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Water Rights Resources

Water law is complex, nuanced, and can be difficult to understand. We delve into common water law concepts and provide tutorials that describe how it use publicly available tools to learn more about water rights. To this end, below are a series of articles that are designed to help parties develop a general understanding of some of the basic principles of water law. The information provided below is for educational purposes only and if you have specific questions about your water rights, please contact the attorneys at Nazarenus Stack & Wombacher for legal advice. Use of this information is explicitly subject the website disclaimer available here.

Water Courts Jurisdiction

Water Courts and Their Jurisdiction The state of Colorado is separated into seven water divisions and each water division has their own water court that is responsible for hearing the “water matters” in that division. Water judges are appointed in each water division to hear water rights cases. The map below was taken from the Colorado Division of Water Resources’ website and shows the seven water divisions.

Water judges “have exclusive jurisdiction over water matters. ”The scope of the term “water matters” has been the subject of numerous Colorado Supreme Court opinions. Based on these cases, we know that “water matters” include “determinations regarding the right to use water, the qualification of a water right, or a change in a previously decreed water right. ”In re Tonko,154 P.3d 397, 404 (Colo. 2007).We also know that“[a]water court does not have exclusive jurisdiction over real property issues only tangentially related to a water matter.” Archuletav. Gomez,140P.3d281,285(Colo. App. 2006).Thus, it is often stated that the “[r]esolution of what constitutes a water matter turns on the distinction between the legal right to use of water (acquired by appropriation),and the ownership of a water right. ”Humphrey v. Sw.Dev.Co., 734 P.2d637, 640(Colo. 1987). However, the Colorado Supreme Court has also held that in some cases, a water court can exercise “ancillary” jurisdiction to rule on an issue that its otherwise beyond the definition of a “water matter.” In these circumstances, the Colorado Supreme Court has determined that a water court can exercise its ancillary jurisdiction where the claim in question is “interrelated with the use of water or . . .directly affect[s]the outcome of the water matters within the exclusive jurisdiction of the water court.” Kobobel v. State Dep’t of Natural Res.,249 P.3d 1127, 1132 (Colo. 2011).

As you can see, in some situations a legal expert in the field of Colorado water rights is necessary to decipher whether a particular issue is a “water matter” that must be heard by a water court, or whether it is a matter that falls outside of the water court’s exclusive or ancillary jurisdiction and must be filed in a separate district court.

If you have questions about whether your case should be filed in water court or another court please reach out to the attorneys at Nazarenus Stack & Wombacher LLC for assistance.

William Wombacher