Ranch v. Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District

550 P.2d 297, 191 Colo. 65
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedJune 1, 1976
DocketNo. 26884
StatusPublished

This text of 550 P.2d 297 (Ranch v. Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ranch v. Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, 550 P.2d 297, 191 Colo. 65 (Colo. 1976).

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE GROVES

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a companion case to Cache LaPoudre Water Users Ass’n v. Glacier View Meadows, 191 Colo. 53, 550 P.2d 288 (1976), (hereinafter called Glacier View Meadows), announced contemporaneously with this opinion. Glacier View Meadows should be read in conjunction with [68]*68this opinion.

Kelly Ranch, a partnership composed of seven individuals, filed an application in the Water Court of Water Division No. 2 for approval of a “Plan of Augmentation Including Exchange and for Changes in Water Right Required for Operation of the Plan.” The stated purpose of the plan is to provide a water supply through wells for the residents of three proposed subdivisions in the Buena Vista area. Kelly Ranch does not own any of the land in these subdivisions. The Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District (the District) filed an objection alleging that granting the application would result in injury to the District’s water rights; and, further, that the plan would not produce water adequate to reimburse the Arkansas River system for the depletions caused by the subdivision use. The State Engineer approved the plan with slight modification, under Senate Bill No. 7, Colo. Sess. Laws 1974, ch. 111, 148-21-23 at 440,1 finding that the plan would not injure the owners of vested or conditionally decreed water rights. The water court dismissed the application, finding that it was not properly a plan for augmentation. Kelly Ranch appealed. We reverse.

The application involves Kelly Ranch and the three proposed subdivisions. Two of the subdivisions, Freegold Hill Estates (35 lots) and River Rim Estates (17 lots) border the Arkansas River. Quail Ridge Subdivision (260 lots) lies two miles west of the river.2 Kelly Ranch is two miles south of Buena Vista and about a mile from the river. Kelly Ranch consists of 444 acres irrigated with water represented by an 1874 water right. The applicant proposed to permanently remove from irrigation 14.04 acres of native pasture and to devote .31 c.f.s. of the 1874 priority that has been historically used to irrigate that acreage; and not to divert such .31 c.f.s. from the stream, thereby replacing the well water consumptively used. The 1874 water right historically has been diverted for irrigation 144 days per year. As the subdivision use of well water will be rather constant throughout the year, applicant proposed to store some of the water during the irrigation season and release it during non-irrigation times in order to prevent injury which would result from the year-around use.

Kelly Ranch has conveyed title to the .31 c.f.s. out of the 1874 decree to a trustee, Domestic Water Development Corporation, for the benefit of the eventual owners of the individual lots. According to a trust agreement between Kelly Ranch and the trustee, the trustee will be charged with: enforcing the applicant’s obligation to remove the lands from irrigation; permitting a portion of the .31 c.f.s. to remain in the stream; storing and [69]*69releasing water; and otherwise enforcing the decree.

The planned subdivisions, involving a total of 312 lots, are restricted to single-family dwellings, one dwelling per lot. The water is to be restricted to in-house use only, without any right to use the water for any purpose outside the house. Sewage disposal is to be restricted to nonevapotranspiration units, which in most instances will be leaching fields. Water delivered to the leaching fields, according to Kelly Ranch, will return to the stream. The buyer of any single lot would purchase a participation interest in the augmentation plan which he would present to the State Engineer, who would then be required to issue a well permit.3

Applicants arrived at an estimate of subdivision water use by using the State Engineer’s criteria, which assumes that an average family would be composed of three and one-half persons who would require 100 gallons per person per day for a 365-day year.4 These assumptions again were approved by the State Engineer. Thus, each household would be allotted 127,750 gallons of water to be withdrawn through wells, and delivered into it each year. The State Engineer approved the plan’s assumption that there would be a consumptive use not exceeding 10% with the remainder returning to the stream.5

Multiplying the single-family consumptive use by the number of units planned, and then by reducing that amount to acre-feet, there will be an annual consumptive use of 16.069 acre-feet.6 When this is then adjusted to account for evaporation and transportation losses, the annual consumptive figure becomes 16.139 acre-feet.

According to the State Engineer, the removal of 14.04 acres of pasture from irrigation would make a saving in consumptive use of irrigation water of 16.146 acre-feet per year.

The hearing in this matter commenced before the water court on February 27, 1974. It was recessed from time to time and ended on or about July 30, 1974. On May 7, 1974 Senate Bill No. 7 of the Colorado General Assembly was approved. Colo. Sess. Laws 1974, ch. 111 at 440. This was an amendment and addition to C.R.S. 1963, 148-21-23, which now appears as section 37-92-307, C.R.S. 1973 (Cum. Supp. 1975). Senate Bill [70]*70No. 7 added provisions which permitted a proposed temporary plan for augmentation to be submitted to the State Engineer and contains authority for the State Engineer to approve or reject such proposed plan. The statute further provides that the findings by the State Engineer with respect to the plan for augmentation “shall be prima facie evidence, unless challenged by competent countervailing evidence, of the facts upon which his determination was based.”

The plan involved here was submitted to the State Engineer on May 10, 1974, under Senate Bill No. 7. He entered his approval of the plan on June 17, 1974, which approval was filed in the proceedings before the water court.

While the matter was before the State Engineer, he had before him a transcript of two days of the hearing before the water court, including all exhibits before the water court. Depositions were taken by the Deputy State Engineer, and later representatives of the State Engineer’s office made inspections of the premises involved. Counsel for the District appeared at the taking of such depositions. From the records and briefs, we conclude that counsel for the District was advised in advance of all proceedings taken by the State Engineer, was present at all hearings conducted, and was given opportunity to submit evidence.

The court noted that the State Engineer signed a letter approving the plan as follows:

“FINDINGS:
“This office, having reviewed the plan of augmentation and other pertinent information, approves the plan as a temporary plan of augmentation conditioned upon the following revisions:
“1. The land to be removed from irrigation shall be the alfalfa hayland located in the NW 1 /4 of the SE 1/4 of Sec. 29, T 14 S, R 78 W.
“2.

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Related

Hall v. Kuiper
510 P.2d 329 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1973)
Cache La Poudre Water Users Ass'n v. Glacier View Meadows
550 P.2d 288 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1976)
Fellhauer v. People
447 P.2d 986 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1968)

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Bluebook (online)
550 P.2d 297, 191 Colo. 65, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ranch-v-southeastern-colorado-water-conservancy-district-colo-1976.