Water

Who Owns Cedaredge’s Water?

In the classical sense of the term “own,” a surprising fact is that Cedaredge does not “own” any of its water.

In that sense, every drop of water in Colorado is “owned” by the State of Colorado.

Then why do water usage reports that are provided by the Grand Mesa Water Users Association have a column for water “owned” by Cedaredge.

Does that make any sense?

Well, kind of!

Colorado’s Water

In order to get Colorado’s water where it needs to go, the State devised a detailed, legal system to divvy up its water.

The “divvying” is done by granting legal rights to use Colorado-owned water.

Such rights are adjudicated or decreed in a Colorado water court.

Yes, it’s a specialized legal court, and there are water laws, water judges, water attorneys, and water commissioners.

So, back to the question about whether Cedaredge owns its water:

The dictionary definition of “own” includes the concept of possession, and indeed, Cedaredge possesses Colorado water use rights, so it “kind of” owns its water.

A Brief Primer on Water Laws and Water Courts

Think of a Colorado pioneer arriving in the State in the 1800’s.

The pioneer likely chose a parcel of land that had enough surface-water flowing by (or a ground-water aquifer) with which to irrigate his cropland.

• • • • • As an aside, Colorado’s waters are considered to be surface water, i.e., flowing streams {rivers. creeks, ditches, etc.} or ground water, {i.e., settled in aquifers accessible via wells}.
      • • Each has unique legal perspectives.
      • • Nature has provided Cedaredge with both surface water and ground water.

Now consider another pioneer arriving a short time later and choosing a parcel of land upstream from the first pioneer and diverting most of the stream flow (or diminishing the aquifer with his own well) for his own use, thereby in effect< robbing the first pioneer of needed water.

Ditto this for when gold was discovered in Colorado’s mountains, and flowing water was needed to sluice-away mining impurities.

How should ranchers and miners settle the question of who has the right to the water?

Shootouts with firearms?

It surely happened, but there was a better way.

A court of law was a better choice.

To settle such disputes, Colorado adopted the doctrine of “Prior Appropriation” also referred to as “first in use, first in right.”

It means the first pioneer farmer or miner to use the water deserves the right to use the water first, even though, beforehand, it flows past the second farmer or miner, or his well was drilled later than the first user’s well.

Colorado’s water court places water rights into an orderly sequence by decreeing a priority for each user; earliest user first, then so on down the line.

1^st priority rights are the primo ones, followed by lower rights as their decreed priority numbers increase.

• • • • Besides reservoir water rights, types of water rights include well rights, spring rights, ditch rights, domestic rights, manufacturing rights, and irrigation rights.

Other Water Appropriation Factors

A water user application to the water court must include, among other requirement.

• • • • • The source of the water
      • • How much water is being applied for.
      • • What particular parcel of land the water is to be used for.
      • • What beneficial use the water will have.

Water Partnerships

Eventually, individual water users realized they could:

• • • • • Band together for cooperative water projects.
      • • Create water reservoirs to increase the volume of available water.
      • • Create ditches to enhance the stream arteries flowing from reservoirs (Grand Mesa) to croplands (the Surface Creek Valley).

For example, in 1886, my Great Grandfather, Erick Johnson partnered with Albert Weir and applied to the water court to dam an existing stream on Grand Mesa, creating Weir and Johnson Reservoir.

The court decreed the right to build a ten-foot-high dam to impound 307.8 acre feet of water with a priority #1 for the beneficial use of the “claimants” (Erick and Albert) to irrigate their combined 240 acres of land just north of Eckert.

Erick also applied for and received a right to construct the Erick Johnson Ditch, awarded a priority #13 and able to flow 1.5 cubic feet of water per second to irrigate his property.

That happened throughout the Surface Creek Valley and resulted in the myriad reservoirs and ditch arteries we use today.

Mutual Water and Ditch Companies

Then individuals and partnerships began to band together to form mutual reservoir and/or ditch companies, e.g., Weir and Johnson Reservoir Company, Park Reservoir Company or Surface Creek Ditch and Reservoir Company.

Such companies aggregated the individual or partnered reservoir or ditch rights into a syndicated pool of water rights or ditch flow rights.

• • • •   The companies then divided the pooled rights into equal subunits called water shares or ditch flow shares.
    • •  Each water or ditch company determines its total shareholdings and the initial marketable value of each share.

For example, original stock certificates of Park Reservoir shares indicate there were a total of 2000 shares, each worth $10 for a total stock capitalization of $20,000.

Today, those shares are marketed on the open market, and the share price varies season to season.

• • • • •    So indeed, Cedaredge owns water shares or ditch shares (but not water).
      • •    Each share has a variable water right volume or flow right associated with it.

A future blog will explain why shares have variable water volumes or flow rights.

Water User Associations

A further aggregation occurred when the water and ditch companies banded together to form water user associations such as The Grand Mesa Water Users Association {GMWUA}.

                     A future bog will explain GMWUA’s role in managing reservoir water and ditch flows.

Finally, How Did Cedaredge Get Its Water Rights?

Cedaredge owns water shares in several reservoir companies and ditch companies, e.g., Park Reservoir Company, Weir and Johnson Reservoir Company, Leon Lake Ditch and Reservoir Company, Sackett Reservoir Company, Big Ditch Company, Granby Ditch and Reservoir Company, Alfalfa Ditch and Reservoir Company, and Surface Creek Ditch and Reservoir Company.

Cedaredge Possesses a partial right with one or two other private parties, e.g., Sliderock Reservoir (aka, Doughty #2).

Cedaredge possesses outright a few reservoir rights, exclusive of reservoir companies or other private parties, e.g., Elk Park, Calumet, Little Jonah, Last Chance, Zig Zag, and our newest, Chipmunk.

The shares came to Cedaredge in various ways.

• • • • • Outright share purchases
        • Donations
        • Accompanied land purchases.
        • In exchange for domestic water services.

That wraps up this blog.

For more information about water management in our area, refer to the Gunnison River Basin Roundtable website at https://gunnisonriverbasin.org.

A good general primer can be found at the Southwest Basin Roundtable website via this link: https://waterinfo.org/resources/rules/ #coloradowaterrights

For a bigger perspective on the U.S. Southwest’s water and the Colorado River Compact refer to https://coloradoriverdistrict.org.