Opinion ID: 2515357
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Authority of the State and Division Engineers

Text: The General Assembly has charged the state engineer and division engineers with administering, distributing, and regulating the waters of the state. § 37-92-501(1), C.R.S. (2008). Water officials must distribute water according to the order of priority as fixed by judicial decrees. Orchard City Irr. Dist. v. Whitten, 146 Colo. 127, 137-38, 361 P.2d 130, 135 (1961). Direct flow water rights and storage water rights are entitled to administration based on their priority, regardless of the type of beneficial use for which the appropriation was made. See People ex rel. Park Reservoir Co. v. Hinderlider, 98 Colo. 505, 507, 57 P.2d 894, 895 (1936) (The test of priority of right is beneficial use, not means of application.). The state engineer is authorized to adopt rules and regulations to assist in, but not as a prerequisite to, the fulfillment of these duties. § 37-92-501(1). The state and division engineers are also authorized to curtail diversions that contravene applicable law. § 37-92-502, C.R.S. (2008). One such applicable law is the one-fill limitation on water storage rights. Colorado law dictates that a reservoir is limited to one annual filling, according to its decreed capacity. Orchard City Irr. Dist., 146 Colo. at 142, 361 P.2d at 137; Windsor Reservoir & Canal Co. v. Lake Supply Ditch Co., 44 Colo. 214, 223, 98 P. 729, 733 (1908). Where a decree expressly addresses how diversions are to be accounted for under the one-fill rule, the water officials must administer the storage right pursuant to the decree. Orchard City Irr. Dist., 146 Colo. at 137, 361 P.2d at 135 (`The public officials charged with the distribution of water must distribute it according to the decrees therefor.' (quoting Handy Ditch Co. v. Greeley & Loveland Irr. Co., 86 Colo. 197, 200, 280 P. 481, 482 (1929))). However, where, as here, storage decrees are silent on the issue, the state engineer and division engineers are bound by their statutory mandate to account for, and if necessary, curtail diversions that violate the one-fill rule. On the basis of the foregoing, the water court held that the Engineers are vested with the authority to institute a fixed water year in order to fulfill their statutory function of administering NSID's storage rights pursuant to law. According to the court, by instituting a fixed water year beginning November 1, the Engineers are able to keep track of how much water has been diverted during a one-year period. Once the holder of a water storage right has filled its right once, the right is satisfied and the Engineers can refuse to honor a call during the remainder of that one-year period. The court concluded that such fixed-year administration was necessary to protect against the enlargement of NSID's storage rights beyond its one fill in a given year. NSID contests the water court's determination, claiming that imposition of a fixed water year constitutes unlawful interference with its decreed rights. NSID argues that its water storage rights have operated pursuant to low-point administration for almost one hundred years, and that it is entitled to continue to operate as it has historically. We reject these claims and affirm the water court's holding that the November 1 water year is applicable to NSID's storage rights.