Colorado § 37-87-101 Storage of water

Colorado Statutes

§ 37-87-101 — Storage of water

Colorado § 37-87-101

Title 37Water and

Art.Reservoirs

This text of Colorado § 37-87-101 (Storage of water) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Colo. Rev. Stat. § 37-87-101 (2026).

Text

(1)(a) The right to store water of a natural stream for later application to beneficial use is recognized as a right of appropriation in order of priority under the Colorado constitution. No water storage facility may be operated in such a manner as to cause material injury to the senior appropriative rights of others. Acquisition of those interests in real property reasonably necessary for the construction, maintenance, or operation of any water storage reservoir, together with inlet, outlet, or spillway structures or other facilities necessary to make such reservoir effective to accomplish the beneficial use or uses of water stored or to be stored therein, may be secured under the laws of eminent domain.

(b)State agencies shall, to the maximum extent practicable, cooperate wi

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(1) (a) The right to store water of a natural
stream for later application to beneficial use is recognized as a right of
appropriation in order of priority under the Colorado constitution. No water storage
facility may be operated in such a manner as to cause material injury to the senior
appropriative rights of others. Acquisition of those interests in real property
reasonably necessary for the construction, maintenance, or operation of any water
storage reservoir, together with inlet, outlet, or spillway structures or other
facilities necessary to make such reservoir effective to accomplish the beneficial
use or uses of water stored or to be stored therein, may be secured under the laws
of eminent domain.

(b) State agencies shall, to the maximum extent practicable, cooperate with
persons desiring to acquire real property for water storage structures.

(2) Underground aquifers are not reservoirs within the meaning of this
section except to the extent such aquifers are filled by other than natural means
with water to which the person filling such aquifer has a conditional or decreed
right.

(3) (a) Water attributable to a water right for which a previous change of
water right has been judicially approved, that has been decreed for storage, and for
which the historical consumptive use was previously quantified may be stored in
any reservoir that is located on the same ditch or diversion system, including a
nontributary aquifer if the requirements of subsection (2) of this section are
complied with, as an alternate place of storage if:

(I) The water that is to be stored at the alternate place of storage is diverted
from a point of diversion that has already been decreed for that water right;

(II) The owner or operator of the storage water right gives previous notice to
the division engineer that identifies the water right, alternate place of storage,
decreed point of diversion, and how the storage of the water in the alternate place
of storage will be accounted for;

(III) Transit and ditch losses, if applicable, are assessed against the water
right from the decreed point of diversion to the alternate place of storage; and

(IV) The division engineer has approved the accounting for the storage of the
water in the alternate place of storage.

(b) A person who is entitled to claim injury to a water right has the right to a
de novo hearing before the water court to argue that an alternate place of storage
injures the person's water right.

(c) Nothing in this subsection (3) allows the storage of water in an alternate
place of storage if that water was imported from another water division.

(d) Other than the place of storage, all of the terms and conditions of the
previous change of water right decree continue to apply to the water right.

Legislative History

Source: L. 1879: p. 106, � 38. G.S. � 1724. R.S. 08: � 3202. C.L. � 1682. L. 35: p. 661, � 1. CSA: C. 90, � 79. CRS 53: � 147-5-1. C.R.S. 1963: � 148-5-1. L. 79: Entire section amended, p. 1367, � 3, effective June 22. L. 84: (1) R&RE, p. 961, � 1, effective April 30. L. 86: (1) R&RE, p. 1087, � 1, effective July 1. L. 2003: (1) amended, p. 1368, � 3, effective April 25. L. 2017: (3) added, (HB 17-1291), ch. 338, p. 1804, � 1, effective August 9.