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

Heading: change of water rights and enlarged use

Text: Scarcity and value of the water resource has always driven Colorado water law; accordingly, the state's policy is to efficiently manage, administer, and optimize water for operation of as many decreed uses as there is available supply. Farmers Reservoir & Irrigation Co., 33 P.3d at 806; see also § 37-92-501(2)(e), 10 C.R.S.2001 ([All rules and regulations shall have as their objective the optimum use of water consistent with preservation of the priority system of water rights.]). Flexibility, therefore, is essential to achieving this goal, and flexibility emanates from the fact that the right of water use can be changed. Empire Lodge Homeowners' Ass'n. v. Moyer, 39 P.3d 1139, 1147 (Colo.2001). Not only is the right to change the use of a vested water right an important component of the policy underlying the prior appropriation system as a whole, it is also an important stick in the bundle of rights that constitute a Colorado water right. Williams v. Midway Ranches Prop. Owners Ass'n., 938 P.2d 515, 523 (Colo.1997). [2] Notwithstanding its importance, the right to change is not absolute. New Cache La Poudre Irrigating Co. v. Water Supply & Storage Co., 49 Colo. 1, 3, 111 P. 610, 611 (1910). We have stated time and again that the need for security and predictability in the prior appropriation system dictates that holders of vested water rights are entitled to the continuation of stream conditions as they existed at the time they first made their appropriation. [3] Farmers Highline Canal & Reservoir Co. v. City of Golden, 129 Colo. 575, 579, 272 P.2d 629, 631-32 (1954); see also Santa Fe Trail Ranches Prop. Owners Ass'n., 990 P.2d at 52; Williams, 938 P.2d at 522; Orr v. Arapahoe Water & Sanitation Dist., 753 P.2d 1217, 1223 (Colo.1988); Church, 167 Colo. at 13-16, 445 P.2d at 58-59; Enlarged Southside Irrigation Ditch Co. v. John's Flood Ditch Co., 116 Colo. 580, 584-87, 183 P.2d 552, 554-55 (1947) [hereinafter John's Flood I ]; Comstock v. Ramsay, 55 Colo. 244, 257, 133 P. 1107, 1111 (1913). From this principle springs the equally well-established rule that a change of water right cannot be approved if the change will injuriously affect the vested rights of other water users. See City of Thornton v. Bijou Irrigation Co., 926 P.2d 1, 80 (Colo.1996); Green v. Chaffee Ditch Co., 150 Colo. 91, 106, 371 P.2d 775, 783-84 (1962). A classic form of injury involves diminution of the available water supply that a water rights holder would otherwise enjoy at the time and place and in the amount of demand for beneficial use under the holder's decreed water right operating in priority. Farmers Reservoir & Irrigation Co., 33 P.3d at 807; cf. City of Thornton, 926 P.2d at 80 (It has been fundamental law in this state that junior appropriators have rights in return flow to the extent that they may not be injured by a change in the place of use of the irrigation water which provides that return flow.). To ensure that this most fundamental condition on the right to change the use of a water right is satisfied, a change in use must be accomplished (1) by proper court decree, (2) only for the extent of use contemplated at the time of appropriation, and (3) strictly limited to the extent of formal actual usage. [4] Santa Fe Trail Ranches Prop. Owners Ass'n., 990 P.2d at 53. With its application, notice, and judicial determination requirements, change of water right adjudication serves to restrict an appropriation to the amount of its perfected use, while also allowing the priority of the right to be utilized for different uses and at different locations. Id. at 55. In this manner, Colorado law promotes both security for water rights and flexibility for new uses and transfers of existing rights. Id. Implicit within these basic precepts of our prior appropriation system is the elementary and straightforward principle that a change in the use of a water right cannot effect an enlargement in the use of that right. Santa Fe Trail Ranches Prop. Owners Ass'n., 990 P.2d at 54; Farmers High Line Canal & Reservoir Co., 975 P.2d at 203; Williams, 938 P.2d at 523; Orr, 753 P.2d at 1223-1224; Weibert v. Rothe Bros., Inc., 200 Colo. 310, 316-17, 618 P.2d 1367, 1371-72 (Colo.1980); John's Flood I, 116 Colo. at 586, 183 P.2d at 554. In Church, we acknowledged the prevalence of actions by junior appropriators to enjoin a municipality's enlarged use of a water right after changing that right from agricultural to municipal use. 167 Colo. at 13-14, 445 P.2d at 58. This prevalence, we explained, was attributable to the fact that one of the principal dangers attending a change of water right from agricultural to municipal use is that the municipality will attempt to enlarge its use of the water right beyond the historical agricultural usage. Id. Safeguarding junior appropriators' right to immutable stream conditions in the face of a change from agricultural to municipal use requires that there be parity in the consumptive use of the right before and after the change  and that this parity endures. See Farmers Highline Canal & Reservoir Co., 129 Colo. at 585-586, 272 P.2d at 635 (holding that change in water right from agricultural to municipal use must not increase consumptive use of the water transferred and that satisfying this condition requires balancing agricultural consumptive use before the transfer with the anticipated municipal consumptive use after the transfer); Church, 167 Colo. at 15, 445 P.2d at 59 (Defendant City of Westminster could not enlarge upon its predecessors' use of the water rights by changing periodic direct flow for irrigation to a continuous flow for storage. Such a change would necessarily increase the ultimate consumption from the stream to the detriment of other appropriators.); Danielson v. Kerbs Agric., 646 P.2d 363, 373 (Colo.1982) (It is a fundamental principle that the consumptive use of water may not be increased to the injury of other appropriators.). In Williams, we explained that, Determining the historic usage of a tributary water right is not restricted to change and augmentation plan proceedings; equitable relief is also available, upon appropriate proof, to remedy expanded usage that injures other decreed appropriations. 938 P.2d at 522-23. Because enlargement of use constitutes a change in circumstance sustained upon evidence that did not exist at the time of the original change proceeding, claim preclusion does not bar relief therefor. Farmers High Line Canal & Reservoir Co., 975 P.2d at 202; Church, 167 Colo. at 9, 445 P.2d at 56 (holding that previous change proceeding did not immunize the City of Westminster against subsequent equitable actions by junior appropriators designed to maintain the historic level of use by the City of its decreed rights); see also New Cache La Poudre Irrigating Co. v. Water Supply & Storage Co., 74 Colo. 1, 5-6, 218 P. 739, 740-41 (1923) (reasoning that although predecessor decision, New Cache La Poudre Irrigating Co. v. Water Supply and Storage Co., 49 Colo. 1, 111 P. 610 (1910), established that a change of water right may be denied on grounds of enlargement only where the change necessarily or by reasonable inference enlarges the use of the right, the change decree will not preclude a subsequent claim that the use of the right has actually been enlarged). Nor does it bar a water court from determining the extent of historic use under the water right in ascertaining whether there has been an injurious enlargement. Williams, 938 P.2d at 523, 525; John's Flood I, 116 Colo. at 586, 183 P.2d at 555; see also Farmers High Line Canal & Reservoir Co., 975 P.2d at 203. Of course, where historic consumptive use has been determined in a previous proceeding relitigation of that element will not be permitted. 975 P.2d at 203. In Farmers High Line Canal & Reservoir Co., we acknowledged that the seminal case of John's Flood I was particularly relevant to the issue of whether Golden has expanded its use of Priority 12 water. Farmers High Line Canal & Reservoir Co., 975 P.2d at 203. In fact, there are striking similarities between that dispute and the one presently before us. In John's Flood I, plaintiffs sought to enjoin defendants' enlarged use of a decreed water right. 116 Colo. at 583, 183 P.2d at 553. Specifically, plaintiffs alleged that the water right was being used to irrigate additional lands. Id. This additional irrigation, plaintiffs argued, caused an enlarged use both in quantity and time, diminished the supply of seepage and return water available to other appropriators, and resulted in increased losses from evaporation. Id. at 584, 183 P.2d at 554. The trial court failed to make findings of fact on this issue. Id. We held that this omission was erroneous and remanded the case to the trial court for this purpose. Id. at 588, 183 P.2d at 555. We explained, The owner of a priority for irrigation has no right, as against a junior appropriator, to waste it; neither has he the right to increase the amount or extend the time of his diversion to enable him to put it to double use by irrigation of other lands in addition to those for which it was appropriated.  Id. at 586, 183 P.2d at 554 (emphasis added); accord Weibert, 200 Colo. at 316, 618 P.2d at 1371; New Cache La Poudre Irrigating Co., 49 Colo. at 7, 111 P. at 612. [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.  [5] John's Flood I, 116 Colo. at 587-88, 183 P.2d at 555 (emphasis added); accord Williams, 938 P.2d at 523. Therefore, we instructed the trial court to determine on remand whether defendants had increased their use of the decreed right by irrigating additional acreage, and if so, to enjoin the impermissible enlargement. 116 Colo. at 588, 183 P.2d at 555-56. On remand, the trial court found that defendants had not diverted a greater quantity of water, either in volume or time, than had historically been diverted, and on this basis concluded that defendants had not enlarged the use of the right. Enlarged Southside Irrigation Ditch Co. v. John's Flood Ditch Co., 120 Colo. 423, 424-25, 210 P.2d 982, 983 (1949) [hereinafter John's Flood II ]. In plaintiffs' second appeal to this court, we reversed and held that continuing to irrigate lands historically irrigated under the decree while at the same time irrigating additional lands under the decree decreases the amount [of water] available for the use of plaintiffs ... in the irrigation of their lands, and is a substantial change to their detriment in the conditions existing on the stream at the date of, and subsequent to, their appropriations. Id. at 429-30, 210 P.2d at 985; accord Empire Lodge Homeowners' Ass'n., 39 P.3d at 1156 (The enlargement doctrine prohibits an appropriator from expanding its historical appropriation, for example, by developing new lands for irrigation, while continuing to irrigate the lands historically irrigated under the water right.). Accordingly, we instructed the trial court to enter an order enjoining the irrigation of the additional lands. John's Flood II, 120 Colo. at 430, 210 P.2d at 985. We now apply these principles to the case at hand.