Opinion ID: 2543527
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: whether golden has enlarged its use of priority 12 water.

Text: By balancing the amount of water consumed by the previous owners of the irrigation right with the amount of water that would be consumed by Golden's municipal use of the water, Wheeler concluded that 4.66 c.f.s. of Priority 12 water could be transferred without depletion to the stream, and hence without injury to junior appropriators. These calculations formed the basis of the 60s decrees. Farmers High Line Canal & Reservoir Co., 975 P.2d at 201. Accordingly, if Golden is consuming more water today than Wheeler anticipated it would consume, the balance he struck in crafting the flow rate limitations in the 60s decrees has been disrupted, and there has been an enlargement of use that must be enjoined. We therefore compare the amount of water Wheeler predicted would be consumed by Golden's municipal use of the water, as reflected in his calculations and testimony, [6] with the evidence of Golden's current municipal use of Priority 12 water. [7] If Golden uses its Priority 12 water to irrigate more acres of lawn today than Wheeler determined it would irrigate, or if Golden applies a greater amount of Priority 12 water to lawn irrigation than Wheeler determined it would apply, Golden will have increased its consumptive use of Priority 12 water and thereby disrupted the balance Wheeler struck in concluding that 4.66 c.f.s. of Priority 12 water could be transferred to Golden without injuring junior appropriators. Such an increase would constitute precisely the kind of enlarged use our case law forbids. See Farmers High Line Canal & Reservoir Co., 975 P.2d at 203 (allowing Golden to enlarge its use of Priority 12 water beyond that anticipated at the time the 60s decrees were entered either by irrigating additional acres of lawn with its Priority 12 water or by increasing the amount of Priority 12 water it applies to lawn irrigation would contradict the most basic principles governing all water decrees). Thus, defining the limits of the permissible use Golden may make of its Priority 12 water is a necessary antecedent to determining whether Golden has enlarged its use of Priority 12 water. Because these limits are defined by Wheeler's calculations and testimony in the 60s proceedings, we begin our discussion with a recitation of the relevant portions of Wheeler's testimony in the first of those proceedings.
Golden acquired the 4.66 c.f.s. of Priority 12 water that is the subject of this dispute, in two separate transactions during the 1960s (60s proceedings). In the first of these, Golden sought to purchase 2.86 c.f.s. of Priority 12 water from James Mannon and William Vaughn. To facilitate the sale, Mannon and Vaughn petitioned the water court for a decree permitting a change in use from agricultural irrigation to municipal use and a change in point of diversion from the Lee, Stewart, and Eskins Ditch to the Church Ditch. Several parties with water rights junior to Priority 12 filed objections to this change petition. Among other things, they argued that they would be injured because changing the use of the 2.86 c.f.s. of Priority 12 water from agricultural to municipal use would result in increased consumption of the water and thus decreased return flows. A trial was held to determine whether the proposed change would indeed harm the junior appropriators. During the trial, William W. Wheeler, one of the preeminent water engineers of his day, testified on behalf of Golden. It was Wheeler who had determined that if certain terms and conditions were imposed on the transfer, 2.86 c.f.s. of Priority 12 water could be transferred to Golden without causing injury to junior appropriators. He explained that, By balancing off the consumptive use of the water . . . in Golden versus that which had been used in the irrigated lands under the ditch, we were . . . able to arrive at what we feel is an amount which could be transferred. That amount, Wheeler testified, was 2.86 c.f.s. Wheeler explained how he had computed consumptive use for the City of Golden: We based that upon the actual historic use by the City of Golden, as given to us in 1951, and again checked it for their uses in 1956, to see whether or not the 1951 conditions held. In that we took the [non]irrigation season uses as being the basic or household use. All water over and above that quantity we assumed applied to lawns. We measured acreage irrigated in Golden in 1951, that is, about half of it, as representative areas within the City, and then estimated [that] the rest of the area that would be irrigated would be comparable to that we had analyzed. At that time we found, as I remember, 98 acres irrigated by Golden. In going back and checking records for 1956, we found that the same conditions prevailed with respect to basic use and with respect to water which would be applied to the lawns. We then assumed that the total 2.86 would be taken into the system, part of which would go on lawns and part of which would go through a domestic supply or through the sanitary sewer system as waste for household use. In our later calculations it figures 138 acres could be irrigated with the 2.86 c.f.s. transfer. Now we must realize if the 2.86 is transferred, part is used for household use and part is used for irrigation. There is essentially no consumptive loss on the household use. We apply 1.5 percent consumptive use on the water which went through the houses . . . . In contrast to the household use of water, lawn irrigation is highly consumptive. Wheeler testified that depending on application rates, anywhere from 75% to 95% of the water applied to lawns is consumed. Accordingly, the number of acres of lawn that would be irrigated with Priority 12 water and the amount of Priority 12 water that would be applied to these acres were critically important to Wheeler's calculations balancing the consumptive use of Priority 12 water before and after the transfer; and therefore, Wheeler testified extensively concerning the number of acres Golden would irrigate with Priority 12 water and the amount of Priority 12 water that would be applied thereto. Wheeler's testimony makes clear that he assumed Golden would only irrigate 138 acres of land with the 2.86 c.f.s. of Priority 12 water transferred in the first proceeding. It also makes clear that this assumption was integral to his ultimate conclusion that changing 2.86 c.f.s. from agricultural to municipal use would not result in increased consumption of Priority 12 water and therefore would not injure junior appropriators. For instance, explaining how he derived the number of acres that would have to be dried up as a result of the transfer, Wheeler testified that: The irrigated land under the ditch was sketched off on aerial photos and permeameter, from which we found was a total of 575 acres of irrigated, slightly less than 75 acres of which was under Mannon and Vaughn's property. Now, in our illustrations we figured that 138 acres in Golden would be irrigated if the 2.86 were transferred. If we used only the Mannon and Vaughn land we would have 75 acres, so the difference then between the 75 and the 138 of 63 acres would be the amount of land that would have to be dried up under the Lee, Stewart and Eskins by their foregoing [sic] the use of the Mannon and Vaughn waters. Like the number of acres Wheeler assumed Golden would irrigate with Priority 12 water, the amount of Priority 12 water Wheeler assumed Golden would apply to lawn irrigation played a central role in his calculations balancing consumptive use before and after the transfer. Wheeler assumed that the 2.86 c.f.s. of Priority 12 water would be used in exactly the same way as the rest of Golden's municipal water supply. In 1956, Golden had applied 36% of its annual water supply to lawn irrigation. Thus, based on this pattern of municipal use in 1956, Wheeler testified that, assuming Golden diverted and utilized the 2.86 c.f.s. of Priority 12 water twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, 36% of the 2.86 c.f.s. transferred would be used for lawn irrigation. However, of the water Golden used during the six-month irrigation season in 1956, 53% was applied to lawns. Again based on the assumption that Golden would use the 2.86 c.f.s. in exactly the same way it used the rest of its water supply, Wheeler testified that if Golden diverted 2.86 c.f.s. continuously from May 1st to October 31st, approximately 50% of the 2.86 c.f.s. would be used for lawn irrigation. [8] Elaborating, Wheeler described precisely how he determined the amount of Priority 12 water that would be applied to lawn irrigation during the irrigation season: Throughout the irrigation season the water we apply to lawns was applied in direct proportion to what [Golden] had used historically. In other words, one particular month you might have 60 per cent of the total water supply available used on lawns and the other 40 per cent going through the domestic system. In the early spring that might be reversed. You might have 40 per cent on the lawns and 60 per cent through the domestic system. In other words, we assume that the 2.86 would be used 100 per cent of the time if transferred. [9] Then we went through and took actual requirements per month to be equivalent to the 2.86, and that was distributed between the domestic supply, purely domestic or household supply, and the irrigation supply. Other terms and conditions Wheeler testified were necessary to protect junior appropriators and ensure that consumptive use remained the same after the transfer of the 2.86 c.f.s. included: abandoning a portion of Priority 12 water to the stream, abandonment of a portion of Priority 12 water to the Lee, Stewart, and Eskins Ditch, and season of use restrictions. Notwithstanding Wheeler's testimony, the water court denied the petition because it concluded that the petitioners' evidence failed to demonstrate that the change would not injure junior appropriators. Mannon and Vaughn appealed. In Mannon v. Farmers' High Line Canal & Reservoir Co., 145 Colo. 379, 360 P.2d 417 (1961), we held that the water court must make inquiry as to whether terms and conditions are feasible and that it be satisfied as to impossibility of imposing conditions before it is justified in entering an order of dismissal of a petition. 145 Colo. at 390, 360 P.2d at 423. Accordingly, we remanded the case to the water court to determine whether a change decree with limiting conditions would be sufficient to prevent injury to junior users as a result of the transfer. Before the court could consider this issue, however, the parties entered into a court-approved consent decree. The terms and conditions proposed by Wheeler were decreed to control Golden's use of Priority 12 water. Three years later Golden obtained another consent decree permitting it to change the point of diversion  from the Lee, Stewart, and Eskins Ditch  and the use  from agricultural to municipal  of 1.8 c.f.s. of Priority 12 water it had purchased from Mauz and Thuet. Because there was no trial, Wheeler did not give testimony on the record concerning this second change petition. However, as we noted in Farmers High Line Canal & Reservoir Co., like the 1961 decree, Wheeler prepared the engineering study that formed the basis of the terms agreed upon by the parties to the consent decree. 975 P.2d at 194. Moreover, in the second change proceeding, Wheeler applied the same knowledge regarding Golden's municipal use patterns that he relied upon in the first change proceeding. Id. The cumulative effect of the express terms of the 1961 and 1964 decrees gave Golden the right to divert up to 4.66 c.f.s. of water from May through October of each year. Id. Although we refused to read volumetric limits into these decrees in Farmers High Line Canal & Reservoir Co., we took great care to emphasize the importance of Mr. Wheeler's calculations to the interpretation of these decrees: Wheeler's estimates of the historical consumptive use of Priority 12 formed the basis of the terms of the 60s decrees. In fact, appellants admit that Wheeler's flow rate calculations were based on his attempt to balance the amount of water consumed by the previous owners of the irrigation right with the amount of water that would be consumed by Golden's municipal use of the water. Wheeler concluded that his calculations, which required a partial abandonment of flow back to the stream, were sufficient to prevent injury to junior appropriators. These calculations were ultimately incorporated into the resulting decrees. During the trial in the instant litigation, appellants' experts agreed that the purpose of the abandonment provisions in the 60s decrees was to match historical use to future use and to prevent injury as a result of expanded use. Therefore, there is no dispute as to whether Wheeler's calculations formed the basis of the terms of the 60s decrees. Farmers High Line Canal & Reservoir Co., 975 P.2d at 201. In other words, the data on which Wheeler relied to determine how Golden would use Priority 12 water justified his conclusion that 4.66 c.f.s. could be changed to municipal use without increasing consumption and injuring junior appropriators. Thus, like the terms and conditions themselves, this data serves as a limit demarcating permissible from enlarged use. [10]
The water court's opinion that the number of acres irrigated with Priority 12 water does not address the basic questions regarding Golden's entitlement under the present decree, or the extent to which Golden has exercised its entitlement is a conclusion of law which we review de novo. See People v. Romero, 953 P.2d 550, 555 (Colo.1998) (The trial court's legal conclusion is subject to our de novo review.). Given our opinion in Farmers High Line Canal & Reservoir Co., as well as John's Flood I and John's Flood II, the water court's conclusion is erroneous. We emphasized the importance of determining the number of acres of lawn Golden is irrigating with Priority 12 water in our opinion in Farmers High Line Canal & Reservoir Co.: With respect to the appellants' third claim for relief, namely that Golden has impermissibly enlarged its use of water under the decrees at issue by increasing the total lawn acreage under irrigation, we hold that litigation of this claim is not precluded. As the water court made no findings of fact with respect to this issue, we remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. 975 P.2d at 192 (emphasis added). In fact, with respect to appellants' third claim for relief, we explicitly held that Golden may not enlarge the use of its decreed rights by. . . using its water to irrigate lawn acreage not anticipated at the time its change in use decree was entered. [11] 975 P.2d at 203. Our precedent, especially John's Flood I, compelled this conclusion. As we have said, [T]he acreage under irrigation is the principal basis of measurement of the use of water in the adjudication of priorities, and use on increased acreage of necessity is evidence, although rebuttable, of increased use either in volume or time. John's Flood I, 116 Colo. at 587-88, 183 P.2d at 555; accord Williams, 938 P.2d at 523. This statement applies equally to consumptive use. Thus, in determining whether Golden has expanded its use of Priority 12 water, the water court should have considered whether Golden has irrigated a greater number of acres than Wheeler anticipated when he crafted the flow rate limitations in the 60s decrees. Because there is ample evidence in the record, both of the number of acres Wheeler assumed Golden would irrigate with the 4.66 c.f.s. of Priority 12 water and of the acres of lawn Golden is actually irrigating with its Priority 12 water, we do so in its place. Wheeler's testimony makes clear that he assumed that the Priority 12 water transferred in the first change proceeding would be used to irrigate 138 acres of lawn. In both Mannon and Farmers High Line Canal & Reservoir Co., we acknowledged that Wheeler's calculations balancing the historical agricultural consumptive use and future municipal consumptive use of Priority 12 water were premised on this assumption. See Farmers High Line Canal & Reservoir Co., 975 P.2d at 193, 197; Mannon, 145 Colo. at 386, 360 P.2d at 421. In Mannon, we summarized this aspect of Wheeler's methodology: With respect to the Lee Ditch, the witness computed that the removal of 2.86 c.f.s. from the ditch would result in the drying up of the Vaughn and Mannon land plus an additional 63 acres. This result was reached by determining that 2.86 c.f.s. would irrigate 138 acres; that Vaughn and Mannon irrigated 75 acres and that the difference, 63 acres, was the number which would have to be dried up. Mannon, 145 Colo. at 386, 360 P.2d at 421. Because Wheeler applied the same knowledge regarding Golden's municipal use patterns in preparing the engineering study that formed the basis of the 1964 consent decree, it follows that if 138 acres could be irrigated with the 2.86 c.f.s. transferred in the first proceeding, 87 acres, to the nearest acre, could be irrigated with the 1.8 c.f.s. of Priority 12 water transferred in the second proceeding. Thus, under the 60s decrees Golden may irrigate no more than 225 acres with the 4.66 c.f.s. of Priority 12 water that it currently owns. We now consider whether Golden has exceeded this 225-acre limit. At trial, Mr. Duane Helton, Petitioners' expert witness and consulting engineer, testified that the average lawn application rate in Golden during 1994 was 1.78 acre-feet per acre. [12] Golden did not rebut this evidence. The water court found that Golden diverted 866 acre-feet of Priority 12 water in 1994. As we will explain more fully below, 55%, or 476 acre-feet, of this water was applied to lawn irrigation. Thus, given a 1.78 acre-feet per acre application rate, Golden irrigated approximately 267 acres of lawn with Priority 12 water in 1994. [13] This is 42 acres more than the 225 acres Golden is entitled to irrigate under the 60s decrees. Accordingly, Golden has expanded its use of Priority 12 water by irrigating more acres of lawn than Wheeler anticipated in determining that 4.66 c.f.s. of Priority 12 water could be transferred to Golden without injury to junior appropriators.
Golden did not then, and does not now, identify any one of its water rights for any particular use within the Golden municipal water system. Therefore, Wheeler assumed that the percentage of Priority 12 water applied to lawn irrigation would be the same as the percentage of Golden's total water usage that was applied to lawn irrigation. This assumption allowed Wheeler to predict the percentage of Priority 12 water that would be applied to lawn irrigation from the actual historic use of Golden's water supply in 1956. In 1956, Golden used a total of 1372.8 acre-feet of water. Wheeler assumed that all the water used during the non-irrigation season, November through April, was used for household purposes. From this six-month amount, Wheeler then extrapolated the in-house use for the entire year. By subtracting the total in-house use from the total annual use, Wheeler derived the amount of water Golden applied to lawn irrigation during the six-month irrigation season in 1956. That amount was 491.4 acre-feet. 491.4 acre-feet is 36% of Golden's total annual water usage in 1956 of 1372.8 acre-feet. Thus, Wheeler testified that assuming Priority 12 water was diverted 365 days a year, 36% would be used for lawn irrigation. 491.4 acre-feet is 53% of the 932.1 acre-feet of water Golden used during the six-month irrigation season in 1956. Thus, Wheeler testified that assuming Priority 12 water was diverted continuously during the irrigation season, approximately 50% would be used for lawn irrigation. Wheeler explained that to calculate the percentage of Priority 12 water that would be applied to lawn irrigation during the irrigation season, we assume that the 2.86 [14] would be used 100 percent of the time if transferred. Then we went through and took actual requirements per month to be equivalent to the 2.86, and that was distributed between the domestic supply, purely domestic supply or household supply, and the irrigation supply. Accordingly, the water court's conclusion that the testimony of W.W. Wheeler in the 1959 change proceeding established that Golden could only apply 36%, or 611 acre-feet, [15] of the water it is entitled to divert during the irrigation season to lawn irrigation is erroneous. Wheeler's testimony that, based on Golden's pattern of municipal use in 1956, 36% of the Priority 12 water transferred would be applied to lawn irrigation assumed that Golden would divert Priority 12 water continuously 365 days a year. The water court's calculation fails to account for this assumption. The 36% to which Wheeler referred in his testimony is only relevant if Golden is diverting Priority 12 water continuously throughout the year [16] ; this is not the case. Golden only diverts Priority 12 water during the irrigation season, and Wheeler's calculations and testimony make clear that he concluded Golden can divert 4.66 c.f.s. of Priority 12 water continuously from May through October and apply 53% of that water to lawn irrigation without injuring junior appropriators. Thus, Golden may apply up to 53% or 900 acre-feet of the water it is entitled to divert from May 1st through October 31st to lawn irrigation. [17] We now consider whether Golden has exceeded this limit. The water court found that the best evidence of the actual percentage of Priority 12 diversions applied to lawn irrigation is set forth in the affidavit of Golden's water expert Gary Thompson. We do not disturb this factual determination as it required the water court to assess the credibility of competing evidence presented by the parties. Farmers Reservoir & Irrigation Co., 33 P.3d at 812; see also City of Thornton v. Bijou Irrigation Co., 926 P.2d at 88. To calculate the percentage of Golden's water supply that is used for lawn irrigation, Thompson relied on the monthly water use data contained in Exhibit G 155 and the method described in Golden's augmentation plan (Case No. 83CW361). According to the water court, Thompson assumed that the average diversions for the months of December-February were applied to in-house use, only. He subtracted this monthly average from Golden's total monthly diversions for each month of the period, May through October.... The resulting differences are the volumes of water applied each to lawn irrigation and other outside uses. Dividing these differences by the total diversions, and multiplying by 100 yields the percentage of total diversions that were applied to outside use. [18] Petitioners claim that in 1994 Golden enlarged its use of Priority 12 water by applying more Priority 12 water to lawn irrigation than Wheeler anticipated. We therefore apply Thompson's methodology as described by the water court to determine whether Golden applied more than 900 acre-feet of Priority 12 water to lawn irrigation in 1994. Golden used 2719.4 acre-feet of water during the irrigation season in 1994. Of this, according to Thompson's methodology, 55%, or 1500 acre-feet, was applied to lawn irrigation. [19] Because Golden does not identify any one of its water rights for any particular use within the Golden municipal water system, we assume that an equal percentage of the Priority 12 water diverted during the 1994 irrigation season was applied to lawn irrigation. [20] Thus, Golden applied 55% of the Priority 12 water it diverted during the 1994 irrigation season to lawn irrigation. However, the water court found that Golden only diverted 866 acre-feet of Priority 12 water in 1994 just over half of its entitlement. [21] Accordingly, Golden only applied 476 acre-feet (.55 × 866) of Priority 12 water to lawn irrigation in 1994, only about 28% of the 1698 acre-feet it is entitled to divert and 424 acre-feet less than the 900 acre-feet (.55 × 1698) it is entitled to apply to lawn irrigation in any given year. Therefore, Golden did not expand its use of Priority 12 water in 1994 by applying a greater amount than Wheeler anticipated to lawn irrigation.