Opinion ID: 2515357
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Historical Operation and Administration of NSID's Storage Rights

Text: NSID contests the November 1 water year on the basis that it purportedly changes the way its rights have been officially administered in the past, and also that it purportedly conflicts with NSID's own past operation of its rights. NSID challenges the historical existence of the November 1 policy, asserting that the Engineers only recently instituted the policy in order to make water available for junior water rights that would otherwise be called out by NSID. Even if the November 1 policy did exist before, NSID argues that the Engineers acquiesced to low-point administration by allowing NSID to operate on a low-point basis for nearly one hundred years. NSID claims that it is legally entitled to administration of its rights in a manner consistent with the operations that gave rise to those rights. We affirm the water court's finding that water officials have historically administered NSID's rights consistent with a fixed water year. Even if the fixed water year represented new policy, NSID fails to demonstrate how legal injury would flow from a change in administrative policy. We thus reject NSID's claim regarding the historical administration of its rights. We likewise are not persuaded by NSID's claim that its own historical operation on a low-point basis precludes the Engineers from implementing a fixed water year. In light of our holding that the November 1 year does not interfere with NSID's rights as decreed, and because NSID has not obtained any adjudication for enlarged storage rights, NSID's claim that the November 1 policy unlawfully conflicts with its historical operations must fail.
We first affirm the water court's finding that, although NSID has historically operated the reservoir on a low-point basis, its rights have been administered consistent with a fixed, November 1 water year. Although evidence of the official administration of NSID's rights is sparse, the water court's conclusion has record support and we are thus bound by it. See City of Black Hawk, 97 P.3d at 956. The historical basis of the November 1 policy is evidenced by the annunciation of the policy as early as 1936 in the Hinderlider Letter and by numerous references to the policy in state government records. Our own caselaw recognizes the November 1 date as representing the generally accepted start-date for the administrative water year. Bd. of County Comm'rs of County of Arapahoe v. Crystal Creek Homeowners Ass'n, 14 P.3d 325, 343-44 (Colo. 2000); Upper Gunnison, 838 P.2d at 852. We agree with the water court that any discrepancy in the record between the November 1 year and operations maintained by NSID can be explained by historically loose administration on the South Platte River prior to 2002. Because officials were rarely asked to honor or record a call, NSID and the Engineers were able to maintain two parallel accounting systems: NSID's accounting system for reservoir operations based on the irrigation season, and the Engineers' accounting system for administration based on the November 1 water year. Current and former Division 1 water officials testified at trial that, to the extent they administered NSID's rights, they applied the November 1 policy. With the possible exception of one instance in 1978, records of NSID's historical diversions are consistent with a November 1 water year. A 1989 letter from a former manager of NSID to the division engineer objects to the November 1 policy, establishing that the policy was in effect at least by that time. These facts refute NSID's contention that the Engineers recently initiated the November 1 water year for the benefit of junior water rights. Because NSID's rights have historically been administered consistent with a fixed water year, NSID has not demonstrated any legal injury associated with a change in administrative policy. In any event, such a claim of injury would not be cognizable, as NSID's decrees do not address how diversions are to be accounted for under the one-fill rule. Where storage decrees are silent with respect to the administration of the one-fill rule, the Engineers have authority under sections 37-92-501 and 502 to determine how to administer Colorado's one-fill mandate. In times of short supply, water users depend on the Engineers to curtail undecreed uses and decreed junior uses in favor of decreed senior uses. Empire Lodge Homeowners' Ass'n v. Moyer, 39 P.3d 1139, 1149 (Colo.2001). Here, the Engineers have implemented a fixed water year in order to prevent the undecreed use of water in excess of the one-fill rule and thereby attain the security of other adjudicated water rights. This action is within the authority conferred upon them by law. [3]
NSID claims that its nearly one hundred years of low-point operation preclude the Engineers from implementing a November 1 water year. NSID argues that the Engineers acquiesced to low-point administration by allowing NSID to operate on that basis historically. Without an adjudication of rights associated with its historical operations, NSID's claim fails. Water officials are not bound to administer water rights according to custom. As we stated in Comstock: [U]sers and consumers of water ... in one district cannot make and apply regulations in the administration of their priorities according to their own interpretation of them, and to meet their needs as they think they should be met; but the waters of a division must be distributed to all consumers under the uniform rule provided by law. 58 Colo. at 202, 145 P. at 705. See also Orchard City Irr. Dist., 146 Colo. at 138, 361 P.2d at 135 (stating water officials' duty is to distribute the waters of a stream according to the decreed priorities therein). In order to viably claim that the November 1 year unlawfully conflicts with its historical operations, NSID would have to demonstrate that those operations gave rise to rights beyond those decreed. Because the one-fill rule is an implied limitation on all storage decrees, NSID's historical operations could not give rise to a right to divert in excess of one annual fill. See Orchard City Irr. Dist., 146 Colo. at 142, 361 P.2d at 137; Windsor, 44 Colo. at 223, 98 P. at 733. But even if NSID could make that showing, it would need to have its rights adjudicated in order to enforce them. As we held in Empire Lodge, Administrative action, forbearance of enforcement, or State Engineer acquiescence in water use practices does not substitute for judicial determination of use rights. 39 P.3d at 1156-57. Those making water uses must obtain a decree adjudicating their rights if they desire to have standing to enforce them. Santa Fe Trail Ranches Prop. Owners Ass'n v. Simpson, 990 P.2d 46, 58 (Colo.1999). We thus are not persuaded by NSID's claim that its historical operations preclude the Engineers from implementing a November 1 water year.