abbreviations
Status: in_force

37-1-108. Short forms and abbreviations. (1) In any order of court the words "The court now here finds that it hath jurisdiction of the parties to and of the subject matter of this proceeding", shall be equivalent to a finding of the existence of each jurisdictional fact necessary to confer plenary jurisdiction upon the court and necessary from the proper signing and filing of the initial petitions to the date of the order, to meet every legal requirement imposed by articles 1 to 8 of this title.

(2) No other evidence of the legal hypothecation of the proceeds of any special assessment levied under said articles, to pay the bonds or warrants issued pursuant to articles 1 to 8 of this title, shall be required than the passage of a resolution by the board of directors and the issuance of bonds or warrants in accordance therewith.

(3) In the preparation of any assessment or appraisal record the usual abbreviations employed by engineers, surveyors, and abstractors may be used.

(4) Where it would be necessary to use a long description to properly describe any parcel of land, the appraisers, after locating the land generally, may refer to the book and page of the public record of any instrument in which the land is described, which reference shall be sufficient for all the purposes of articles 1 to 8 of this title to identify the land described in the public record so referred to.

(5) It shall not be necessary in any notice required to be published by articles 1 to 8 of this title to specify the names of the owners of the lands or of the persons interested therein; but any such notice may be addressed "To all persons interested" with like effect as though such notice named every owner of any lands within the territory specified in the notice and every person interested therein and every lienor, actual or inchoate.

(6) Every district declared upon hearing to be a conservancy district shall thereupon become a political subdivision and a public corporation of the state of Colorado invested with all the powers and privileges conferred upon such districts by articles 1 to 8 of this title.
C.R.S. § 37-26-110 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 26 / Section 37-26-110
37-26-110. Bondholders deemed to have notice
Status: in_force

37-26-110. Bondholders deemed to have notice. All holders of said bonds or interest coupons to be retired or refunded shall be deemed to have notice of all steps and proceedings had.
C.R.S. § 37-86-112 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 86 / Section 37-86-112
37-86-112. Water to be prorated among consumers
Status: in_force

37-86-112. Water to be prorated among consumers. If at any time any ditch or reservoir from which water is drawn for irrigation shall not be entitled to a full supply of water from the natural stream which supplies the same, the water actually received into and carried by such ditch, or held in such reservoir, shall be divided among all the consumers of water from such ditch or reservoir, as well as the owners, shareholders, or stockholders thereof, as the parties purchasing water therefrom and parties taking water partly under and by virtue of holding shares and partly by purchasing the same to each his share pro rata, according to the amount he is then entitled, so that all owners and purchasers shall suffer from the deficiency arising from the cause aforesaid each in proportion to the amount of water which he should have received in case no such deficiency of water had occurred.
C.R.S. § 37-43-119 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 43 / Part 1 / Section 37-43-119
37-43-119. Board of directors may exclude land
Status: in_force

37-43-119. Board of directors may exclude land. The board of directors of an irrigation district by resolution may exclude any lands from the district, if such district does not have any outstanding unpaid bonded indebtedness and if the permission of the owner of the fee title and of any equitable owner has first been had or secured for such exclusion.
C.R.S. § 37-5-105 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 5 / Section 37-5-105
37-5-105. Payment of assessments
Status: in_force

37-5-105. Payment of assessments. (1) When the construction fund assessment record is placed on file in the office of the district, notice by publication shall be given to property owners that they may pay their assessments. Any owners of real property assessed for the execution of the official plan under the provisions of articles 1 to 8 of this title shall have the privilege of paying such assessment to the treasurer of the district within sixty days from the time such publication is completed, and the amount to be paid shall be the full amount of the assessment less any amount added thereto to meet interest. When such assessment has been paid, the secretary of the district shall enter upon the said assessment record opposite each tract for which payment is made the words "paid in full", and such assessment shall be deemed satisfied. The payment of such assessment shall not relieve the landowner from the payment of a maintenance assessment nor from the payment of any further assessments, not exceeding the total of benefits appraised which may be necessary as provided in articles 1 to 8 of this title.

(2) Failure to pay the whole construction fund assessment within said period of sixty days shall be conclusively considered an election on the part of all persons interested, whether under disability or otherwise, to pay such assessment in installments as provided in this section. All persons so electing to pay in installments shall be conclusively considered as consenting to said official plan and all work thereunder, the issuance of bonds provided for in articles 1 to 8 of this title, and the payment of interest thereon, and such election shall be conclusively considered as a waiver of all right to question the power or jurisdiction of the conservancy district to construct the works set forth in said official plan, the regularity or sufficiency of the proceedings, or the validity or the correctness of such assessment; except that any public corporation may, within said sixty days, elect to pay, in whole or in part, the amount assessed against such corporation in not more than ten annual installments, beginning at the time of the next annual levy of taxes by such corporation, but nothing in this section shall be construed to relieve such corporation from liability for successive levies of assessments, not exceeding the amount of benefits appraised.

(3) In case of such election to pay in installments, the construction fund assessment shall be payable in not less than five nor more than thirty annual installments of principal, the first of which installments shall be payable in not less than one and not more than five years, and the last in not more than thirty years after the filing of the construction fund assessment record in the office of the district, with interest in all cases on the unpaid principal, computed semiannually, at a rate not exceeding six percent per annum, all as may be determined by the board of directors of the conservancy district by resolution.

(4) Subject to the foregoing requirements, all installments, both of principal and interest, shall be payable at such times as may be determined by the board of directors of the conservancy district by resolution as provided in articles 1 to 8 of this title.

(5) Upon failure to pay any installment, whether of principal or interest, when due, the whole amount of the unpaid principal of such installment and accrued interest thereon shall draw interest at the rate of one percent per month or fraction of a month until the day of sale, as provided in this article; but, at any time prior to the day of sale, the owner may pay the amount of all unpaid and overdue installments, with interest at one percent per month or fraction of a month, and all penalties accrued.

(6) After the expiration of the period of sixty days within which the property owners may pay their respective assessments, as limited in this article, the treasurer of the district shall certify to the board of directors the aggregate of the amount so paid, and thereupon the board of directors may pass and include in its records a bonding resolution in which shall be stated the amount of the construction fund assessment and the amount thereof paid as aforesaid, and in the same resolution they shall apportion the uncollected assessment into installments or levies for the collection of interest upon the unpaid installments, and they may order the issuance of conservancy district bonds in an amount not exceeding ninety percent of the levy in anticipation of the collection of said installments. The residue of the tax so levied, not less than ten percent, shall constitute a contingent account to protect the bonds from casual default, and, if not needed for this purpose, may be transferred from time to time to the maintenance fund of the district.
C.R.S. § 37-21-122 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 21 / Section 37-21-122
37-21-122. Tie vote determined by lot
Status: in_force

37-21-122. Tie vote determined by lot. In the event that at any regular or special election two or more persons receive the same number of votes and one is elected thereby, the election shall be determined by lot under direction of the county judge of the county in which the office of the drainage district is kept.
C.R.S. § 37-42-104 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 42 / Section 37-42-104
37-42-104. Hearing - adjournments
Status: in_force

37-42-104. Hearing - adjournments. In case the state engineer considers the proposed irrigation system feasible, and shall so state in his report, or shall report his inability to reach a definite conclusion with reference thereto, the board of county commissioners shall proceed to a hearing and determination of those matters subject to their consideration either immediately upon the date set for hearing, or may adjourn such hearing from time to time as they shall see fit, but not exceeding two weeks. During such time consumed by adjournment, the state engineer may file such additional or supplemental reports as he sees fit, and they shall also be considered in the determination.
C.R.S. § 37-42-106 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 42 / Section 37-42-106
37-42-106. Notice of organization meeting and election
Status: repealed

37-42-106. Notice of organization meeting and election. (1) Immediately following the determination of the board of county commissioners, it shall call an organization meeting and election of such proposed irrigation district for the purpose of determining whether such irrigation district shall be organized, and if organized, for the election of officers. Notice of such meeting shall recite the name of the proposed irrigation district, shall describe the boundaries thereof as defined by the determination of the board of county commissioners, and shall state that the purposes of such meeting are to determine whether said district shall be organized and, if organized, to elect directors thereof until the first annual election. Said notice shall state the place of holding such meeting, which shall be at some convenient place in the county where the petition was filed, and the date and hour thereof. Said notice shall be published once each week for four weeks immediately preceding such meeting in a newspaper published within the county where the meeting will be held, or, if no such newspaper is published in such county, then notice shall be given by posting such notice at the courthouse in each county in which any portion of said district lies and also by posting such notice at three conspicuous places within said proposed district.

(2) Repealed.
C.R.S. § 37-41-123 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 41 / Section 37-41-123
37-41-123. Special tax levy
Status: in_force

37-41-123. Special tax levy. (1) It is the duty of the board of county commissioners of the county in which is located the office of any irrigation district, immediately upon receipt of the returns of the total assessment of said district and upon the receipt of the certificates of the board of directors certifying the total amount of money required to be raised, to fix the rate of levy necessary to provide said amount of money and to fix the rate necessary to provide the amount of money required to pay the interest and principal of the bonds of said district as the same shall become due; to fix the rate necessary to provide the amount of money required for any other purposes as provided in this article and which is to be raised by the levy of assessments upon the real property of said district; and to certify said respective rates to the board of county commissioners of each county embracing any portion of said district. The rate of levy necessary to raise the required amount of money on the valuation for assessment of the property of said district shall be increased fifteen percent to cover delinquencies.

(2) For the purposes of said district it is the duty of the board of county commissioners of each county in which any irrigation district is located in whole or in part, at the time of making levy for county purposes, to make a levy at the rates above specified upon all real estate in said district within their respective counties and, in case of contract with the United States, in the amounts and on the tracts as fixed and certified by the board of directors as prescribed in section 37-41-120. If the board of directors of an irrigation district has certified the amount payable for any tract of one acre or less, it is the duty of the board of county commissioners of each county in which the irrigation district is located, in whole or in part, also to levy such amount against each of such tracts. All taxes levied under this article are special taxes.
C.R.S. § 37-21-109 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 21 / Section 37-21-109
37-21-109. Directors - secretary - salary
Status: in_force

37-21-109. Directors - secretary - salary. Each director shall receive as compensation for his services a sum not in excess of six hundred dollars per annum, as fixed by the board. No director shall receive any compensation as an officer, engineer, attorney, employee, or other agent of the district. Nothing contained in this article shall be construed as preventing the board from authorizing the reimbursement of any director for expenses incurred and appertaining to the activities of the district. The salary of the secretary shall be fixed by resolution of the board.
C.R.S. § 37-80-115 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 80 / Section 37-80-115
37-80-115. Performance of personnel - duties
Status: in_force

37-80-115. Performance of personnel - duties. (1) The state engineer shall furnish such directions and require such performance with respect to the work of those under his jurisdiction as will insure continuous, efficient, and effective discharge of the functions of the division of water resources.

(2) It is the duty of the state engineer to call to the attention of the state personnel director any conduct or failure of conduct of any employee in the division of water resources which would merit discharge or discipline beyond the authority of the state engineer, and, if necessary, he shall file formal charges with respect to such matters.

(3) Default in performance of his duties by the state engineer may be made the subject of charges by the executive director of the department of natural resources or the governor.

(4) Effective administration being essential to good government, it is the duty of the state personnel board to promptly hear, determine, and take action necessary to make effective the provisions of this section whenever the occasion may rise, and such board may, of its own motion, undertake whatever action may be necessary to insure efficient and honorable conduct on the part of employees within the division of water resources.
C.R.S. § 37-43-137 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 43 / Part 1 / Section 37-43-137
37-43-137. Bonds receivable in payment of taxes
Status: in_force

37-43-137. Bonds receivable in payment of taxes. Bonds of any maturity issued under this part 1 may be used at face value in paying taxes levied to pay the principal of such bonds; except that bonds maturing after the year in which the bonds are so used shall have all future due coupons attached thereto and no credit shall be allowed for such coupons. Interest coupons attached to such bonds and maturing in any year may be used at face value in paying taxes levied for such interest which becomes due and payable in that year.
C.R.S. § 37-50-129 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 50 / Section 37-50-129
37-50-129. Notice of election
Status: in_force

37-50-129. Notice of election. Notice of an election held pursuant to this article shall be given by publication by three consecutive weekly insertions in at least one newspaper of general circulation in each county wholly or partially within the district, as determined by the board. No other notice of an election held under this article need be given, unless otherwise provided by the board. A supplemental notice may be given by publication at such times and places as the board may determine to be necessary or convenient for correcting or otherwise modifying the original notice of election or for any other purpose.
C.R.S. § 37-30-102 — CO Code / Title 37 / Article 30 / Section 37-30-102
37-30-102. Drainage for state lands
Status: in_force

37-30-102. Drainage for state lands. For the purpose of securing drainage for state lands, the state board of land commissioners is authorized to enter into contracts with any person, corporation, association, or drainage district providing for such drainage and to petition all such lands into drainage districts at the time of or after the formation of such districts. The state board of land commissioners has full power to secure to such person, corporation, association, or drainage district so furnishing drainage of state lands the payment of the cost of drainage upon state lands. In no case shall the state board of land commissioners have any power to use any of the school funds, either principal or interest, or cash fund for any such purpose.