Court Opinion

ID: 9547247
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:44:14.791341+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:31.787431
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE GROVES
specially concurring:
At the conclusion of oral argument I was convinced that I should dissent. I was shocked by the thought that the water emanating through the phreatophytes is being evaporated into the air, robbing decreed rights and being lost to Colorado water users. While I knew that the remedies are properly for the legislature, it then seemed to me that, since the legislature has not acted and has thus permitted this intolerable situation to continue, the judiciary should do what it could.
However, I find myself swayed by Justice Day’s opinion, and I am deterred from dissenting. I concur specially for the reason that it preserves the status quo in order to allow the state further time to attempt to rectify an alarming situation. It may pass enabling legislation for the creation of districts, as suggested in the opinion, or conclude to take some other approach. It is earnestly to be hoped that the General Assembly can provide a solution so that this water, now being lost in such large quantities to the phreatophytes may be brought under reasonable control.
I wish to state, however, that, if the General Assembly does not act within a reasonable time in this area, I hope that the matter will be brought to this Court again. Then, in order to carry out the spirit of Fellhauer v. People, 167 Colo. 320, 447 P.2d 986 (1968), and the legislative intent expressed in the 1971 amendments quoted in the opinion, I intend to urge the Court to reverse *193the opinion and permit persons in the position of the claimants here to take the water. They will not be taking water from holders of decreed rights, but rather from the robbers of the decreed rights — the phreatophytes.
Water lost is water wasted. The judiciary should not sit by forever and permit this to continue, even though its remedies cannot be as equitable as those that surely the legislature can fashion.
MR. JUSTICE KELLEY concurs in this opinion.