Grandview Estates

Water Rights Overview

Sep 27, 2004

by Charles Bucknam - GEHA Secretary

At the last homeowners meeting, there was a request from the floor to summarize the research that has been conducted on water rights by the Grandview Estates Homeowners Association.
Water in Colorado belongs to the public and is dedicated to the use of the people of the state. Diversion of unappropriated water is a right and domestic use is given as a preference over agricultural and manufacturing use by the Colorado Constitution Article XVI Sections 5-6.

The appropriation system for tributary water from surface streams is quite complex. In Grandview Estates we are mostly interested in using groundwater from our wells. The Colorado Revised Statutes Section 37-92-502(6) give the State Engineer?’s office the authority to enter private property for water inspections and to issue permits for use of wells to recover groundwater. Ground water beneath Grandview Estates is contained in four of the Denver Basin aquifers: Lower Dawson near the surface, Denver, Arapahoe and Laramie-Fox-Hills in order of increasing depth.

Most of the Grandview Estates wells are classified as exempt wells, since we are outside of a designated ground water basin and produce less than 15 gallons per minute of ground water for ordinary household purposes, watering of domestic animals, livestock and irrigation of not more than one acre of home gardens or lawns. These wells are deemed exempt from curtailment in priority. The State Engineer?’s office is required to issue permits for exempt wells, so long as other water rights are not injured.

It is important to establish your water rights on your property through the process of adjudication, which will then give you the right to use the water on your property.

Your Rights
Once you have the rights to the water beneath your property, there will not be any reason that you cannot get a permit for an exempt well in any of the aquifers, so you should request for the right to place an exempt well in each aquifer, particularly for the Lower Dawson and Denver aquifers, which have augmentation requirements relating to out of priority use.

You are still entitled to the right for an exempt well, even if there is a potential for injury to other water rights. These wells are known as presumption wells and in this case your well permit will be limited to only one well per household for ordinary household purposes, not including irrigation.

Landowners can obtain the rights to the ground water under their property if it has not been previously appropriated. In 1973, Senate Bill 123 was passed which tied underlying ground water rights to the overlaying land, if unappropriated, but limited the usage rate to one percent per year.

Well operators which had already initiated a water right prior to July 6, 2003, were not subjected to the 1% per year restriction. These ?“grand fathered wells?” were given a cylinder of appropriation which could extend off of their property, thus appropriating water underneath other properties.

We have two of these cylinders of appropriation in the Arapahoe aquifer in Grandview Estates; CA-1 (Stonegate) on the East and RRC-5 (Colony) in the Southwest. If these cylinders extend under your property, you will be unable to obtain water
rights to those portions of the property covered by the cylinder.

Procedure
The simplest procedure for adjudicating your water rights is to transfer the information from your well permit to the water rights application form and request the rights to the unappropriated water in that aquifer and the other three (or four) aquifers under your land. It will be a good idea to ask for the right to place an exempt well in the Lower Dawson and Denver aquifer for domestic, livestock and irrigation uses. It is also a good idea to ask for the right to participate in well fields with landowners that are adjacent to or have a cylinder of appropriation that overlaps your property. You will also need to publish a resume in the paper.

The State Engineer?’s office will calculate the unappropriated water rights based on the unappropriated acreage, thickness of each aquifer and yield factor for each aquifer at the location of your property and send you a report, and possibly some other questions to answer concerning your application.

Someone may oppose your application. It is good to call them and let them know that your application is primarily for exempt wells for domestic use and find out what their concerns are. You may need to make some changes to your application to satisfy their concerns.

Grandview has requested that the County give to the Homeowners Association the water rights under the streets and open space in the subdivision. If this is accomplished, we will be able to establish a well field among the properties in the future, if necessary, to provide for our water needs.