Source: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1130756
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 02:41:04+00:00

Document:
INCHOATE APPROPRIATIVE RIGHT 587 after fulfilling all requirements, he is entitled to a license confirming his right of use of the water.728 Conditional Decrees and Water Rights in Colorado Prior to 1969, the comprehensive Colorado statutory system for the adjudication of water rights made specific provision for conditional decrees of rights to the use of water under appropriations only partially completed.or not perfected. If proof of partial completion by the claimant was satisfactory to the court, a conditional decree was issued, conditioned upon application of the water to beneficial use within a reasonable time thereafter, the final decree in a subsequent proceeding to fix a quantity of water not in excess of the maximum fixed in the conditional decree. In this way, rights of partially completed appropriations were safeguarded pending completion and final adjudication, or forfeiture and cancellation, as the case might have been.729 With the enactment of the "Water Right Determination and Adjudication Act of 1969," the legislature provided for determinations of, among other things, a conditional water right and the amount and priority thereof, including a determination that a conditional water right has become a water right by virtue of a completed appropriation. A person desiring such a determination shall file an application with the water clerk, setting forth facts in support of the ruling sought.730 Jurisdiction to hear and adjudicate such questions is vested exclusively in the water judges and their designated referees731 who determine the place of diversion or storage, means of diversion, type of use, amount and priority of use, "and other pertinent information."732 In every second calendar year following the year in which a conditional water right has been determined, the owner or user of the right, if he wishes to maintain the right, must obtain a finding by the referee of reasonable diligence in the development of the appropriation; failure to do so shall be considered an abandonment of the conditional water right.733 ™Basinger v. Taylor, 30 Idaho 289, 297-298, 164 Pac. 522 (1917). 739Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § § 148-10-6 to 148-10-9 (1963), repealed, Laws 1969, ch. 373, § 20. In the case of Denver v. Northern Colorado Water Conservancy Dist., 130 Colo. 375, 276 Pac. (2d) 992 (1954), headnote no. 20 in the Pacific Reporter reads: "Requirement of statute authorizing conditional water right decrees is not that claimant shall not have abandoned but rather that he has prosecuted his claims of appropriation and the financing and construction of his enterprise with reasonable diligence." 730Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 148-21-18(1) (Supp. 1969). 731 Id. §§ 148-21-10(1) and (2). This 1969 legislation provided for these special water clerks, referees, and judges. Such matters were previously handled by regular courts and judicial officers. For further discussions of these and other provisions of this 1969 Colorado legislation, see chapter 15 and the State summary for Colorado in the appendix. n2Id. § § 148-21-19(1) and 148-21-20(7). 733Id. § 148-21-17(4).

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