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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 at this link https://www.nswlaw.com/disclaimer

Water Rights: Ponds, Reservoirs, and Storage Rights

 In Colorado, if you desire to store water in a pond or reservoir for more than 72 hours, then you will need to adjudicate a water storage right in Water Court. There are currently thousands of ponds and reservoirs in Colorado that do not have water storage rights and are, therefore, likely storing water illegally. Many times this occurs because a landowner builds a pond on their property without understanding the law concerning the storage of water. Without a water storage right, a pond or reservoir is at risk of an enforcement action from the Colorado State Engineer’s Office for illegally storing water. There are some very narrow exceptions that do allow for the storage of water without a water right, but in general all ponds and reservoirs require a water storage right unless they are being filled from a city water tap.

 If you are unsure about whether your pond has a water right, you can research your property using the Map Viewer tool available from the Division of Water Resources. Here is a link to a tutorial about how to use that tool: https://www.nswlaw.com/water-rights-resources/map-viewer-tutorial-how-to-research-water-rights-using-the-map-viewer.

 If you have a pond on your property that does not have a water right, then you may be able to adjudicate the appropriate water right to bring your pond in compliance with Colorado law; however, in some instances it can be very expensive and time consuming to do so. If you are buying a property with a pond, it is important to understand whether or not that pond is legal and, if not, what may need to be done – and how much it may cost – to bring that pond into compliance with Colorado law. You do not want to pay a premium for a property with a pond to later find out that it is illegal.

 If you have questions about the legal status of your pond or reservoir or desire assistance in adjudicating a water storage right for your pond or reservoir, please reach out to the experienced attorneys at Nazarenus Stack & Wombacher LLC.


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