Opinion ID: 1161635
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Management District Authority

Text: The 1965 Act requires the Commission to maintain a priority list for all wells within a designated ground water basin. As to wells for which beneficial use occurred prior to May 17, 1965, the priority date is the date on which the water was first applied to beneficial use. See § 37-90-109(2), 10 C.R.S. (1999). For wells created after that date, the well's priority date relates back to filing of the original permit application, if and when the well is completed and the water is placed to beneficial use. See id. The case before us involves the Commission's priority list for the Upper Black Squirrel Designated Ground Water Basin, which lists the Goss well as the Number 2 priority. A management district exists for this designated basin. Having reviewed how appropriation of designated ground water proceeds through the Commission, we now determine whether the Management District has authority to administer designated ground water priorities within its boundaries. The Commission undoubtedly has authority to administer designated ground water priorities by reason of section 37-90-111(1)(a), which provides the Commission with power to: supervise and control the exercise and administration of all rights acquired to the use of designated ground water. In the exercise of this power it may by summary order, prohibit or limit withdrawal of water from any well during any period that it determines that such withdrawal of water would cause unreasonable injury to prior appropriators ; except that nothing in this article shall be construed as entitling any prior designated ground water appropriator in the maintenance of the historic water level or any other level below which water still can be economically extracted when the total economic pattern of the particular ground water basin is considered; and further except that no such order shall take effect until six months after its entry. (Emphasis added.) Based on this provision, the Management District argues that the Commission has sole authority to issue well curtailment orders, despite the existence of a Management District in the relevant area. We disagree. Under both statutory authority and decisional law, the Commission is charged with establishing priority dates for wells within designated ground water basins and is empowered, in the absence of a management district, to supervise and control the exercise and administration of all rights acquired for the use of designated ground water, including limiting or prohibiting the withdrawal of water from wells when necessary to protect prior appropriators from unreasonable injury. See § 37-90-111, 10 C.R.S. (1999); State v. Vickroy, 627 P.2d 752, 757 (Colo.1981). However, we have never specifically dealt with the role of a Management District for the administration of priorities. We do so now, holding that, under sections 37-90-111(1), 37-90-130(2)(j), and 37-90-131(1)(c), the Management District, not the Commission, has authority to administer designated ground water priorities within its boundaries. In construing a statute, we must give effect to the words that the General Assembly has chosen. Moreover, we must reconcile, whenever possible, seemingly conflicting provisions. See Colorado Ground Water Comm'n v. Eagle Peak Farms, 919 P.2d 212, 215-16 (Colo.1996) (addressing the Ground Water Management Act). In undertaking our statutory analysis, we note that section 37-90-111(1)(a), under which the Commission has authority to issue summary orders prohibiting or limiting water withdrawal from a well causing unreasonable injury to prior appropriators, immediately follows section 37-90-111(1), which states: In the administration and enforcement of this article and in the effectuation of the policy of this state to conserve its designated ground water resources and for the protection of vested rights and except to the extent that similar authority is vested in ground water management districts pursuant to section 37-90-130(2), the ground water commission is empowered to issue well curtailment orders pursuant to § 37-90-111(2). (Emphasis added.) Section 37-90-130(2) provides that [a]fter the issuance of any well permit by the Commission, the Management District Board has the authority to regulate the use, control, and conservation of the ground water of the district covered by such permit by any one or more of the following methods. [14] Subsections (a) through (j) of this statute then list the methods. Despite these provisions, the Management District argues that it only has the power to promulgate regulations, or conservation or control measures, subject to final approval by the Ground Water Commission if proper objection is made. See § 37-90-130(2), -131(1)(b), 10 C.R.S. (1999). While we agree that the Management District certainly has these enumerated quasi-legislative powers, which it has exercised through adoption of the Upper Black Squirrel Creek Ground Water Management District Rules and Regulations and Statement of Policy (as amended Oct. 7, 1997), its role in the administration of permits issued by the Commission is not so limited as it claims. Among the methods itemized within the subcategories of section 37-90-130(2), a management district has power to exercise such other administrative and regulatory authority concerning the ground waters of the district as, without the existence of the district, would otherwise be exercised by the ground water commission. See § 37-90-130(2)(j). The terms administration, administer, or regulate are widely used in the water law context to include the actions of state water officials in enforcing water rights priorities. See, e.g., § 37-92-501(1), 10 C.R.S. (1999). We construe the legislature's choice of the phrase administrative and regulatory authority as encompassing the management districts' role in enforcing permit conditions and priorities for designated ground water. This grant of authority necessarily includes authority for making quasi-judicial decisions regarding well permits and disputes between well owners within Management District boundaries. See Eagle Peak Farms, 919 P.2d at 218-19. Because the Commission has authority to supervise and control the exercise and administration of rights acquired to the use of designated ground water except to the extent that similar authority is vested in ground water management districts pursuant to section 37-90-130(2), § 37-90-111(1)(a), the Management District has jurisdiction over controversies between appropriators regarding issues of injury to senior well withdrawals by junior well withdrawals. This authority includes the capacity by summary order [to] prohibit or limit withdrawal of water from any well during any period that it determines that such withdrawal of water from said well would cause unreasonable injury to prior appropriators, authority which the Commission would have in the absence of the Management District. § 37-90-111(1)(a). [15] Our construction of the Management District's authority implements changes to the Ground Water Management Act that the General Assembly adopted in 1979 and 1998. By these amendments, the legislature enacted a general demarcation between the Commission's permitting functions and the management districts' administrative and regulatory functions after permit issuance. See 1979 Colo. Sess. Laws 1371, 1373-75 (Management District's administrative and regulatory authority applies after issuance of final permit) superseded by 1998 Colo. Sess. Laws 1211, 1222-24 (deleting the word final to provide for administrative and regulatory authority commencing after issuance of conditional permit). The Management District argues that it has no authority to conduct adjudicatory hearings regarding designated ground water priorities, contending that it does not have the expert resources necessary for determination of injury to priorities. Again we disagree. Section 37-90-131(1)(c) plainly provides the mechanism by which the Management District Board receives and hears complaints regarding the alleged injury  (emphasis added). [16] Under that provision, parties have the right to a hearing, to subpoena witnesses, and to be heard in person or through an attorney in Management District quasi-judicial proceedings. See, e.g., Eagle Peak Farms, 919 P.2d at 217, 219. The statute requires the district board, after a hearing, to issue a written decision concerning its findings and conclusions, which it shall serve on all parties. See § 37-90-131(1)(c). The State Engineer has authority to enforce compliance with the orders of the Management District, as well as those of the Commission. See § 37-90-110(1)(f), 10 C.R.S. (1999). The Management District argues that the Commission and State Engineer have superior resources. The legislature has chosen, however, to assign the administrative and regulatory functions to the management districts after permit issuance. [17] The State Engineer is Executive Director of the Commission and supervisor of the ground water section of the State Engineer's Office. By statute, the relationship between the Commission and Management District is consultative and cooperative in nature. Issues in management district adjudicatory hearings may involve the knowledge and expertise of employees of the State Engineer's Office. The Commission and its Executive Director, the State Engineer, can reasonably be expected to assist the Management District in matters involving the enforcement of priorities. See §§ 37-90-111(1)(d), -130(1), 10 C.R.S. (1999). [18]